"Seven dancers, dressed in flowing pants and tank tops in muted tones, are moving like a kind of 14-legged caterpillar, inching their way around a 12-sided mirrored bench at the centre of the stately Murphy Auditorium. The venue, which was built by the American College of Surgeons on Chicago's Near North Side in 1926, features exquisite details like ornate cast-bronze doors by Tiffany Studios honouring famous doctors and stained-glass windows by the Willet Company."
"The Murphy Auditorium was acquired by the neighbouring in 2022, underwent a renovation starting in 2023 and was designated a Chicago landmark in 2024. It is now hosting the Driehaus's first artist-in-resdience, the Chicago-based visual and performing artist , who has developed the evolving, collaborative dance work Score for the Murphy Auditorium as part of his nearly year-long exhibition in the space, In the Round (until 14 November)."
""We see this as a duet between Brendan and the Murphy auditorium, a chance to look at history in the round," , an independent curator working with Fernandes on the project, said during a preview last month. "It's about looking at the intersections of art, dance and architecture," Fernandes said. "Dance is political. There is physical support in the piece, but it is also dance as a form of support-that way of dancing and moving in unison.""
"True to the show's title, there is no fixed seating and visitors are encouraged to go around the dancers as they move within, atop, under and on the perimeter of the dodecagonal bench. Between the passages when they come together to form a kind of self-supporting organism with many limbs, the dancers split into solos, duos and trios that move around the space in semi-improvisatory"
Seven dancers in muted attire move around a 12-sided mirrored bench in the Murphy Auditorium, forming a many-limbed, caterpillar-like shape. The movements include gripping, reaching, and pulling, alternating between unified group formations and smaller solos, duos, and trios. The venue’s Gilded Age architecture features ornate cast-bronze doors by Tiffany Studios and stained-glass windows by the Willet Company. The auditorium was built in 1926, acquired in 2022, renovated starting in 2023, and designated a Chicago landmark in 2024. The Driehaus artist-in-residence presents Score for the Murphy Auditorium, inviting visitors to move around the dancers within, atop, under, and along the bench perimeter.
Read at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]