Buena Vista is a live video-puppetry performance of backgrounds and landscapes, with the effect being that of watching a film and the creation of the images simultaneously. The narrative of this experimental performance is a journey through time and space, zooming into wall vents to discover solar systems, see the cosmos forming, and the creation of civilization. With no discernable figures, the performance is instead occupied with the landscape and planetary creation as the focus of the show, with action happening over geologic time. Onstage these vistas are created with incredibly mundane materials: decaying mountain ranges of ceramic clay, orbiting planets of rubber balls, clouds of wood glue, and pepto-bismol volcanoes. The piece was initially created in a workshop at the St. Ann’s Warehouse, further realized in a work-in-progress showing at Dixon Place, and finally presented in full at the Folly Tree Arboretum and in a self-produced manner in a storefront in the NYC subway system.
The music is composed and performed by Sean Petell. More of his work is here.
A short article about the performance in the East Hampton Star:
www.easthamptonstar.com/arts/202192/miniature-writ-large-buena-vista
This project is made possible, in part, with funds from the Media Arts Assistance Fund, a regrant partnership of the New York State Council on the Arts Electronic Media and Film Program and Wave Farm, with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, the St. Ann’s Warehouse, the Henson Foundation, and a City Arts Corps Grant.
