(In Development)

In collaboration with Juliana Cerquiera Leite

Our Project Proposal:

Contraction is an immersive, cross-disciplinary project constituted by sculpture, live performance, generated through constructive dialogue between Smith and Cerqueira Leite.

Building upon the movement-based sculptural languages of their individual praxes and developed over three years of joint investigation conducted by the artists, this project explores the phenomenology and mechanics of the contracted position through three different temporal and conceptual contexts: Martha Graham’s modern dance choreography; NASA’s anthropometric studies examining the body’s “neutral pose” in zero gravity; and archaeological excavations in Pompeii revealing bodies posthumously contracted due to the intense heat of the volcanic eruption.

Standing 6-feet tall and 6-feet in diameter, the cone is the sculptural centerpiece of the show and the narrative protagonist in the story of Contraction. Composed by an interior steel skeleton covered in translucent white fabric, the sculpture is illuminated by an internal network of battery-powered LED lights. Merging dimensions of past and future, the cone is a space-time travel capsule that transitions into a volcano, activated by four dancers over the course of performances that are scheduled to take place at specific times during the exhibition.