Living Room 2011: Impossible Choreographies

Gregory Bennett and Michael Hodgson will use digital animation at an architectural scale to re-invent the Eastern façade of Queen Street’s iconic Smith & Caughey building, built in 1927 and designed by American architect Roy Lippincott. Situated in close proximity to the entertainment facilities of The Edge, this monolithic Metropolis-style tower provides an ideal canvas on which to project Bennett’s performing figures, which explore complex group dynamics, inspired in part by the Art Deco-era cinematic dance extravaganzas of Busby Berkeley.

Bennett’s most recent works situate figures in architectural tableau, with each group contributing a specific function to a mysterious, greater purpose – all cogs in a big city structure. Developed into a site-specific outdoor presentation with Michael Hodgson, a world-specialist in large-scale projection events and a renowned sound artist, together they explore the choreographic interplay between the moving figure and architecture, which structures the way we negotiate a city.

About Living Room 2011:
Living Room, Auckland Council’s annual 10-day public art event, kicks off again in April and will feature artists from all over the world, as well as some well known local faces branching out.

Living Room 2011: Metropolis Dreaming runs from 8-17 April in various public places in Auckland’s CBD. There will be a mix of installations, performances, sound art, video projections and a poster project. Acknowledging that the city is both a cultural and technological hub, the programme will include social projects that highlight the human dynamics of urban life.

This year’s theme, Metropolis Dreaming, encourages people to expand their reality through a celebration of post-industrial urban life. The Italian Futurist movement and their excitement about the clamour and bustle of the machine age inspired the theme chosen by guest curator Andrew Clifford. Metropolis Dreaming projects will spotlight the actual mechanics of the city’s systems, transforming its functional, everyday structures from a routine backdrop into imaginative possibilities.

Event listed by Rebecca Lawson

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