THOSE DANCING FEET

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1pBEiWBNql7I5ht2UgvHSyZtNjSJq99_I&usp=sharing

Ava Brown

April 2018

Personal Statement of the Artist

This a series of photographs about dancers (and related professionals) who lived in New York City.  This is an historic research project.  I am interested in these photos as historical representation of successful dancer’s lives, and because they are a topos (common place, argument).  They show an aspect which is not usually explicated; where someone lives says something about them.  By looking at these pictures in groups and through architectural history, they bring up other considerations: time, periods of art or history, neighbors, and other related professionals who also lived nearby, or moved to the same areas, even themes for work might be a factor, such as West Side Story.  Where artists live things happen.  Patterns begin to emerge.  What bearing does where someone live have on the artistic process? Is it relevant that many of these artists lived here a long time ago? Was affordability a factor?  Is this synkrisis coincidental with more innovative periods for dance in New York?

The photos are taken on a digital camera with no effects.  Serially, they depict a progression:

• Approach to the residence;
• Historical markers if they exist;
• Points of interest, touchstone, or a motif;
• Signs of use by wear, building peculiarities, item of interest (something which might have drawn them to the property initially);
• Interior of the building where possible (temporal or psychological aspect of the artist inside).

The photos are in color to bring history to ‘life.’  These buildings are an aspect of the cultural tapestry of New York City.  Frequently no markers exist at all.  This is a personal and subject-based treasure hunt to document lives of the artists and should serve as a reminder of our varied history, immigrant/migrant status as New Yorkers, and perspectives in housing to which we, as artists and people, can contribute.

In coming to New York, or choosing to live here, however briefly, an artist makes a mark, too, by being a resident of New York City. Artists make up ‘the market’ and contribute in many ways to art itself which ‘decides’ that New York is necessary to it.  Artists are a vibrant community.  The architecture does not change as much as the people who inhabit it.  Consider the trends around them now.  I consider one use of the building as subject for the photographs, and one other use it served to house artists.

There will be a map with icons/walking tour, which will grow also, have more layers, and to track movements.  It is about artists in non-generative, re-generative, and fully creative periods in dance, and what it can say about all arts in NYC.  It will show how and where they lived in those various times, how this has changed, and whether this aspect impedes the artist, or creative person at all.  Is where one can live, while making art as a full-time occupation, a necessary consideration for that dynamic to occur?

impedes the artist, or creative person at all.  Is where one can live, while making art as a full-time occupation, a necessary consideration for that dynamic to occur?