Theresa Anderson in collaboration with Alicia Ordal + Kim Shively

inventory of a material and visual language

2020

video 4.01 minutes

inventory of a material and visual language is an accumulation of experimentation with abstract sculpture and architectural forms that culminates in a video. Using serious humor, they reimagine spaces where they control their own narrative, a collaborative voice, symbology and language.

 

Negotiating their gendered identities within a politicized and unwieldy landscape they use a process of repetition, deflection and resurfacing to reclaim space. Sculptural practice becomes performative. Their bodies function as utilitarian tools that deconstruct the physical world and reveal their unique vision of personal interior spaces.

 

Filmmaker Kim Shively edited the final footage and similar to the drawing game “exquisite corpse” reinterpreted the work.

Theresa Anderson with performers Frankie Bushell, Katie Bowman, Amber Cobb, Patrick McGuire, Zac Maas, Ella Trujillo, and Larry Shavers Jr.

2015
recitations on agency and inadequacy/ sites of pressure and pleasure/ fun and unfun/ many person harness/ kicking feet from under self, 1
a seven person harness fabricated from athletic elastic banding (aka a big jock strap), easy release buckles, expandable textile bags filled with flour, feather pillows, video and sound appropriated (and not), approximately 9 minute duration as part of Performance Art Now!, a collaboration between RedLine Denver and the Biennial of the Americas.

Theresa Anderson with performers Kelly Brewer + Lauren Katz 

2015-ongoing
quasi/ objects/ twister
Expandable textiles, thread, waistband expanders, pillow soft foam, feathers, homemade twister board
Notes:
-the four objects (2014) were made for use in a series of performance works 1
-the objects are pushed through stages of exhaustion and collapse similar to affects of open ended and vigorous play
-the props are intended to initiate, highlight or maintain sites of pressure between work and play or the “fun and unfun” 2
-ritual versus commodity

-quasi (seemingly, apparently but not really)
-elaborate a performative action/ work that is repeated in different settings until the objects disintegrate
-solicit a group to work with the given the objects and minimal directions
1 Ngai, Sianne. “Ugly Feelings” Harvard University Press, 2007
2 http://www.pomoculture.org/2013/09/19/stuplimity-shock-and-boredom-in-twentieth-century-aesthetics/

 Stuplimity: Shock and Boredom in Twentieth-Century Aesthetics

September 19, 2013 Posted by Webmaster under Volume 10 – Number 2 – January 2000

Sianne Ngai

“There is stupid being in every one. There is stupid being in every one in their living. Stupid being in one is often not stupid thinking or stupid acting. It very often is hard to know it in knowing any one. Sometimes one has to know of some one the whole history in them, the whole history of their living to know the stupid being of them.”

–Gertrude Stein, The Making of Americans

(1906-08)

Popping

Filling items with magic

Activist

Collaborative

Conversational

Reflective

Contextual

Intentional

All flesh is grass

Theresa Anderson with performer Esther Hernandez + designer Olivia McLean

wallpaper for touching/ make present

wood, light strip, wallpaper, paint, assorted textiles, lavender oil, bell, performer, viewer 

wood, light strip, wallpaper, paint, assorted textiles, lavender oil, bell, fabric, zipper, thread, beads, lace, ribbon, buckram, synthetic hair, rope

Dimensions variable

“Exploring ideas around contentious space, this itinerant sculpture re-imagines and addresses absences in the production of historical memory in public art. The drawing, printed on wallpaper and textiles, is made from Anderson’s collection of images of relaxed, laid back, and wide-stance women. These are poses that society traditionally considers powerful, yet exclusive to the realm of men. Participants are invited to transfer their own energy onto the work by applying lavender oil onto the wallpaper, thereby altering it over time. Wallpaper for touching draws upon magical realism, fables and folk magic and Anderson states that the work “functions as a place for transportation, lucky charm, and talisman.” -Marisa Lerer, Curator

Monumental invited RedLine artists to engage with multi-media approaches to re-imagine the monument. Artists address absences in the who, what, where, or when is represented in traditional monuments, and articulate a new notion of the monument through visual and other sensorial forms.

Theresa Anderson with performer dylan scholinski

some kind of cuddle/ site conditioner/ cats meowing on end/ when I was a kitten

2017
cats meowing on end mimics a story from Middle-Age France about Catholic nuns who went out into the village and meowed as cats, both as a signal of distress and cathartic release from the daily constraints they experienced. Anderson relates to this story as well as seeing her vehicle as a tool for gaining freedom for her art practice, as she often packs her work in her car and drives it across the country for exhibitions. The artist would like to give special thanks to performer and collaborator Dylan Scholinski.
(Courtesy of Black Cube, photo: Sara Ford

‘12 Toyota Rav4 cuddled with stretchy black fabric, video of cats meowing plaintively, car speakers, black masks, neck pillows from artist designed textiles, yarn, fake fur, nest camera inside the car with a hotspot connected to wifi throwing the performance across the internet, soft foam cast of a sock darning tool (aka power object)“

Venture out. Be powerful.” – Theresa Anderson 

 

Either the world would change, or it wouldn’t. Meanwhile keep on the move and live intensely- Hakim Bey, The Temporary Autonomous Zone

Theresa Anderson with performers Rebecca Vaughan and Trace Tomko

performance document from all flesh is grass/ brown grass/ things I want to know/ wigs as armor/ fur extensions/ introduce seditious acts/ pranks in the context of chaos

The archived objects in the performance pedestal are a selection of ritual dance objects made by the artist’s father from his hunts. In response the artist made a series of quasi-objects that hold the possibility of softening experience, possibly mitigating past experience/ rituals performed under duress or lack of understanding (hex-anti-hex). The large mask obfuscates sight, sound and smell with only two small slits to allow minimal confident movement. While the objects with athletic strapping have some sexual overtones clothing was selected by each participant in regards to their own sense of agency in this kind of performed “hunt.” Two participants stood and waited for the arrival (or rejection) of a third performance partner who was selected to have control over whether the performance was activated. Upon arrival of the third performance partner, an assortment of squishy, soft, round, organic and/ or long objects were attached to the core of the body making present the objects inside held outside self.

-time variable and unlike other performance works this is intended to be given to other groups of people to experience for themselves.