Ann Carlson: Symphonic Body / Water Work
Mountain Time Arts, Bozeman, MT
July 2018
Production | Exhibition Grant
Symphonic Body is a recurring work for renowned performing artist and choreographer Ann Carlson, in which she studies the bodies of people at work in particular environments throughout full work days, and choreographs their movements into an orchestral performance piece, performed by the workers themselves and conducted by Carlson. Produced by Mountain Time Arts, along with its parent organization NGO Future West, Symphonic Body / Water Work enlisted sixty residents from the Gallatin Valley communities who work with water, including agricultural, civic and scientific community members, to participate in Carlson’s work. In continuation with her practice, Carlson studied the participant’s movements at their places of work over four-month long residencies, weaving their individual motions into choreography.
Established in 2014, Mountain Time Arts is a non-profit organization with the mission of simultaneously enlivening a discourse about climate change and stimulating the production of contemporary art in the Rocky Mountain West through public art initiatives. With local partners and advisors that include conservationists, scientists, ranchers, historians, artists, and municipal officials, Mountain Time Arts produces temporary art installations and public programming in an area to which large-scale public art is still relatively new.
For more information visit Mountain Time Arts.
Images (2015 iteration of Symphonic Body): Ann Carlson, Symphonic Body, UCLA, 2015. Photos by Calista Lyon, courtesy of Mountain Time Arts.
