maria blaisse brings dancers' movements to life with bamboo structures

maria blaisse brings dancers’ movements to life with bamboo structures
all photos by katherine abbott

from now until january 4th, 2015, the noguchi museum in long island city, new york presents dutch designer maria blaisse‘s ‘arduino (breathing sphere)’, a computer-controlled, motorized sphere of woven bamboo. the installation creates a spatial dialogue both with the museum’s exhibitions and with two more of blaisse’s meshed material structures, which are presented by slowlab at the pratt manhattan gallery.

at the beginning of decemeber, four dancers — carrie ellmore-tallitsch, sara jimenez, kimberly mhoon and cynthia stanley — have put blaisse’s moving mesh works through their pace, manipulating both their bodies and the sculptural elements to creative a multifaceted and dynamic performance. an interplay between light and dark cast geometric patterns and shadows on the surrounding walls, mirroring the fluid movement of the dancers and their flow throughout the room.

blaisse’s latest body of work, exploring the structural potential of woven bamboo, is a prime example of her over-arching interaction with the natural world. at present, she is engaged in expanding upon the original creative intention of one of her bamboo structures to the large scale of architecture.

a butterfly effect is achieved through the use of bamboo

four dancers move around the room with the bamboo structures 

the performers interact with the interwoven shapes 

the various forms expand and contract around the dancer

the shadows on the wall mirror the movement of the dancers’ bodies 

the woven bamboo structures are used as a creative tool in the performance

a dancer wraps herself in the meshed material 

a large piece arcs around the dancer’s body

using the woven piece during the performance

a shadow multiplies the dancer’s frame on the wall behind her 

two performers interact within the bamboo mesh

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