One of the major points of inspiration for Catherine Cabeen and Company’s upcoming production, Fire!, has been Niki de Saint Phalle’s first major body of work, the provocative Shooting Paintings.  In these works, produced between 1961 and 1963, painting was accomplished with a .22-caliber rifle. When Saint Phalle and others took aim at these works, the gun’s bullets would penetrate a plaster surface, finding bags of paint and other items that had been embedded beneath. Once pierced, these contents erupted and fell unpredictably down the work’s surface. As Saint Phalle described it, it was creation through destruction.

Niki de Saint Phalle
Film Still — From Daddy 1972
Copyright: NIKI CHARITABLE ART FOUNDATION.
All rights reserved 2007.

Positioned in opposition to postwar expressionism and the notion of an artist-genius, the Shooting Paintings were aligned with a number of early 1960s strategies aimed at a critique of authorship. These included the use of found and mass-produced objects, as well as compositional methods embracing chance and collaboration. In these respects, the Shooting Paintings were closely tied to the production of Saint Phalle’s fellow New Realists, a label that brought together a diverse group of artists, among them Yves Klein and Jean Tinguely.

Saint Phalle, however, was the only female member of the New Realists, and in this body of work there was also a forceful proto-feminist element. The artist’s aggressive act was not only a way to comment on the violence of the times, but a personal assertion of power. With gun poised, she became the ultimate phallic woman. The use of the gun was of course ironic (a caricature of abstract expressionism, much like Tinguely’s metamatic machines), but it was also done with sincerity and urgency. The Shooting Paintings eventually took the form of distinct targets, religion and men in particular. Saint Phalle expressed a desire to “trespass into the world of men”--to experience their power and freedom.* With gun in hand, she not only trespassed into their world, but also played a part in their destruction.

Saint Phalle was captivated by the power that the gun gave her--by the transformation it created (she called it exciting, sexy, and tragic all at once), and also by the attention it focused on her. Between June and September of 1961, more than fifty international newspapers and magazines had reported on the scandal of her Shooting Paintings. In the press, she became an Amazon, a vampire, and an ardent women’s rights activist.  

Today we view these works fifty years after they were made. Many things have changed, although inequalities and double standards persist. How, where, and when do women assume power in today’s world, and what happens when they do? Fire! urges us to ask.

*More of Saint Phalle’s commentary on this subject can be seen in “Letters,” in Niki de Saint Phalle, ed. Pontus Hultén (Stuttgart: Verlag Gerd Hatje, 1992). 

-Nancy Stoaks, Fire! Dramaturg

The Tarot Garden

Catherine Cabeen and Company is fully immersed in our summer creative residency at On the Boards.  As I shift from questions, to clarity, and back again to more questions in the choreographic process, I am grateful to be working with an incredible team of dancers and collaborators. 

The process we are undertaking to create Fire! is very different than how we created Into the Void.  The process for Into the Void, a piece about immateriality, was as spacious as the subject matter of the work.  We had a week on, a few weeks off, then on again.  I traveled to work with out of town dancers.  We had a luxurious year and a half to make the work, during which time I held the thread of the piece in open hands. 

Fire! on the other hand is being wrung out of the ether with both fists.  I have been researching and creating phrase material on my own for Fire! for the last year.  However this time, the company is assembling for 6 solid weeks to construct the entire work in an intensive residency.  All of us are working tirelessly during this rigorous month and a half to create, edit, cut, destroy, and then rebuild; phrases, costumes, sets, music etc. 

I am enjoying the realization that the process we are using to create this work reflects the subject matter of Fire! in the same way ITV’s did.  
Niki de Saint Phalle’s work is dense, luscious, overwhelming, violent and aggressive. So it makes sense to be wrestling the muses for this work in a volcano of creative energy.

Inspired by Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden, Fire! is organized around the Major Arcana of the Tarot.  Saint Phalle’s garden, which was constructed between 1978 and 1998 at Garavicchio in Tuscany, is the largest sculpture park ever created by a woman artist.  It is full of wild, fantastic creatures, many of which the viewer can enter and climb. 

I had the pleasure of visiting the garden earlier this year.  The colorful mosaics that embellish the parks monuments are often delightful, but just as often they include skulls, spiders, and images of violence reminiscent of Saint Phalle’s earlier works.

As the dancers I am working with push through 6-hour rehearsals, five days a week, I remind them that our bodies get stronger by breaking down and rebuilding; a core theme in the work that we are creating.  Saint Phalle’s glass and mirror mosaics are composed of the same reality as our amino-acid chain muscles, wherein fragmentation and wholeness coincide.

Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden inspired me to approach Seattle Art Museum (SAM) about the possibility of performing a related work in their Olympic Sculpture Park (OSP).  SAM’s support is allowing CCC to create Where They May, a site-specific work that crosses the movement vocabulary we have been working on for Fire! with the landscape and architecture of OSP.  

In contrast to Saint Phalle’s garden, OSP is designed to be enjoyed walking almost entirely in straight lines.  The consistent lack of straight lines in Saint Phalle’s work however, is a significant inspiration for the movement vocabulary I am creating for Fire!. As a result, Where They May is an experiment to see how the voluptuous work looks when framed by narrow passages and straight paths.

I hope you will join us for this free, 

one-time-only event, 

CCC's Where They May 

at the Olympic Sculpture Park, 

Thursday Aug 16, 7:15-8:15pm 

... as we dance down into the Sound.

Ready, Aim...

Ready, Aim… is a solo work that I created for On the Boards NW New Works Festival 2012.  I expected this piece to be an excerpt of the larger piece, Fire!, which I am creating for 2013, however what emerged feels more like underpinnings for the evening-length work, rather than an excerpt.

I was inspired by Niki de Saint Phalle’s Shooting Paintings.  In this body of work Saint Phalle covered surfaces with objects including plastic bags of colored paint and plastered over the objects to create a voluptuous white surface.  Then in increasingly public performances, she would shoot the paintings with a rifle causing the bags of paint to bleed onto the painting’s surface.

I am fascinated by the fact that visual artists create work outside of themselves; while dancer/choreographers are often inseparable from our work.  Because of this I felt it was important to imagine what it was like to be one of the shooting paintings as well as the femme fatal shooter.  So I proposed to On the Boards that I make a piece in which I invite the audience to throw things at me…  Be careful what you ask for, you might just get it.

I feel that our bodies are very much like the shooting paintings in that we all bury memories in our flesh.  Our muscles and joints hold scars quietly until a touch, or smell, or flavor wakes up the memory and we find our selves reacting to a situation irrationally, in a way that is more about our personal history, rather than the actual present.

My intention was to create movement phrases based on injuries that my body holds, which would be initiated by the impact of the objects the audience threw at me.  While I was digging into my injuries for movement seeds however, two things happened.  One was that a long-standing chronic knee injury eclipsed all of the other investigations and actually became so aggravated that I was no longer able to dance.  The other was that while on tour I caught an episode of Comedy Central’s “Laugh at My Pain.”   Watching the stand up comedians I was struck by their amazing physicality and the fact that by making comedy out of tragedy they were offering themselves, and their audience a way to heal from their pain.

My work is not usually very funny.  But there is nothing I love more than a challenge.

photo by Tim Summers

 My knee injury is rooted in early ballet training in which I was told that I shouldn’t have such a big butt and to tuck it under.  In my desire to be a dancer, I believed my teacher and set a posture pattern in place that caused strain on the front of my hips that led to compromised health in my knees.  I was 22 years old before a physical therapist (named Rocky) told me that I was in fact supposed to have a curve in my lower back.  Physical habits die hard, and the undoing of this conditioning is still (12 years later) something I have to be conscious of.  This early training, that to be a dancer I should have no butt, also lead to a long struggle with eating disorders. 

As I investigated the other injuries I have had, I began to realize that most of them are the result of nutritional and emotional imbalance, all of which can be traced back to self sabotage that I enacted in order to fit into my perception of what I was supposed to look like as a woman, and certainly as a female dancer.

One reason I create work inspired by historic artists is to analyze the relationship between art and culture, both what has changed and what has remained the same.  Saint Phalle was cruelly objectified and not taken seriously as a woman artist in the 1960s.  While the waves of feminism continue to beat on the shore of misogyny, we still live in a culture that does not provide equal pay for equal work, expectations are extremely different for boys and girls, and women’s work is often reduced to how they look doing it.

In dance, misogyny is so inherent in classical aesthetics that it is almost invisible. *  The history of ballet costumes is about the increasing reveal of women’s legs and point shoes make women unable to stand on their own resulting in the continuous, literal manipulation of women by men in classical dance.   That’s what we expect when we go to the ballet.  Even Martha Graham, with her incredible cast of female heroines also established a theatrical aesthetic in which thick make-up and pounds of fake hair have become an essential component of the female character’s strength.  As a dancer in the Bill T Jones/ Arnie Zane Dance Company I was valued for what made me masculine; broad shoulders, height, and I had a shaved head when I joined the company.  I am a tomboy, but it was confusing from age 19-28 to be told in so many ways by my mentor that I would be more valuable if I were a man.

I’ve been creating my own work for many years, wrestling with my love of classical lines, technical virtuosity, and feminism.  I believe that as an artist I have a responsibility to make work that actively participates in creating the kind of cultural dialogue I want to live in.  My love of beauty and my desire to be an activist often feel as though they are in conflict.  Ready, Aim… was born out of that tension.

Dance is an incredible language to speak about the amorphous, dynamic, multi-faceted experience of being human.  But there are some subjects better addressed directly.  The pain in my knee enforced a monologue rather than a movement study, but as soon as I opened my mouth I realized how much I had to say.  I thought that being a target would be painful, but instead it fed my fire.  I thank all of the audiences for their active involvement.

Someone asked me if I “wrote” Ready, Aim… I didn’t.  I uncovered it.  What makes it funny is that it’s so true.

catherinecabeen.com

* This was the subject of my MFA, so I’ve written numerous papers on the subject. This paragraph is a gross over simplification- it’s a blog so I’m trying to get to the point.

Ready, Aim... Fire!

Fire!
Catherine Cabeen and Company’s next evening-length work will premier at On the Boards, 
January 17-20, 2013. 

Fire! is an interdisciplinary performance project choreographed and directed by Catherine Cabeen, inspired by the work of Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002). Utilizing the same combined research methodology and creative practice that informed Cabeen’s 2011, Yves Klein inspired Into the Void, Fire! takes on the work of a female artist whose aesthetic is exact opposite of Klein’s. Through colorful sculptures and assemblages, Saint Phalle's bold work examines child’s play and violence with equal curiosity.  In response, Fire! will wrestle with the idea of creation through destruction. 

Taking a cue from Saint Phalle’s Nanas, monumental sculptures of voluptuous female figures in motion, Cabeen’s choreography indulges in the joy of physical density. Pushing against the established dance aesthetic that weight and whimsy are mutually exclusive, dancers will move as one body, celebrating the strength that rises from their combined mass. Costumes and set pieces by collaborating visual artists will interact with the dancers, creating a mosaic environment that weaves together both the animate and inanimate creatures on stage. Inspired by Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden, the interactive stage space will be inhabited by the archetypes of the Tarot’s Major Arcana. The fluid states of consciousness articulated in the Tarot will create the evolutionary journey of the work.

Saint Phalle faced intense criticism for stepping out of the traditional roles of wife and mother to become an artist. Simultaneously, feminist scholars critique her for using her body in her work. Fire! will explore both how much, and how little, has changed in 60 years, in relation to representations and realities of femininity, sexuality, and power. Fire! will encourage all people, but especially young women, to embrace their weight as strength, speak their truth, and dance in the face of fear.

catherinecabeen.com

Read all about it!

Thank you so much Seattle for all of your support for Into the Void!

Here's what the critics had to say:
From the Seattle Times:
Seattle dancer-choreographer Catherine Cabeen explores a dreamlike 'Void'
“Seattle dancer-choreographer Catherine Cabeen's first evening-length piece, "Into the Void," is a seductive work to watch unfold…"Void" is a dreamlike, gender-fluid, near-subliminal exploration of what Klein means to Cabeen.” by Michael Upchurch
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thearts/2014913536_cabeen30.html

From Sunbreak:
Catherine Cabeen on the Yves of Creation
“It is sometimes joyful, sometimes embattled, frequently gorgeous, and always in pursuit of the elevating moment, … As Klein, Cabeen adopts, with glorious extensions, one-footed judo poses that evolve from forceful push to feline fall in a way that explodes the distinction.” by Michael van Baker
http://thesunbreak.com/2011/04/29/catherine-cabeen-on-the-yves-of-creation-review/

From SeattleDances:
Into the Void—Catherine Cabeen’s newest work explores the art of Yves Klein
“To say that Into the Void is art at its finest is an understatement—it is an experience that uses contemporary movement in all the right ways and is arguably at the forefront of a new generation of dance artists.“ by Steve Ha
http://seattledances.blogspot.com/2011/04/into-voidcatherine-cabeens-newest-work.html

From City Arts Magazine:
Cabeen Straight Up With a Twist of Klein
“No knowledge of Yves Klein and his work was needed to enjoy Into the Void. Cabeen packed the 70-minute show with varied elements and strong modern dance, and a lack of narrative allowed for open-ended interpretations and emotional response. “ by Rachel Gallaher
http://www.cityartsmagazine.com/blog/2011/05/cabeen-straight-twist-klein

And, of course, the On the Boards Blog:
http://www.ontheboards.org/blog/when-art-speaks-well-about-art
http://www.ontheboards.org/blog/conversation-divine
http://www.ontheboards.org/blog/carried-along-joie-de-vive

Leap!

Into the Void

Thu – Sat | Apr 28 – 30 | 8pm

$20 general | $12 under 25

Inspired by postmodern visual artist Yves Klein, Into the Void mixes visual arts, drag performance and precise choreography performed by 5 dancers to evoke the complex gender politics of Klein’s work.

Featuring collaborators: Michael Cepress (costume design), Kane Mathis (music), Susan Robb (sculpture), Tivon Rice (digital media) and Connie Yun (lighting).

Info & tickets @ ontheboards.org

Gender/Drag/Truth and Lies

Gender representation in the performing arts has long been an interest of mine. Early in my dance career I had the honor of being cast in roles that Bill T. Jones created for himself, initiating interesting conversations about what it meant for a white woman to take on the testosterone driven roles originated and performed by a black man in the 1980’s. I grew into these roles over the years I performed them, and because it would never have been possible for me to perform them “like Bill” they became pathways for me to uncover my own relationship to strength, power, aggression, masculinity and femininity.
Later when I was invited into the dramatic world of the Martha Graham Company, I bristled against the glamorous heavy makeup and fake hair, which was required to embody female icons in her theater. It wasn’t until several years later, when I started working with Richard Move who impersonates Martha Graham, that I began to recognize the characteristic Graham Make-up as a form of drag, and to see drag not as a tool of oppression but of expression.

Feminist theorist Judith Butler suggested in the early 90s that gender itself is a product of layered symbolism that defines us from the outside in. She claims that culture defines and redefines both femininity and masculinity through our collective acts and desires. She describes a gender contingency in which “inner truth” becomes impossible to define due to the impact of our external acts on the formation of our interior selves. Butler points out that transvestites represent a “false” exterior costume, which misrepresents their “true” anatomy. Simultaneously their anatomy is a “false” exterior to the “truth” of their self-identity. Butler’s theories relate to the performance of gender in daily life, but they are easily extended into a theatrical arena as well, especially when looking at artists like Klein or Graham. For these artists, the line between life and theater, between artist and art, is hard to define.

Klein once said that, “A painter should only paint a single masterpiece, himself, constantly.” His admiration for the daily practice of art making, and the lack of separation between art and life, which that creates, is one aspect of his work that continues to draw me to him. I wonder how this connection between art and life played out for Klein in relation to his gender expression. He was a small man, not physically imposing, but a black belt in judo who was always full of energy. His work is often seen as misogynistic, though his wife and many of the female models he worked with claim that he was full of spiritual integrity, enthusiasm and joy when he created the work in question. While I aim to dismantle the problematic gendered hierarchy in Klein’s performance art through how I reference the 1960 Anthropometries in Into the Void, I hope to do so by complicating the issue and posing new questions, not by solving or underlining the binary nature of male/female, artist/subject tension in most art historical studies.

I recently took a break from Klein to complete a run of performances with Richard Move in which he performed, as Martha, a reenactment of an interview that was recorded in 1963 between Graham and dance critic Walter Terry. In other words he played the icon as an aging woman, whose physical powers had peaked and whose mind vacillated between her characteristic brilliance and impending alcoholism. Richard and I have had many conversations about his process of characterization. While he is certainly playing a specific character who he has studied in videos and books, when he performs in drag he is also accessing what he feels is part of his integral feminine self. His drag impersonations are not campy, and this one in particular was performed with an integrity and personal investment in what it actually feels like to be an aging artist, regardless of gender.
I danced in this production alongside Katherine Crockett who has been a principle dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company since the mid 90s. While the Graham make-up represents a form of fun theatrical drag to me, for Crockett it is an embellishment of a genuine expression of how she asserts her femininity. Looking at the stage I recently inhabited I found myself fascinated by the complexity of the gender expressions before me; Move and Crocket, one biologically male and one female, equally at home in their masks of female signifiers, The brilliant actress Lisa Kron, who played Walter Terry, willingly, but purely professionally made up in male drag, and myself struggling to fill the “female” mask I dutifully wore.

I wondered about the shift between how we had arrived at the theater, and who we played on stage.

I wondered about the thin veil between honesty and make-believe in all of our expressions.

I wondered about the security we find in being ourselves verses the security we find in abandoning our selves to dress, make our selves up, and embody another character.

For each of these performers, which aspects of life and performance are actually Acts?

I bring all of these questions back Into the Void through both my mind and body.

When I perform as Klein in drag, like Move’s Martha, I am not intending to be campy. I am interested in Klein’s artistic ideas and how they intersect with his character. As a female artist, for me to embody Klein’s persona is to perform in drag, but the reason I started this whole project is because so many of Klein’s ideas resonate with me, regardless of gender.
The work does explore the power of male signifiers as juxtaposed with the multifaceted gender expressions of my talented cast. The character I play is pushed up against my fellow performers who embody both themselves, as complex humans containing vast possibilities, and abstract concepts from Klein’s oeuvre that the individual performers relate to. When the signifiers of my drag performance are dismantled it is not intended to flip the character’s gender expression. Instead it is my intention to point out the incredible complexity in each of us who are constantly seeking the truth that exists somewhere in the space between what is inside our hearts and on our backs, between what is in our eyes and on our face.

Catherine Cabeen and Company

Into the Void



Thu – Sat | Apr 28 – 30 | 8pm

$20 general | $12 under 25

Inspired by postmodern visual artist Yves Klein, Into the Void mixes visual arts, drag performance and precise choreography performed by 5 dancers to evoke the complex gender politics of Klein’s work.

Featuring collaborators: Michael Cepress (costume design), Kane Mathis (music), Susan Robb (sculpture), Tivon Rice (digital media) and Connie Yun (lighting).

Info & tickets @ ontheboards.org


Reference to: Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Thinking
Gender, (New York: Routledge, 1990).