Tony Orrico, Penwald: 4: unison symmetry standing (Dance Theater Workshop, New York, NY) 2010 Photo: Michael Hart.
Art Stations Foundation by Grażyna Kolczyk in Poznań presents a three-day performance Penwald:4: Symmetry Standingto take place at the Old Brewery in Poznań (14-15 January, from 12 o’clock to 4 pm, and 16 January from 10 am to 2 pm), in which Tony Orrico will be drawing before the audience’s eyes. The performance, to be streamed live via Art Stations Foundation’s Facebook page, precedes the opening of the exhibition ForEach Gesture Another Character[Dla każdego gestu inny aktor].
Tony Orrico developed a physical symmetry practiceas point of entry into his creative work. In his termed state of readiness, he is interested in the application of a present body to a surface, object, or course. He is fascinated with how physical impulses manifest into visible forms. His work often displays infinities of reflective and rotational symmetry with attention to what is lost/gained through representations and how imagery in motion may replicate, mutate, or disintegrate. Centralizing on themes of cyclic motion and the generation and regeneration of material, the work draws on the tension between what is fleeting and what is captured.
Created with this method,Penwald Drawings– a series of bilateral drawings (made with both hands simultaneously) – explore the artist’s body as a tool of measurement and allow him to be inscribed in the sphere of geometry. Choreography of his gestures stays within the sphere of the outstretched arms of the artist who is immersed in the meditative, repetitive practice following the inner impulses which in this way manifest into a visible, physical form. Line density becomes a direct record of a physical and mental state of the artist engaged in an hours-long process of drawing.
Tony Orrico about his work:
I am exploring space that is absent of emotion, rational, memory, reaction, projection, judgment or inhibition. I am attempting to navigate through the body’s receptors and shift their relationship to the physical realm, especially gravity. Thisinterest derives from my reconciliations with the beauty and great tension I find coexisting within powers of creativity and temporality, transformation and the mundane.
Without the use of technology, I have been attempting interface with the invisible. Sight is one sense that we use to negotiate and communicate shared space, and it constantly reminds us of what materials are tangible or what constructs are in place. We interpret and represent visible structures through point, line, shape, fill, etc. We can create substance from substance by tapping from the same universal matter and reorganizing it to make concepts visible. I appreciate ways action turns solid and how the image or residue of something experiential may fail to translate. The exchange of images feels much more distant than we realize. It is less of a handshake and more of a note sent by carrier pigeon. The image received has the voyage of the transfer impressed upon it.
You may witness Orrico’s next performance,Penwald: 5: wrists on walk, at the Art Stations gallery on 25 January (5 pm). Before that, on Saturday, 18 January (5 pm) Tony Orrico will give a lecture on Physical symmetry practice at the Old Brewery.
Tony OrricoTony Orrico(b. 1979) grew up in Chicago, IL and studied painting as a child. He attended Illinois State University where he took his first dance class. He earned his MFA in choreography at University of Iowa in 2003 and moved to New York City to continue his pursuits.Orrico has been presented and exhibited in the US, France, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands and Spain. His visual work is in collection at The National Academy of Sciences (Washington DC) and Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) in Mexico City as well as prominent private collections. He has recently been presented at New Museum (NYC) and Poptech 2011: The World Rebalancing.As a former member of Trisha Brown Dance Company and Shen Wei Dance Arts, Orrico has graced such stages as the Sydney Opera House, Teatro La Fenice, New York State Theater, and Théâtre du Palais-Royal. He was also one of a select group of artists to re-perform the work of Marina Abramovic during her retrospective at MoMA.
