Book of Clouds (2017)
Theater Run Time: 50 minutes
Book of Clouds is a collaborative performance/installation bringing together Time Lapse Dance Artistic Director Jody Sperling with Vancouver-based visual artist Amy-Claire Huestis and composer, sound & video designer Omar Zubair.
Huestis engineers her own magic-lanterns (analog projection devices) with hand-painted slides and slide-wheels depicting her recorded drawings of clouds, sun, moon, and Earth. Zubair designs the sonic environment, shaping rhythms of light and motion, and layering in video systems. Sperling navigates the site-scape of light and sound, adding a kinetic energy to the images and embodying the act of gazing. Collectively, the three create a space for contemplating the sublime sky-scape, expanding our perception of time and space.
Book of Clouds is available as both a theater performance and extended art installation.
CHOROEGRAPHY/PERFORMANCE: Jody Sperling
MAGIC-LANTERN PROJECTION DESIGN: Amy-Claire Huestis
VIDEO PROJECTION DESIGN: Omar Zubair
MUSIC COMPOSITION & PERFORMANCE: Matthew Burtner
EXCERPT STAGE PERFORMANCE
Video by Amala Lane. © 2017
“In ‘Book of Clouds,’ Sperling, a choreographer skilled in antique theatrical magic, teams up with the composer and visual artist Omar Zubeir and the visual artist Amy-Claire Huestis to create a performance installation about the sky. Huestis’s hand-painted magic-lantern slides projected onto Sperling’s swirling drapery should be something to see.”
– The New Yorker