Aaron Henderson - Video, Installation and Performance » new york

Michael Remembered…

admin — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:34:50 +0000

I’ve got really complicated feelings about Michael Jackson. Last year, I spent a full day in front of his wax figure at Madame Tussaud’s in New York which resulted in Metamorphoses (Michael). Watching people act out their fantasies and fears with him was a cathartic experience for me. Although I like showing him with Britney, George W, Biggie and Oprah, I just finished a 3-up version that compresses many of the interactions into a 3 1/2 minute chunk, which I hope is a fitting tribute.

Music: Michael Jackson – Pretty Young Thing (U-Tern edit)

Catapult Review – Village Voice

admin — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:34:20 +0000

Village Voice Review of Catapult
Elizabeth Streb Spins Her ‘Whizzing Gizmo’
by Deborah Jowitt

“…Aaron Henderson’s vivid projection design shows us some numbers from overhead, occasionally multiplying images into kaleidoscopic patterns. Shapes swim in and out of focus. The short sentences in Laura Flanders’s libretto are projected kookily in addition to being heard on tape. You might want to memorize them for your next science test, as well as for a clue to the impending action (sample: “There is no stasis, only a sequence of situations”)…”

Photograph by Tom Caravaglia

Read full review

The Metamorphoses Series

admin — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:00:11 +0000

High-definition video series (2008)

The Metamorphoses series (Biggie, Britney, George, Oprah and Michael) was shot at Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum earlier this year. It documents transgressive and playful interactions that occur as people stage encounters with wax celebrities. The stillness of the wax museum entices people to perform. These actions are most often frozen again by digital and disposable cameras, and the memories are clearly preserved. The actual performances are much more complicated, as the time leading up to and after the ‘decisive moment’ provide enigmatic and conflicting portraits of representation, culture and power.

46″ LCD panels with embedded Blu-ray players mounted inside custom frames.

Installation view, Gallery 2, Chicago, IL. Metamorphoses (Biggie) & Metamorphoses (Michael) in foreground, paintings by Amanda Calobrisi and Metamorphoses (George) in background.

The following are video stills:

Metamorphoses (Oprah), 2008

Metamorphoses (Britney), 2008

Metamorphoses (Biggie), 2008

Metamorphoses (George), 2008

Metamorphoses (Michael), 2008

Exhibition History
Solo Exhibition: Metamorphoses
August 28th-September 25, 2009
Opening reception August 28th, 2009
The Niche in the Fine Arts Library at the University of Virginia

Two Person Exhibition: Pepe Mar and Aaron Henderson
September 20th – October 26th, 2008
Opening reception from 7-10pm on September 20th
White Flag Projects
St. Louis, MO

Group Exhibition: Cover Blown (Graduate Exhibition)
April 25 – May 16th, 2008
Opening Reception: April 25th from 9-11pm
Gallery 2
Chicago, IL

STREB VS GRAVITY

aaronhenderson — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 16:00:02 +0000

Projection Design for Touring Performance (2006-2008!)

Real-time, algorithmic and pre-recorded video unite with Elizabeth Streb’s aesthetic of grace and danger. The screen provides alternate viewpoints, both micro and macro, for the action at hand. Archival footage and reactive software fill the 20′ x 20′ screen

About the show:

“By exploring the frontiers of performance space, and creating works that reflect the spirit of our technological age, Ms. Streb is carrying dance into a new dimension.”
- The New York Times

Elizabeth Streb’s trademark risky choreography combines the visceral impact of extreme sports with the poetry and split-second timing of dance. Exploding with the suspense and energy of near-misses and imminent crashes, STREB Extreme Action’s daring performers explore the boundaries of force, gravity, action and reaction. Whether flying, falling, or seemingly suspended in mid-air, STREB fearlessly challenges nature, creating a new aesthetic of grace and danger. In this gripping new show, action-architect Elizabeth Streb takes her audience ringside for a match-up of human pitted against the phenomenal forces of everyday physical action. STREB materializes the unseen, ever-present, air-traffic controllers of our universe and puts those invisible action partners center stage.

Collaborators:
Elizabeth Streb: Action Architect/Choreographer
Michael Casseli: Set Design
Laura Flanders: Librettist
Aaron Henderson: Projection Design
Shelly Sabel: Lighting Designer
Maxim Safioulline: Sound Designer
Justin D’Apolito: Technical Director

Tour History:
World Premier:
July 12-15, 2006. La Guardia Drama Theater, Lincoln Center Festival, New York, NY

The Eccles Center for the Performing Arts (Park City, UT), Walton Art Center (Fayetteville, AR), The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center (Great Barrington, MA), Flynn Center for the Performing Arts (Burlington, VT), FirstWorks Providence (Providence, RI), Williams Center for the Arts (Lafayette College), International Festival of Art & Ideas (New Haven, CT), Jackie Gleason Theater (Miami Beach, FL), Kravis Center (West Palm Beach, FL), Proctors Theatre (Schenectady, NY), Napa Opera House (Napa, CA), Portland Institute of Contemporary Art (Portland, OR), Bumbershoot (Seattle, WA), Britt Festival (Jacksonville, OR)

STREB – Wild Blue Yonder

aaronhenderson — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 16:00:02 +0000

Projection Design for Touring Performance (2004-2005)

Blue Land Media and I worked on the video for Elizabeth Streb’s homage to the magic and mayhem of early flight.

About the show:
It is an age-old human dream to stretch the body into space and to venture into unknown territory where gravity just might lapse. Wild Blue Yonder is an action event for the rough of heart and deep of longing – people of all ages who are curious about escaping earth. STREB is inspired by Wilbur and Orville Wright, who a century ago made the first powered flight; by Amelia Earhart, who spanned the Atlantic Ocean; by Chuck Yaeger, who broke the sound barrier; by the Chinese MiG pilots who shrank the turning radiuses of their dog-fighting planes to create a physically impossible G-force; by any astronaut who’s ever braved the vomit comet; and every kid, regardless of age, who is willing to go where humans haven’t…To all these, STREB pays homage.

Wild Blue Yonder is the story of the actions people do, and the places people go when they dream. It is a story that requires the impossible, so with action contraptions we expand the body’s reactions, and we duet with nature’s forces of movement. Action, movement, courage, invention, and machines, these are what have made flying dreams real. The horse, the rider, the wheel, the motor, the car, the plane, the jet, the computer, all in their time were the next utterly impossible future dream, always defying the wisdom of the age.

Wild Blue Yonder requires the audience to have the experiences they have when they dream. In these dreams the impossible and absurd is real. Humans do fly. With the machines we build, the airplanes we fly, the unprotected ledges we jump from, our bodies take on that adventure dream. The Action show demonstrates how the extreme idea happens. STREB will take the audience into the wild blue yonder merely by witnessing what we do. Fast, Hard. And Out of Control. Radical Actions.
Elizabeth Streb

Collaborators:
Elizabeth Streb: Chreography
Michael Casseli: Set Design
Aaron Henderson and Blue Land Media: Projection Design
Laura Flanders: Librettist
Noe and Ivan Espana: Action Collaborators

Tour History
Wolf Trap (Vienna, VA), Napa Opera House (Napa, CA), Portland Institute of Contemporary Art (Portland, OR), Bumbershoot (Seattle, WA), Britt Festival (Jacksonville, OR), Jazz at Lincoln Center (New York, NY), City Center (New York, NY), The Oriente Occidente Festival (Verona & Trento, Italy), University of Wyoming (Laramie, WY), (Boulder, CO), Wausau Area Performing Arts Foundation (Wausau, Wisconsin)

After the Fall

aaronhenderson — Sun, 15 Feb 2004 16:00:04 +0000

Multimedia Opera (2003)

I co-created (with Jamie Jewett) this evening-length performance that blended dance, an original score, and projections. The narrative is a contemporary re-imagining of the inventor Daedalus, finding him some years after Icarus’ death.

Animation from After the Fall (8 minute excerpt from the middle of the performance)

About the show:
After the Fall reimagines Daedelus, the grandfather of technology, as the forlorn protagonist in a landscape of projected images. A sculptural series of projection screens (lit by Juliet Chia) and an original score by Timothy Quigley (songs by Jeff Wallman) provide the environment in which Daedalus (Matt Schicker), Ariadne (Mira Kim) and an everyday Icarus (Ian Van Voorst) discover just how the real-time and video imaged world is only a symptom of the past’s impotence in healing the present.

Credits:
Jamie Jewett and Aaron Henderson: Concept and Video
Jamie Jewett: Choreography
Aaron Henderson: Animation
Thalia Field: Dramaturgy
Juliet Chia: Lighting
Timothy Quigley: Music
Jeff Wallman: Songs

Performance History:
2004 Green Street Studios, Boston, MA
2003 St. Mark’s in-the-Bowery, New York,