melmagazine.com: “As a child, I was always interested in the astounding,” says Joshua Pilla, 26. “I was fixated on anything that could stimulate a reaction of wonder and amazement. Skills and talents, like object manipulation, cardistry and sleight of hand became my childhood muses; the latter even developed into a sort of career in my teen years. One of the magic routines I’d perform involved the use of colored thimbles, little finger caps that I’d manipulate to appear, disappear and multiply. Since the very beginning of that, it was set to music and very choreographed, like a dance.”
3 comments:
Whether high off of MDMA (rave-goers) or sober (me in bed at 3:00am watching random videos on the internet), gloving is a mesmerizing artform. When I was younger, one of my sisters told me about this “gloving” after I got a cheap little set of finger LED’s from a book fair or something of the sort. I thought it was very cool and mesmerizing, but I pretty quickly forgot about its existence. Lo and behold, this is still a widely-known practice. The motion of these artists fingers, hands, and wrists, seems almost unnatural, as if they have liquified their bones. These extremely refined and fluid movements, in conjunction with the colorful lights, is quite mesmerizing, and very enjoyable to watch. It’s somewhat frustrating that this practice got blacklisted from many EDM concerts, as most people are high anyway and the gloves didn’t really do much to cause the unfortunate deaths of the concertgoers. On top of that, the glovers themselves are typically sober when performing, to maintain cognitive and motor control. Another glover who was interviewed in the article actually has Tourette’s Syndrome, and gloving helps him control his “tics,” little twitches and bursts of energy resulting from his Tourette’s. This example is one of many which shows off the benefits of this mesmerizing artform, showing the lighter side of what is unfortunately regarded as a “potentially hazardous” practice.
When I was younger I went to my best friend's brother university performance art final in which he was seated in a room with the lights off and he moved his hands around for about an hour. He wore gloves with lights on the end - and I thought this was the wackiest thing that I had ever seen. I apologize for being possibly ignorant but I had no clue this "gloving" was an actual art form. I clicked on this article thinking "this is silly," and I read this article still thinking "this is silly," but at least I'm saying "this is silly" having done more research. It’s clear that ‘gloving’ is an important part of the raving culture and an identifiable element of raves that ravers truly enjoy. It’s also clear that these artists use ‘gloving’ as a medium for expression, and I’m honestly impressed by their dedication to their practice and performance.
The first time I ever saw "gloving," I had absolutely no clue what was going on. I was amazing by it, but very confused as to what was actually going on. After that experience, I decided to do some research. Somehow, I got deep down a Youtube rabbit hole in which I found myself starting to watch more and more videos about beginning to learn how to perform this art, and less and less performances. It was at that point where it also started to make a little more sense. Well...sort of. I started to understand what I was seeing and how it was being produced, but I still was confused as to how someone "invented" gloving and also, I was amazed by how hard it seemed to do for me. While I sat staring at my screen, often attempting to mimic what the person in the YouTube video was doing, I realized more and more that this was not an art I would ever excel in. That being said, I still think it is a very interesting art to watch, but that's all I will be doing, watching.
Post a Comment