Gerard & Kelly

UCLA Open Studios!

We presented an hour-long performance as part of the UCLA Department of Art Graduate Open Studios on December 4, 2010. Two performers “literalize” a 12-minute audio score, a denotation of the choreography of Tino Sehgal’s Kiss. The  score describes a man and woman slowly moving through the mechanics of a continuous embrace. Our re-performance translated this “kiss” into a set of choreographic directives, enacted as literally as possible. Performed five consecutive times in blindfolds, the two performers made the description of an erotic encounter between a man and woman an exercise in automation and autoerotics, avoiding any physical contact between them save the occasional, unavoidable bumping into.

Performed by Brennan Gerard and Ryan Kelly. Photos: Kelly Kleinschrodt.

Shame on National Portrait Gallery

Still from David Wojanoricz, A Fire in My Belly (1987).

I was driving in my car today, just after sunset on the West Coast. Rushing from Home Depot back to the studio as Brennan and I are putting the final touches on our work in preparation for grad review and open studios this weekend. I was struck with deep sadness and anger when NPR reported that the work A Fire in My Belly, a 1987 video by the late artist David Wojnarowicz, had been removed from the current exhibition "Hide/Seek" after House Republicans derided the work as "anti-Christian" in response to an 11-second image the artist includes in the video of a crucifix covered in ants.  Still processing a response. A response is mandated.

Installation including David Wojnarowicz's A Fire in My Belly, UCLA Graduate Open Studios, 2010.

Upate: In response to the National Portrait Gallery incident, Brennan and I screened David Wojnarowicz's A Fire in My Belly (1987) as part of our contribution to the UCLA Graudate Open Studios on December 4, 2011...within four days of the censorship. Special thanks to the Fales Library and Special Collections at New York University for making this screening possible.

    -R.K.

NY Times    Washington Post

Exhibition at UC Irvine

Maya Lin's Ampitheatre at UC Irvine. Photo: Gerard and Kelly.

We are pleased to announce that we will participate in a group show curated by a number of the MFA candidates at UC Irvine School of Art in consultation with faculty advisor Juli Carson. The show will open on Thursday, January 6, 2011 and run through February 5.  For more information please visit the UAG Gallery here.

Opening: Thursday, January 6, 2011,  6-8 PM
Univeristy Art Gallery, University of California Irvine
712 Arts Plaza, Irvine, CA 92697

Boxes (2010)

Gerard and Kelly in collaboration with Chelsea Knight, Boxes (2010)
Single-channel video, 6 minutes
Production still 
 

 
Production Credits: 
Featuring Benjamin Asriel, Ryan Kelly and Jose Tena
Camera work and Editing by Chelsea Knight

Park Avenue...Shit... (2010)

Gerard and Kelly, Park Avenue...Shit; I'm Still Only in Park Avenue...Every Time I think I'm Gonna Wake Up Back in the Jungle (2010), video still
Single-channel video, 9 minutes
 

 
Production Credits:

Produced by Moving Theater
Edited by Gerard and Kelly with Javier Bosques
Original sound score created by Gerard and Kelly from music composed by Du Yun and Mario Diaz de León
Camera operators Javier Bosques, Devan Mulvaney, and Yaniv Schulman
Featuring Jonathan Drillet, Ryan Kelly, Davon Rainey, Marlène Saldana, Debra Ann Servider, Jose Tena, Anthony Whitehurst, and ICE | International Contemporary Ensemble
Lighting design by Marcus Doshi
Costume design by Camille Assaf-Doshi

The artists gratefully acknowledge Park Avenue Armory (New York, NY) for residency in association with the development of this work. 

Ideological Formation (2010)

 Gerard and Kelly, Ideological Formation (2010) Performance, 20 minutes
Performance still, The Kitchen, New York, June 2010
Pictured: Jose Tena and Ryan Kelly

 

Ideological Formation focuses on the male body as a site of militarization. A surreptitiously recorded audio score notating the movements of a man and a woman kissing accompanies the choreography of three cardboard boxes: dancers reduced to mechanisms? A way to sidestep identity politics? A return of minimalism? Gerard and Kelly explore choreography as a resistance to the regimented demands of masculinity.

    

 

Production Credits:

The Kitchen, New York City (June 2010) and Carpe Diem Arte e Pesquisa, Lisbon (July 2010):  Performed by Ryan Kelly and Jose Tena

Mount Tremper Arts Festival, New York (August 2010): Performed by Ben Asriel, Ryan Kelly, and Jose Tena

Armory Show (2010)

Gerard and Kelly, Armory Show (2010)
Performance, 75'
Performance still, Park Avenue Armory, New York, February 2010

 

A performance designed for Park Avenue Armory’s landmark rooms, Armory Show is a reflection on questions of history, memory, the epic, and the ephemeral. Combining dance, text, and three musical scores commissioned by Moving Theater, Armory Show is a reverie and revision at the intersection of public and military space.

 

 

Production credits:

Produced by Moving Theater in association with Park Avenue Armory

Performers: Jonathan Drillet, Ryan Kelly, Davon Rainey, Marlène Saldana, Debra Servider, Jose Tena, Anthony Whitehurst
Original music by Nathan Davis, Mario Diaz de León and Du Yun
Performed live by ICE | International Contemporary Ensemble
Producer: Allison Lyman
Production Manager: John Martinez

Production Assistant: Michael Hart
Videographer: Yaniv Schulman
Sound designer: Levy Lorenzo
Lighting designer: Marcus Doshi
Costume designer: Camille Assaf
Assistant Costume designer: Ashley Gardner

Armory Show is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Additional support provided by American Music Center Live Music for Dance Program, Cultural Services of the French Embassy, and Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Moving Theater gratefully acknowledges Park Avenue Armory for residency in association with the development of this work.

 

Last Dance (2009)

Gerard and Kelly, Last Dance (2009)
Performance, 70 minutes
Performance still, Park Avenue Armory, January 2009
Pictured: Anthony Whitehurst

 

Production Credits:

Produced by Moving Theater in association with Park Avenue Armory

Performed by Emilio Martinez Lopez, Marion Ramirez, Anthony Whitehurst, Jason Abrams, and Rupert Boyd

Music composed by Claudio Monteverdi, Si dolce é tormento (1624), Paul Jabara, Last Dance, performed by Donna Summer (1978), and Mario Diaz de Leon, Telepathic Coma and Drops of Rain (2008)

Costume design by Camille Assaf

Lighting design by Marcus Doshi

Prop design by Hadley Nunes

Production manager John Martinez

Impermanent Collection (2007)

Gerard and Kelly, Impermanent Collection (2007)
Performance, 60'
Performance still, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, December 2007.
Pictured: Charly Totterwitz
 

Impermanent Collection is a personal and subjective response to the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Created as a performance and video installation for the museum’s Lower Gallery, the project attempts to bring attention to the diverse affective relations individuals experience when looking attentively at works of art. Gerard and Kelly collaborated with Brock Labrenz to develop a series of films, each capturing a single performer alone in the museum’s gallery performing near a chosen work from the permanent collection. These films were animated in two live events that included a musical performance by ICE | International Contemporary Ensemble.

 

Gerard and Kelly in collaboration with Brock Labrenz, Impermanent Collection: Emilio (2007)

Single-channel video, 7 minutes

Production Credits:

Whitney Live at the Whitney Museum of American Art. New York (

December, 2007)

Produced by Moving Theater and An Films in collaboration with ICE | International Contemporary Ensemble

Performed by Emilio Martinez Lopez, Thea Little, Marion Ramirez, Natalie Thomas, and Charly Totterwitz

Music by Steve Reich, Kaija Saariaho, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Iannis Xenakis, performed live by ICE | International Contemporary Ensemble

Stage design by Josef Asteinza

Production Manager: John Martinez