Award-Winning International Visual and Performance Artist Wura-Natasha Ogunji Premieres 'Incidents at the 22 Hotel' on 8/13 & 14
'Incidents at the 22 Hotel' integrates the visual and performing arts to create a 'physical' fiction experience. 'Incidents' takes a post-apocalyptic landscape and imagines what it is to be part of that future. The work is at once performance art and science fiction. "It is my hope that the work engages the bodies of the audience, so that they can experience their own triumph over the supposed impossible." - Wura
Austin, TX, August 05, 2010 --(PR.com)-- Award-winning international artist Wura-Natasha Ogunji premieres 'Incidents at the 22 Hotel,' a multidisciplinary performance work that makes the impossible possible.
'Incidents at the 22 Hotel,' with performances at 8:00 pm on August 13 and 14 at The Off Center, located on 2211-A Hidalgo Street, integrates the visual and performing arts to create a 'physical' fiction experience - a future world where inhabitants live in a hotel consisting of two sky-high towers built on a plastic floating island made up of the detritus of centuries. Movement in this futuristic world requires great physical and emotional feats: humans fly and create themselves, runners run nonstop, a hotel porter carries two buildings on his shoulders…and that is just in the first act.
'Incidents' takes a post-apocalyptic landscape and imagines what it is to be part of that future. The main character, called ‘Unexplained Presence,’ struggles to imagine her own existence. During the performance, she lives two lives, one as an African artifact, full of ancient power, yet motionless. In the other, she must choose to be human and imagine herself into existence in the future. This highly symbolic and evocative piece incorporates Ogunji’s performance videos in which stop motion editing techniques allow characters to fly across the land and walk on water. The sound that emerges in these works is at once human and other worldly, similar to the landscape that Unexplained Presence must travel; strained breathing and truncated speech become the spoken language of the live performance.
The work is at once performance art and science fiction. "It’s my hope that the work engages the bodies of the audience members so that when they are watching the two runners, for example, these characters who literally run for the entire length of the play in an effort to pull time along—they feel that exhilaration and power in their own bodies as if they have been up on stage the entire time. And through that experience they are able to imagine their own futuristic world where they push through and imagine the beauty, and their own triumph over the impossible," states producer/performer Ogunji.
Performances are for two nights only, 8/13 & 8/14. Tickets are $15. To purchase tickets, and/or get more information about the show and the artist, please call 512-843-0112, or go to www.incidents22.wordpress.com.
Special Workshop Opportunity
On Saturday, August 7th, Ms. Ogunji will host a performance workshop from 10 am - noon, at the John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies, University of Texas, Austin.
This workshop offers the special opportunity to work with Ogunji in an exploration of the critical role of the body in creating new language and narratives. Previous experience with performance not required.
Cost: $20 (includes ticket to Incidents at the 22 Hotel August 13 or August 14, 2010).
To Register: info@wuraogunji.com (Space is limited.) or call 512-843-0112.
To learn more about the performance visit: www.incidents22.wordpress.com
To see Ogunji’s performance work: www.wuravideos.blogspot.com
'Incidents at the 22 Hotel' is supported by The City of Austin’s Cultural Arts Funding Programs.
About the Artist
Wura-Natasha Ogunji is a visual artist and performer. Her work investigates the connections between physical actions of the body, memory, history and power. Ogunji’s most recent public performance "one hundred black women, one hundred actions" premiered at Fusebox Festival and was nominated for the 2010 Austin Critics Table Award. Ogunji was awarded The Dallas Museum of Art’s 2010 Otis and Velma Davis Dozier Travel Grant and has received grants from the Idea Fund, The Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the City of Austin. Ogunji is a selected Artist in Residence as part of the National Performance Network’s Visual Artist Network and has participated in residencies at Can Serrat in Spain and Altos de Chavon in the Dominican Republic. Selected exhibitions include Négritude at Exit Art (NY), Screwed Anthologies at labotanica (Houston) and New American Talent: The 22nd Exhibition at Arthouse at the Jones Center (Austin, TX). She is the curator of 2412, a series of twenty-four hour long performances. Ogunji has a BA from Stanford University (Anthropology) and an MFA from San Jose State University (Photography). She lives in Austin, Texas. www.wuraogunji.com
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'Incidents at the 22 Hotel,' with performances at 8:00 pm on August 13 and 14 at The Off Center, located on 2211-A Hidalgo Street, integrates the visual and performing arts to create a 'physical' fiction experience - a future world where inhabitants live in a hotel consisting of two sky-high towers built on a plastic floating island made up of the detritus of centuries. Movement in this futuristic world requires great physical and emotional feats: humans fly and create themselves, runners run nonstop, a hotel porter carries two buildings on his shoulders…and that is just in the first act.
'Incidents' takes a post-apocalyptic landscape and imagines what it is to be part of that future. The main character, called ‘Unexplained Presence,’ struggles to imagine her own existence. During the performance, she lives two lives, one as an African artifact, full of ancient power, yet motionless. In the other, she must choose to be human and imagine herself into existence in the future. This highly symbolic and evocative piece incorporates Ogunji’s performance videos in which stop motion editing techniques allow characters to fly across the land and walk on water. The sound that emerges in these works is at once human and other worldly, similar to the landscape that Unexplained Presence must travel; strained breathing and truncated speech become the spoken language of the live performance.
The work is at once performance art and science fiction. "It’s my hope that the work engages the bodies of the audience members so that when they are watching the two runners, for example, these characters who literally run for the entire length of the play in an effort to pull time along—they feel that exhilaration and power in their own bodies as if they have been up on stage the entire time. And through that experience they are able to imagine their own futuristic world where they push through and imagine the beauty, and their own triumph over the impossible," states producer/performer Ogunji.
Performances are for two nights only, 8/13 & 8/14. Tickets are $15. To purchase tickets, and/or get more information about the show and the artist, please call 512-843-0112, or go to www.incidents22.wordpress.com.
Special Workshop Opportunity
On Saturday, August 7th, Ms. Ogunji will host a performance workshop from 10 am - noon, at the John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies, University of Texas, Austin.
This workshop offers the special opportunity to work with Ogunji in an exploration of the critical role of the body in creating new language and narratives. Previous experience with performance not required.
Cost: $20 (includes ticket to Incidents at the 22 Hotel August 13 or August 14, 2010).
To Register: info@wuraogunji.com (Space is limited.) or call 512-843-0112.
To learn more about the performance visit: www.incidents22.wordpress.com
To see Ogunji’s performance work: www.wuravideos.blogspot.com
'Incidents at the 22 Hotel' is supported by The City of Austin’s Cultural Arts Funding Programs.
About the Artist
Wura-Natasha Ogunji is a visual artist and performer. Her work investigates the connections between physical actions of the body, memory, history and power. Ogunji’s most recent public performance "one hundred black women, one hundred actions" premiered at Fusebox Festival and was nominated for the 2010 Austin Critics Table Award. Ogunji was awarded The Dallas Museum of Art’s 2010 Otis and Velma Davis Dozier Travel Grant and has received grants from the Idea Fund, The Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the City of Austin. Ogunji is a selected Artist in Residence as part of the National Performance Network’s Visual Artist Network and has participated in residencies at Can Serrat in Spain and Altos de Chavon in the Dominican Republic. Selected exhibitions include Négritude at Exit Art (NY), Screwed Anthologies at labotanica (Houston) and New American Talent: The 22nd Exhibition at Arthouse at the Jones Center (Austin, TX). She is the curator of 2412, a series of twenty-four hour long performances. Ogunji has a BA from Stanford University (Anthropology) and an MFA from San Jose State University (Photography). She lives in Austin, Texas. www.wuraogunji.com
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The Bridge Productions/CJlPR
Carla Jackson
512-709-8521
Carla Jackson
512-709-8521
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