New York Theater: Like the myth of Pygmalion, the kNOT theater company is bringing visual art to life, weaving together the centuries-old tableau vivant tradition with inventive 21st century approaches to create live theater out of a series of paintings by the 18th century Korean artist Shin Yun-bok. The process involves many strands, including live dancers, computer animation, shadow puppetry, digital puppetry, original music, live photo capture, enough sound effects to fill a radio drama — everything except spoken language. The effect is extraordinary, resulting in what feels like an exciting new form of theater.
3 comments:
This is such a cool concept of modern art and I am so into it. I'm curious about who decides the story-telling aspect of the painting, and if is the director's adaptation, or rather having research be done of the painter and their vision of what the artwork means to them. Another element that I appreciate is the incorporation of music, as it opens up an entirely new sense into the art.
I wonder if there are any words spoken, or if this art form is strictly dance and music. It almost feels like a dance performance inspired by artwork. While I've never heard of kNOT Theatre company, they share a similar mission to most contemporary theatre companies. I am excited to see if they will continue to push the boundaries of what art and theatre can be, or if they will shift to doing more traditional productions to stay alive.
Unique types pf theater really fascinate me. The way that people's brains work to be able to come up with this art is truly remarkable. I think that the kNOT theater company has done something unique and impressive. The ability to use shaped, shadows, light, makeup, and movement to recreate these paintings is such a cool idea. The standout for me are the costumes by Lee Jieun, Ko Sukhee, and Kim SoYi. Each action has a base of a long white flowy dress, allowing for ultimate movement and catching light. With each piece they adopt certain accessories, whether it is a strikingly blue piece of fabric, hats, or sunglasses. Complete with the projector behind, the actors really do recreate the paintings, each with a unique flair. I think that the idea of expressive theater is very cool and I think more people should produce it, and in turn, more audiences should go experience it.
This reminds me of Pageant of the Masters at the Sawdust festival. The sawdust festival is an arts festival that happens every August in California, somewhere around LA I believe. There’s rows and rows of booths with local artists and crafts people selling their work. There’s also a wonderful youth art competition, elementary to high school, exhibiting the winner. The main show of the festival is the nightly showing of the Pageant of the Masters. A community performance art piece. Every year there is a given theme, the year I saw it it was American classics themed. Using costumes and scenic elements, people recreate famous artworks live onstage. Often you don’t see the image until they get set in position and turn on the lighting. They hold the position for a moment while commentary plays before moving onto the next image. I think it's so cool to combine fine art and performing art in new and interesting ways.
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