SiteTime is an ongoing site-specific series that will evolve over a two year long residency at the Vermont Arts Council. Created in collaboration with Michael Zebrowski and Nancy Winship Milliken, the work will be exhibited at VAC’s outdoor sculpture garden. At the core of the installation is a stack of cordwood sourced from Hardwick, Vermont representative of what a family might burn throughout a single winter for warmth. The cordwood will remain at the site throughout consecutive showings of eight scenes that will include performances, sculpture, multimedia, and other yet to be announced activations. The stack, which will shift and evolve over time due to human and environmental forces, aims to draw connections to the working landscape of Vermont and the interplay between natural growth and utility.
Scene one: Tree Time
Miller and the Movement Lab lay on their backs on gravel. The performers held tree branches in their hands, focusing on cycles of small hyper-controlled movements inspired by Japanese butoh theater. A few feet away, Milliken and her husband divided the attention of the audience and generated a rhythm to the piece by restacking the cordwood pile. The connection between the quiescent wood and the slight movements of the performers connected the entirety of the work through a conflictingly rousing minimalism—a call to the torpid yet steady communication that occurs between trees.
Scene two: Falling
Coming February 2018
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October 6, 2017
Montpelier, Vermont
Site Vermont Arts Council
Duration 1.5 hours
Made in collaboration with Nancy Winship Milliken and Michael Zebrowski
Dancers Holly Chagnon, Mireya Guerra, Sage Horsey, Mia Pinheiro, Lydia Kern, Navah Stein
Photographer Renee Greenlee