DAD ART REQUEST VIA KATHY BREW
Dear Kathy,
It was such a joyous and
stimulating experience being included in Paula Antonelli and Erica
Petrillo's incredible Salon 22 January 22, 2018. At that time I had an
opportunity to feel family-ish and wanted to find a way
to come back to MOMA and do something else!! That's what a good time I
had. Their professional care and attention to all details whetted my
appetite for more at MOMA.
I know you also work there and
was wondering if there is a venue for me to present my 3 hour
video-performance-meditation on old age/sickness and the death of my
father Henry Montano. We began collaborating on video
in 1998 and after his stroke I continued taping. It ends with his death
and burial.
I have made it an interactive experience with continuous audience interaction so that the questions/issues
of sickness/caregiving/dying become topics of interactive inquiry.
There are performers onstage to help make this happen performatively.
Included below is a description from my performance at Bonnie Cullum's
Vortex Theatre, Austin Texas.
All the best,
Linda
lindamontano@hotmail.com
cc: Paula Antonelli, Erica Petrillo
When was the last time you sang a song to your pineal gland? Honoria Starbuck/Luanne Stovall
When you walk into Austin’s Vortex theatre you see the
stage at floor level. The audience is banked on two sides. You find your
seat. The stage is suddenly bathed in violet light, the color of the
crown chakra, the color of mourning, of Lent.
One by one the nine performers walk to the stage, step to
the microphone to reveal their day job and the role they are embodying,
and take a seat at their respective stations. All are dressed in black
and white.
There are three Listeners — one with a therapy
dog, a Water Healer, Dancer, Secretary, Choirmaster, Angel, and a Master
of Ceremonies.
Wearing a flowing gold robe, Montano enters and sits at
center stage, next to the Choirmaster. The Master of Ceremonies explains
that we are venturing into the unknown space of death. We are invited
to move in and out of the theatre, as needed,
and to take advantage of the support system offered on stage. We can
talk to the Listeners, describe thoughts about death to the Secretary
who will record them on a scroll, dance with the Dancer, and engage with
the Water Healer.
Audience members cross the threshold from the dark space
to enter the stage illuminated with violet light. In addition to private
audiences with the cast, a live microphone beckons at the front of the
stage. Participants speak into the microphone,
vocally meditating on a personal experience with loss and grief. The
Angel with white gossamer wings comforts those who exhibit outward
stress. The darkness provides a safe space of great potential. When we
walk onstage into the mysterium, we journey into
a spiritual place.
Throughout the evening, a large screen at the back of the
stage plays a video depicting Montano’s father (before and after his
stroke), his caregivers, and his dying days. Montano describes the video
as “mourning art”. With the video, the cast
in their stations, and audience members moving in and out, there is a
lot going on. At unpredictable intervals, a dynamic focal point is
enacted at center stage. Montano delivers haunting renditions of lounge
set songs. Her voice is mournfully hypnotic, laced
with unexpected pathos and pacing.
Immediately following each lounge song -- and in contrast
to the solemn ceremonial atmosphere -- the Choirmaster playfully leads
the crowd in singing gratitude to seven glands: ovaries & testes,
pancreas, adrenals, thymus, thyroid, pituitary,
pineal. After two hours of this pattern of remembrance, deep
reflection, and gratitude, we sing the finale to the last gland, the
pineal.
We exit theatre space singing
I’ll Fly Away by Allison Krauss and enter real space -- the cool night and a welcoming campfire. The Secretary’s scroll is tossed on the fire, exploding into a glittering
fountain of sparks that ascends to the heavens. We break into applause.
Interactionarama is a complex,
generous, and profoundly touching happening. Montano has honed her
art/life message and intensified her performing presence to create an
important work of art. The title describes the level
of engagement without exposing the gift of supportive spiritual
opportunities this collective experience offers. Born of grief,
Montano’s masterpiece is brilliantly woven from unique personal stories,
sensuous singing, video biography, and cathartic insights.
Interactionarama invites us into the Heart of the Deep and pulses with
wise blood.
Honoria Starbuck, teaching artist, is a professor of drawing and design fundamentals at the Art Institute of Austin.
honoriastarbuck.com
|
honoriastarbuck.com
Graphite demonstration drawing of foreshortened wine bottle and side view in toned graphite. 2015
|
Luanne Stovall, lecturer at the University of Texas at
Austin and the Art Institute of Austin, is an artist specializing in
color with a passion for modernist design.
luannestovall.com
