Utopians Dance

 


Lights, flooring, video, audio equipment, album cover. Dimensions variable. Open Source, Brooklyn, 2013.


In the installation Utopians Dance, wood flooring, music, and video create a space of levity that encourages dance under a series of strung lights. The video monitor displays dancing feet with subtitles that convey messages combining fringe, caring-based economies with contra-dancing calls. In both models cooperation is embraced, and competition, and therefore power relations, are discouraged. The atmosphere of Utopians Dance evokes the desire for joy and freedom, and asks whether we’ll join the dance. The video plays below.


Propped up on the dance floor is an album cover titled In My Utopia. It represents a future not yet realized. I haven’t written or recorded the songs yet. No vinyl has been produced. The album sleeve is empty. The song titles correspond to my interest in feminism and utopia and the liner notes are taken from my book A Cure for the Marriage Spirit. Images of the album cover are below.


Viewers enter the open dance floor space and find that they occupy a dual position, one of observing while being observed. Who am I? Who is she? I’m considering this dual position of subjectivity and how it relates to larger notions of belonging and community.

Utopians Dance, video 7-minutes looped within installation of light, flooring and sound.  VIDEO LINK HERE

In My Utopia, front of album cover, color inkjet on cardboard album cover stock.

In My Utopia, back of album cover, color inkjet on cardboard album cover stock.