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 that reimagined a 1936 theater piece that Bauhaus alum Xanti Schawinsky made at Black Mountain College. The historic performance, Spectodrama, included folded paper costumes, light projections, and live music. 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. Laura and I activated my objects and costumes, conjuring 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.
Photos by Michael Oppenheim and Ryan Collerd
Video by Michael Oppenheim