I waited for about an hour last Friday for my turn to see Super Nature. I waited at The Works, reading about the finer points of carving carousels to the sound of MSHR’s installation (which, after an hour, sounds like a jackhammer that has been auto-tuned) in the background.
Super Nature is 15 minutes long. It’s experienced one person at a time. You put your name and phone number on a list, and wait to get a text that it’s your turn (it’s drop-in only; they don’t do reservations).
This year The Works is hosted in Fashion Tech, a warehouse space, where the aesthetic is modernism meets industrial chic, what with the decorative cinder blocks, the astro turf, the snow-white camo net.
- Pat Moran
- INDUSTRIAL CHIC: Exterior shot of The Works.
Waiting for an hour in this environment is a little ominous. Especially given that the Super Nature performance occurs in a small cell with a sliding door, and you can hear…things happening in the performance chamber while others take their turn before you.
By “things” I mean: stomping, mostly, and bodies hitting walls, possibly?
When it comes your turn, the TBA attendant briefs you: she tells you to turn off your phone, take your shoes off, and that you can move around in the space if you’d like. Once it was my turn, the door slid open and I stepped into the cell. I was surprised to find a young girl, probably about 12, stringy, with braces and straight, shoulder-length hair, wearing a tank top with jeans. She looked at me with indifference. The door slid shut behind me. My heart sank as I realized this would be my destiny for the next 15 minutes (junior high, anyone?). The performer, lying on the ground, made grimaces, jiggled her shoulders with nervousness, walked behind me, then suddenly pounced across the room.
In short, the installation is that Sia video—if the Sia video was shot in a square cell with no windows, and there was fuzz on the speakers instead of Sia, and if there were grey walls and a spotlight (and no clock). And if I was a ghost stuck in that Sia video? Sometimes the Super Nature performer ignored me, sometimes she stared at the floor, in the direction of my toes, and sometimes she pushed me around the space via doing the worm on my back. As for myself, I stood with my repressed Midwestern reserve—my arms crossed behind my back, leaking out the occasional awkward laugh. Super Nature was more or less my awkward preteen years distilled into a sweet little 15-minute morsel. (For more thoughts on the ubiquitous awkwardness at this year’s TBA Festival, see here).
As for what this all means? BodyCartography Project is based out of Minneapolis. They post their mission statement to “investigate empathy, embodiment and the physicality of space in urban, domestic, wild and social landscapes through dance, performance, film, installation, and education.” The movement in Super Nature is improvised. I can definitely say Super Nature transformed my mental space. “So this is what a confinement cell feels like,” I thought to myself. I came down with a nasty cold last night and had flashback fever dreams about this installation.
All this being said, I don’t mean to spin the entire experience as negative. I can say that this piece is a really introspective and personal piece; it got me thinking a lot about my personal expectations of a performance—the TBA Festival often has that affect—and the relationship between a performer and a spectator. It made me feel kind of guilty, and a little exploitative (this may have been because the performer was so young), e.g. that I’m a dirty, demanding consumer: like I walked into this performance space with my arms crossed, waiting for the entertainment to enthrall me.
If anyone else saw this piece, I’d be curious to hear about your experience. I think this piece will get more interesting the more testimonies you hear. I’d love to hear how you participated, or anti-participated? See: comments section?
Super Nature runs from 12-6 pm today (2010 SE 8th Ave), so you still have some time to catch it.
For more insight, check out the footage of previous performances (below), or the artist’s talk at PICA this Tuesday at 12:30pm.
Super Nature installation from BodyCartography Project on Vimeo.