The Artist's Body: Kyra Peterson

Conaway Center

Glass Curtain Gallery

1104 S Wabash Ave, November 28

In conjunction with Over & Over, currently on view at the Glass Curtain Gallery, Kyra Peterson presents The Artist’s Body an exploration of repetitive forms that interrogate the relationship between post-modern dance movement and performance art- where these forms intersect and where there is room for the boundaries of these forms to mesh. This exhibition presents two works which extract nuanced movements of an average person, illuminating their relationship to the formal elements of visual art. “6HRS,” features six concrete slabs all approximately two feet by three feet and three inches deep created by sitting and repositioning the body on top of cement as it hardens over the course of an hour. Looking into the subtely of every-day body movements and the act of repositioning the body, each one of these concrete slabs is a document of this movement, hosting the relief of impulsive weight shifts. “to shrug like silk” a solo work choreographed and performed by Peterson is projected onto three screens. This work was constructed through improvisational techniques investigating the same formal elements of visual art (form, line, shape, space, texture, tone, and color) within the body. These two pieces showcase the culmination of three years of research in correspondence with the completion of a Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Arts and were created during a semester long independent study as a part of her thesis for Columbia College Chicago’s Dance Department.

Photography by Maxwell Johnson