SHE IS NEAR
By Dirty Churches
SHE is near by Dirty Churches is a multi-media installation and performance was exhibited at Kunsthalle Projects in DUMBO in 2014 as part of their group show Why You Gotta Be So Evil?. This installation presents a hallucinatory grotto devoted to the Greek goddess of witchcraft Hecate. The installation was constructed by tying tree branches together and attaching them to the wall then covering them with torn black fabric and chimes. The floor was covered in mirrors and reflective paper then projected onto with a video loop of light on water, this achieved the effect of moon light reflecting on water and created abstract patterns of light on the back wall. The mirrors were surrounded with rocks to give the impression of a grotto like environment. This environment created the setting for our twenty minute performance were Rachel Blackwell portrayed the three faced goddess and whispered ominous mantras to the viewers. Her performance was set to a three movement string trio composition by Jesse Gelaznik that included prerecorded samples of wolves howling through effects.
Bacchus' Skeleton Part II. Finding Atlantis with Caravaggio
BACCHUS' SKELETON
By Dirty Churches
This multi-media installation explores the theme of a lone wanderer trying to find his way home. The narrative of the installation was inspired loosely by Bacchus’s walk on the beach searching for a ship to take him home, as featured in Ovid’s Metamorphosis and also by the recent theory of Caravaggio’s death on the beach as featured in Andrew Graham Dixon’s A Life Sacred and Profane. Prerecorded music for string trio composed by Jesse Gelaznik and engineered by Eric Elterman. PWR&$$$ (Daniel Garcia and Jesse Gelaznik) will provide live musical accompaniment. The video was shoot by Daniel Garcia and Rachel Blackwell with Jesse Gelaznik acting as Bacchus' Skeleton. Edited by Jesse Gelaznik.
Dedicated in loving memory to original Dirty Churches member Joe Robinson.
AN ORCHARD OF ECHOES
By Dirty Churches
This is a collaborative multi-media performance as dramatic ritual. The original performance took place in September 2013 to coincide with the autumn equinox and harvest ritual time. A crone’s altar in an apple orchard is created through projections, sound, and installation. The crone is a masked old woman in farming clothes carrying a heavy load. Her hair is bound up in cornhusks and her mask is painted with the alchemical symbols of nature, fire, earth, water and air. The harvest ritual is performed in three parts, introducing the orchard, the storm, and the smearing of the mask with colored pigment as a conclusion. These three parts all have individual musical scores performed live, which establish a sonic environment that completes the illusion of the orchard. The performance of this ritual takes 20 minutes.
A GUEST IN THE CAVERN
By Dirty Churches
The cavern provides a typical analogy of the projecting individual. It provides the repetition of light and shadow as a backdrop to the woman in the pyramid. Inside the pyramid she reflects up from the terrestrial world to the celestial and cosmic world. The infinite becomes newly created/birthed/banged. The woman, the light, the constellation and the point. The woman's thoughts are reflected below the water's surface, glowing down to this world. Her exploration of the loneliness and the isolation fill the cavern with echoes of the yin/yang universe, the infinite, the contained, the container. Her pyramid is distribution of mental and emotional weight. Her dress becomes a river of light that emanates out from her core past the walls of the pyramid. Once combined the elements of the video art projections, pyramid installation, performer and dress with a live soundtrack, the space will be completely transformed into a fantastical landscape of thought, sound and vision.
Pablo Narvaez takes us on a philosophical walk through the forest.
THE DOME
By Dirty Churches
The Dome is a 8' by 13' freestanding structure designed and constructed by Jesse Gelaznik. This installation took place over a month long residency created by the film organization Outpost in Otis, MA during the month of August in 2012. During this month Jesse lived, in a tent on the grounds of the residency program alone in the woods. He was visited periodically by his friends and brought food daily by the organizers of the program. After constructing the dome in three parts in his father's garage, Jesse was able to transport the three parts and assemble them in the woods. The lathing and mortaring of the dome took place onsite as well as the painting of the interior mural in oils. This structure became the center piece to Jesse's daily life while he lived on the grounds of the program. During his stay he published a blog describing his experience on Vice and filmed a short spiritually based film with Pablo Narvaese and Butcher Walsh.
THE MOTHER
By Dirty Churches
Site specific installation. Sculpture by Rachel Blackwell, music by Jesse Gelaznik.
