HOLOSCENES is a suite of multi-format artworks that manifest states of drowning — both in water and the larger systems of our own devising — in order to directly connect the short-term, everyday behaviors of individuals to the long-term patterns driving global climate change. Holoscenes re-imagines historical antecedents of public spectacle and gathering, and simultaneously translates related streams of scientific investigation into a visual, visceral, and public address in urban communal space that challenges our personal and collective capacities for long-term thinking and empathy.
HOLOSCENES / performance installation (2014)
HOLOSCENES premiered with 12 hours of durational performance during the overnight Scotiabank Nuit Blanche Festival in Toronto in October 2014, and has since been exhibited in six locations, including Times Square. HOLOSCENES features a single totemic, aquarium-like sculpture sited in public space, standing thirteen feet tall and viewable from 360 degrees. The sculpture is a vehicle for performance. Inhabited by a single performer at any one time, the aquarium is animated by a powerful custom hydraulic system that pumps up to 15 tons of water in and out in less than a minute, creating a series of mini-floods to which the performers must adapt.
Holoscenes (development) at EMPAC
HOSE
RAMEN
UNTITLED
CHARLESTON
LANDLINE
ABAYA
Presentations:
- Scotiabank Nuit Blanche Toronoto — October 4 – 5th, 2014
- John and Mable Ringling Museum (Sarasota) — March 25 – 28th, 2015
- MDC Live Arts (Miami) — December 2-5th, 2015
- London’s Burning, presented by Artichoke (London) — September 1 – 4th, 2016
- NYU Abu Dhabi, during Art Abu Dhabi (UAE) — Nov 16 – 19th, 2016
- Times Square Arts & World Science Festival — June 1 – 3rd, 2017
- Gold Coast Games Festival, Australia — April 5 – 15, 2018
- Festival TransAmeriques (Montreal) — May 25 – 29, 2022
- Carrefour International de Theatre (Quebec) — June 5 – 9, 2022
Credits:
- Created by Early Morning Opera
- Produced by Mapp International Productions
- Conceived and Directed by Lars Jan
- Choreographed by Geoff Sobelle
- Performed by Annie Saunders, Geoff Sobelle, Lua Shayenne & Benjamin Kamino
- Technical Direction by Eric Lin
- Show Control and Co-Lighting Design by Pablo N. Molina
- Sound Design by Nathan Ruyle and Mikaal Sulaiman
- Costume Design by Irina Kruzhilina
- Co-Lighting Design by Chris Kuhl
- Hydraulic Design by Larry McDonald
- Automation Design by Erich Bolton
- Social Choreography by Blaine O’Neill, Peter Rand, Dominic Gabriela
- Prototype-phase Project Management by Jenna Didier
- Prototype-phase Lighting Design by Pablo N. Molina
Funding / Commissioning:
- HOLOSCENES is co-commissioned by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.
- HOLOSCENES has received generous support from The National Endowment for the Arts, The MAP Fund (a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation), the Surdna Foundation, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, the Panta Rhea Foundation, the Harnisch Family Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts with support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; and from many individual donors.
- Crucial residency support was provided by the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, and Scotiabank Nuit Blanche Toronto.
- Touring to FTA (Montreal) and Carrefour (Quebec) is supported in part by Mid Atlantic Arts through USArtists International, a program in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Trust for Mutual Understanding.
HOLOSCENES / Quarternary Videos and Light Circumferences (2015)
Captured in white industrial water silos during development of a prototype for the performance installation in July 2013, the suite of videos and photographs feature a man and woman suspended in near-limbo states, animated by seven tons of water moving twelve feet vertically, controlled by a custom-designed hydraulic system. Enacting simple everyday behaviors collected from an open-call global submission process, the subjects wear pedestrian clothing and handle iconic objects — a hose, telephone, chopsticks — while adapting to their repeatedly flooding environment.
Presentations:
- Pasadena Museum of California Art — January – May 2015
- Istanbul Museum of Modern Art — January – May 2016
- TED Conference (Vancouver) — March 2017
