Category Archives: Performance

Ordinary Windows

 

Ordinary Windows was a collaboration between Ordinary Spaces and Jump-Start Performance Co. The free event happened on Friday, December 7, 2012, with two performances at 8 p.m., and 8:30 p.m. This unique site-specific work was a fashioned by performance artists Andrew Coronado, Sandra Dunn, Dino Foxx and Fabiola Torralba. My video is a little promotional teaser I shot during the Thursday night rehearsal. It gives something of a sense of what the piece was like. I particularly like how the camera takes on such a voyeuristic aspect. And though I have gotten soooo lax about using music I don’t have the rights to for these little ephemeral offerings, I just love how this odd track from Trans Am melds so well a sense of agitation with resigned languor.

The Man You’ve Become

 

This is another video I provided for Aaron Richmond-Havel’s peripatetic performance art birthday event at Hampshire College back in 2012. He asked if I could get our friend Pamela Dean-Kenny to lip-sync this somewhat saccharine song as though Pam was a drunken mother at her son’s wedding. Here is a lengthy (and partial) video documentation of Aaron’s  grand event, “Penny’s Big 21: Rites of Passage and Pleasure.”

Penny’s Big 21

 

This cries out for some context, doesn’t it? A friend of mine, Aaron Richmond-Havel, was heading back to college after a summer break at home in San Antonio. He wanted to make a film with me to commemorate his upcoming 21st birthday. But he also wanted this short film to be used in a multi-venue evening-long performance art collaboration planned for his return to his Hampshire College campus. He wanted something in drag, along the San Antonio River Walk, and all very messy with cake and poorly-applied makeup. I decided to shoot both slow motion and regular speed. I like how this turned out. I did go a bit heavy-handed on the Magic Bullet color and vignette effects, but really, who’s looking at the post-production work? (For more Aaron, here’s a YouTube link to his commencement at Hampshire 2013 doing a dance number at the podium–I do hope that the wonderful Amy Goodman, who was the Keynote Speaker, was not only still in attendance, but seated on stage.)

Save the Hays Street Bridge

 

I forgot how I was pulled into the project. I think it was through my friend Amanda Silva. She knew of my interest in the Hays Street Bridge. She had been doing some volunteer work with the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center in issues of the gentrification of the downtown neighborhoods, and inquired if I might want to help out for this cause. I decided to make a short film. I should point out that this was a personal project, and other than receiving some documents from the Esperanza as well as the Hays Street Bridge Restoration Group, this was a film produced independently of any organization. I thought it best to create and eventually present this film as the work of a concerned citizen. I was lucky to have many friends help me on this. Most obviously (because they were on camera) Amanda Silva, and Marisela Barrera. The best thing about this little project was that I got to screen it to the San Antonio City Council in the City Council Chambers during a citizens-to-be-heard portion of their monthly meeting. Who knew they let people show videos? Well, now you do. I can add it to my slowly growing list of local venues in which my work has been presented.