Ephemeral Artifacts

Ephemeral Artifacts is a repertoire work of ĀNANDAṀ originally created in 2017. It exists in multiple variations with diverse casts of artists. It is composed with a consciously flexible structure, allowing the piece to continually adapt to spaces, participating artists and contexts of performance. At its heart, the work examines the dancing body as a container of embodied knowledge; a site of transmission over time. Confronting colloquial notions that dance is inherently ephemeral, this work examines the processes that give it tangibility; practice with rigor and attention, over time, by multiple artists to create the phenomena of “tradition” in a form. This 2017 premiere featured 6 artists, performing a 3 hour solo each day of the exhibition.

“...the exhibition importantly reified discourse about the marginalized “object” of dance-performance and the “othered” body as a critical site for the transmission of knowledge through form, movement, presence and gesture.”

-Coman Poon, C Magazine

Year: 2017

Venue: Justina M. Barnicke Gallery

Choreography: Brandy Leary

Sculpture: Brandy Leary

Composition: Nick Storring

Dance Artists: Brandy Leary, Supriya Nayak, Travis Knights, Coco Framboise, Mafa Makhubalo

Curator: Jenn Goodwin

Photos: Henry Chan, Omer Yukseker