Empty Orchestra was a mutlimedia performance night at the Center for Visual Art that was concepted by Rebecca Dolan and created by individual artists studying at Metro State in the digital art program... specifically, students undertaking Video Art II. Performances ranged from spoken word to sing-alongs to rap to more traditional, narrative performance.Mine was sort of an anti-performance, addressing the anxiety and incompatability of pigment and video. In a private performance at my home, I filmed my hand painting over canvas that led to an old television set (on and off) which eventually got painted over as well, and I poured paint onto a black dress. The documentation of the performance was then edited and further manipulated, and turned into the video backdrop to the performance I did at the CVA, "Where We Meet." I wore the same dress.
As the video (with sound) played I had Melannie hold a roll of green duct tape for me so that I could wrap myself in it. Once I was bound (ran out of tape a bit early... you'd think those rolls are longer than they are) I stood at the microphone and proceeded to laboriously breathe. I'd planned for a large amount of time for only my breath to be heard (I was taped up at the mouth), but I did not plan to be strangled at the neck like I was (bound myself a little too tightly). I struggled to breathe, the air from my nostrils loud and amplified. I held my breath for a while for a break but then I realized that passing out - although a potentially nice touch to my piece about struggling between old and new media - probably wasn't a good idea with electronics and expensive equipment sitting at my feet.
