Music for Modernist Shapes: Reimagining Spectodrama
Music for Modernist Shapes: Reimagining Spectodrama
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center—Asheville, North Carolina
November 18, 2017
Marginal Utility—Philadelphia, PA
January 12, 2019
with original score by Laura Baird
Music for Modernist Shapes was an installation and performance in which I reimagined a 1936 visual theater piece that Bauhaus alum Xanti Schawinsky made with students at Black Mountain College. The historic performance, Spectodrama: Play, Life, Illusion, brought the Bauhaus teachings on color and form to life through light projections, live music, and paper costumes. I learned the paper folding techniques Josef Albers taught at the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College to develop sculptures and costumes I activated in performance.
Composer/multi-instrumentalist Laura Baird wrote an original score drawing on archival scores from Schawinsky’s performance collaborations with Black Mountain College music teacher John Evarts, 1930s avant-garde music, and Appalachian folk songs from the Black Mountain region. The project sought to conjure the memory of this little-known piece from the experimental college’s rich performance history.
The project was commissioned by Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center as part of ACTIVE ARCHIVE: Martha McDonald, an exhibition I curated from the museum's permanent collection with an installation and performance made in response to the collection.
View full 37-minute performance
Photos by Michael Oppenheim and Ryan Collerd
Video by Michael Oppenheim