Shoot
Collectively titled SHOOT, this series of works - comprised of live performances, photographs and videos - trades on the histories of both photojournalism and performance documentation. Observing Godard’s dictum “all you need for a movie is a girl and a gun”, a group of actors perform a series of scenes, which expose the interdependence and absurdity between all acts of shooting. Here the act is performed as a species of tableaux vivant or real-time still, that re-stages a range of photographic sources. The presence and absence of guns and cameras foregrounds the shifting relations between performer and audience, protagonist and adversary, through a mimetic reflection on the transpositions between documentation and live performance.
Rehearsal Stills
SHOOT: Moving Paper Fantasy was a one-hour performance at Esopus Space on November 2, 2010. A small audience was invited to bring their electronic devices fully charged to shoot during the performance, informed that I’d be using their photos towards a project for Esopus Magazine #16 (Spring 2011). The performance moved around the space along with the task-based audience, against a backdrop of prints of the same actions being performed by the same actors. Many audience photos have been uploaded to a dedicated Flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pearlsteinshoot
Performance Stills, Esopus Space
SHOOT in 12 Shots Shots was a12-minute performance for ICI’s 35th Anniversary Benefit Party at The Park Avenue Armory on December 9, 2010. The performance moved throughout the North Hall taking advantage of odd architectural features, while accompanied by classic rock songs, and a slideshow of rehearsal stills on a flat-screen. Two men carried mobile lights, which generated a force field of glaring light around the space of the performance.
Performance Stills, Park Avenue Armory
Shoot exposes the shift between preparation and act, by foregrounding the moments before and after action and cut. Filmed in conjunction with a rehearsal, the camera zooms in and out, framing and re-framing to refine a shooting strategy, while another group of actors can be heard rehearsing their lines from an adjacent studio.
Actors: Christen Clifford, David Mazzeo, Steven Rattazzi, Sonja Rzepski
Camera: Jay Christopher King
Additional Camera: Sarah Lasley, Birgit Rathsmann, Frank Zadlo
Color Correct / Conform: Anita Chao
Still Photography (ICI): David B. Smith; Guns: Bill Adams
Production Assistants: Ashley Soliman, Yonatan Ullman, Frank Zadlo
SHOOT. Single-Channel. HD. 10:00. B/W. Sound. 2011.