Thursday, July 11th, Rena Anakwe continues her 2019 residency with the premiere of Fast Forward to Silence, an immersive sound and body collage that honors the air around us. Focusing on shifting sequences that deviate between the minute and the rigorous, the piece explores the duality that air possesses, when in motion and in stillness, through a duet with collaborator Jonathan González (artist/performer) and lighting design by Kelley Shih.
Fast Forward to Silence is the second in a series of rituals that excavate connections between the five elements of nature in Anakwe’s development of a sensorial, diasporic healing practice. These rituals take into consideration a holistic approach to blending analog and digital creative technologies with spirituality.
Rena Anakwe is an interdisciplinary artist and performer working primarily with sound, visuals, and scent. Exploring intersections between traditional healing practices, spirituality and performance, she creates works focused on sensory-based, experiential interactions using creative technology. She is based in Brooklyn, New York by way of Nigeria and Canada. Rena is a graduate of: the Interactive Telecommunications Program (iTP) at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (MPS), The Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University (MFA) and New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business (BS.) She is a 2019 ISSUE Project Room Artist-in-Residence, a 2019 Abrons Arts Center (AAC) Sound Series commissioned artist, a 2018 Signal Culture Artist-in-Residence and has collaborated, produced and shown audio/visual/scent work at: ISSUE Project Room (NYC), NY Live Arts, Nublu 151 (NYC), Pioneer Works (NYC), Montez Press Radio @ Mathew Gallery (NYC), H0L0 (NYC), Mount Tremper Arts (NY), Green Space (NYC), Le Poisson Rouge (NYC), La MaMa E.T.C. (NYC), Danspace Project (NYC), MAD Museum of Arts and Design (NYC), TCC Chicago (CHI), MINKA [BAX/Submerge] (NYC), Knockdown Center (NYC), NY Art Book Fair, MoMA PS1(NYC), Les Nubians ‘Up Close & Personal’ Tour (VARIOUS), The Tank (NYC), CTM Festival (GER), the Museum of the Moving Image (NYC), Europe’s Capital of Culture in Turku (FI.) And was a guest curator for Knockdown Center’s ‘Sunday Service.’
Jonathan González is in the process of making performance and materials of different media for the purpose of performance. Their work, ZERO, based on the architecture and slave trafficking practices of the historic St. Mark's Church, was nominated for a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award for Outstanding Production in 2018. Recent works include: Lucifer Landing I & II (MoMA PS1 & Abrons Arts Center), black MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), Illusion Procedures #5: w/o Angie (Park Avenue Armory), and cancel (School for Contemporary Dance and Thought) adapted for 8mm film. González has been a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council - Workspace Resident, NARS Foundation International Artist, New Voice in Live Performance - Center for Performance Research, Aunts Camp Resident @ Mount Tremper, and Dancing While Black fellow. Recent writings include: Contact Quarterly in collaboration with Meredith Bove, Dancing While Black Journal - Black Bodies / White Boxes, and Movement Research Digital Journal - HAND WRITTEN NOTE(S). Curations include: Knockdown Center Sunday Service and Movement Research invisible material. González is an amateur farmer volunteering at locations in tri-state including: The Root (Albany), Queens County Farm and Morris Campus Farms (NYC), with a concentration in urban renewal strategies in design and agriculture. They are a faculty member with City University of New York – Queensborough Community College and Fordham University in Department's of Dance teaching courses in Performance Practice and Dance History. They have performed in the works of artists Philip Howe, Jomama Jones, Isabel Lewis, Patricia Hoffbauer, Ligia Lewis, Wu Tsang, Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, Alex Baczynski-Jenkins, Tania Brugera, Kelly Nipper, among others. They are based in their hometown of New York City.
Kelley Shih is a NYC based lighting designer for theatre, live events, music and fashion/retail. Music: The Internet (HiveMind Tour 2018, Laneway Tour 2018), KYLE at Madison Square Garden, Syd (Always Never Home Tour. Theatre: Biloxi Blues (Curtain Call Theater), Fit to Kill (Curtain Call Theater), Bullet Catchers (Clutch Productions and Josiah Grimm), The Blast (AmandaPlusJames), Capriccio (Apotheosis Opera), La Fancuilla del West (Apotheosis Opera). NYU Alum. kelleyshih.com
