o’ death
Findlay//Sandsmark + Pettersen (Norway/USA)
Inspired by 1920s blues singer and brimstone pastor J.M. Gates’s songs such as “O Death, Where is Thy Sting?” o’ death is a multidisciplinary performance installation, choreographed by award-winning Norwegian choreographer Marit Sandsmark, that impossibly and playfully attempts to prove that death does not exist and everything we have ever loved is not enough.
Built on a reflexive interaction between sound and movement, the performance comes alive amidst towering styrofoam sculptures and mechanical trees, giving sound a physical presence in movements, objects and flickering lights. o’ death is shaped by notions of ferality and biocentrism, exploring the tension between the natural and the synthetic.
“Death does not exist, only fear of death” – Andrej Tarkovskij
Concept/ Idea/ Production: Findlay/Sandsmark
Director & Designer: Iver Findlay
Choreographer & Performer: Marit Sandsmark
Composer & Musician: Pål Asle Pettersen
Visual Artist: Jason Rogenes
Sound Artist: Jim Dawson
Collaborator: Joey Truman
“Both experimenting with form and intellectual ruminations, this promising performance is a must for a curious audience.” —Scenekunst.no
60 minutes running time
Presented by Performance Space 122 in partnership with Ideal Glass Gallery
Jan 12 – 6pm
Jan 13 – 7pm
Jan 14 – 7pm
Jan 15 – 10pm
Jan 16 – 9pm
Jan 17 – 5pm
Ideal Glass Gallery
22 East 2nd Street in Manhattan
$20 / $15 Students & Seniors
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Findlay//Sandsmark (F//S) is a Norwegian performance company working across the disciplines of dance, theater, live music, and video art. For the past five years the constellation of Iver Findlay and Marit Sandsmark have created several productions in the borderland between performing arts and installation, bending connections and correlations between disciplines to create live art that resonates from a physical and emotional plane. In that brief time, they have made five large-scale performances: now and nowhere else (2010), fractured bones/ let’s get lost (2011/2012), biograph, last year was pretty/shitty (2013/2014), o’ death (2014/2015), and (re)remember study (2015/2016) as well as several other shorter pieces/installations. F//S had their US premiere with their large-scale work now and nowhere else in 2010 at PS122. For each project they invite new collaborators to work with them in an open process based approach, such as: Diane Madden (Trisha Brown Dance Company), Eric Dyer (Radiohole), Joey Truman, Victor E. Morales, Ruud van den Akker (Wooster Group), Jim Dawson, Young Jean Lee, Claudia La Rocco, Jason Rogenes, and Catherine McRae.
Ideal Glass Gallery is an New York-based art collective founded by performance artist and filmmaker Willard Morgan to shock, entertain, and transform. Collaborating with art-wear sculptor Uta Bekaia, visual artist Ayakamay, sound designer John Sully, editor Jessie Stead, the international team explores social activism, gentrification, sexual identity and the slavery of debt-through live performance, sound recording and art video.
Ideal Glass Gallery, located in the East Village of Manhattan, is accessible by the F subway line to 2nd Avenue. The East Village has become a center of the counterculture in New York, and is known as the birthplace of many artistic movements, such as punk rock and Nuyorican literature.
Some staff favorites for great dining in the area include Babu Ji NYC at 175 Avenue B and DBGB Kitchen and Bar at 299 Bowery.
Featured image by Minna Suojoki
o’ death is co-produced by Bit-Teatergarasjen, Black Box Teater, Tou Scene and RAS. o’ death is supported by Arts Council Norway, American Scandinavian Foundation, FFUK, Stavanger Kommune, Sandnes Kommune, Rogaland Fylkeskommune, UD/Stikk, Performing Arts Hub Norway, Norwegian Consulate General in New York and FuturePerfect Productions in association with Norway Now: Performing Arts from the Northern Latitudes. Norway Now is an annual event in New York bringing together Norwegian artists and producers with North American presenters, curators and festival directors. PS122 presentation support provided by Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance and Jerome Robbins Foundation.
