Split Sides (Merce Cunningham 50th Anniversary commission)

I was commissioned to design the stage set for a performance celebrating the 50th anniversary of Cunnigham’s dance company. The show opened at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) accompanied by powerful scores from Radiohead and Sigur Rós. Following the principles and rhythms in Cunningham’s work, I produced an image related to his aesthetic sensibilities made by photographing in motion with the camera – looking down from the top of a skyscraper.
The final image is a composite of two photographs, one negative, one positive, of the same subject taken moments apart. They were then inverted so that on stage the dancers appeared to be ‘dancing in the sky’. A stage set commission introduced an unprecedented scale in my work (60ft wide) involving new material (backlit-stage backdrop) and collaboration with lighting and stage designers and involved both technical and aesthetic research. One lightbox (6ft x 3ft) and one paper print on paper (5ft x 2 ½ ft) also titled 'Split Sides', has been shown in a number exhibitions. Most recently, the print was exhibited at the RA Summer Show (2006).

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