"Shadows Unveiled" by Julie Becton Gillum in Support of BeLoved Asheville
An added bonus to this week's post - Shadows Unveiled by Julie Becton Gillum.
Watching the artist perform this piece was the undeniable highlight of my experience at ReHappening 12. Over the course of 7 hours this mysterious (and at times frightening) figure stalked Black Mountain College's historical campus - seemingly connected to some energy source/ plane of existence invisible to the rest of us. From the Artist:
Shadows Unveiled, a Butoh dance performance, aims to explore the essence of transformation and darkness that engulfs our existence. This nomadic dance journey will take the audience on a captivating exploration of emotions, symbolism, and movement, reflecting the various shades of a darkening world.
My original read on the piece was the ghost of New York Correspondence School Founder/ Fluxus outsider Ray Johnson was haunting his old stomping grounds of BMC.
Ray Johnson - Avant Garde Everything
I later found out Gillum's shaved head, ghostly makeup, and coveralls come out of the Butoh tradition- a revolutionary dance form that originated in post WWII Japan. Given the dance form and Johnson's work both combine seemingly contradictory themes of grotesque absurdity with humor and playfulness - My original read wasn't quite wrong, it just hadn't dug deep enough yet. Good, good, stuff.
BeLoved Asheville is a trusted, grassroots, and equity-focused organization. With over fifteen years of experience in movement building and advocacy for human rights, the organization’s success is credited to the ability to build relationships, create visible change, and generate community-led momentum for collective action.
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