Miwa Matreyek What Is a Window on the Work — and Why Have One? Well, Like Windows in General, It Provides a Look in (Or Out!) at Something
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McCallum Theatre Institute’s Aesthetic Education Program Myth and 2016 | 2017 Infrastructure & This World Made Itself Performed by Miwa Matreyek What is a Window on the Work — and why have one? Well, like windows in general, it provides a look in (or out!) at something. That something, in this case, is a work of art. The work of art in question will be studied in the classroom and then viewed — live. Classroom teachers, students, and teaching artists will be engaged, together, in determining what that study will ultimately look like. A document like the Window on the Work you hold in your hand at this moment will help you play your part in that process. It gives you not just one view but many views into the work of art. It supplies you with answers to the questions you raise. It inspires new questions, suggests new avenues of inquiry. It rounds out the picture. It sparks new ideas. See if the ideas below make sense to you. In the planning phase, Windows on the Work can help establish the most effective line of inquiry and richest unit of study - answer questions about the work of art as they come up - help you approach the work of art from various vantage points W - spark curricular connections During the unit of study, Windows on the Work can - help you expand the study in particular contextual areas O - become a reference for student use After the unit of study, Windows on the Work can - help keep the work of art alive in the classroom - suggest pathways for further study W - help tie together strands of learning later in the year Myth and Infrastructure TEXTS BY & This World MARK ALMY, EXCEPT WHERE Made Itself OTHERWISE CREDITED Performed by Miwa Matreyek Table of Contents The Works - Myth and Infrastructure - This World Made Itself - The music The Artist - Miwa Matreyek - An interview with Miwa Matreyek Craft - Collage - Silhouette - Animation Roots - Performance art Responses - What teachers are saying Sample Lessons - Companion projects for the classroom Resources - Read it here! - Hear it too! - On the Web Glossary - Useful terms in studying this work of art 2 The Works Myth and Infrastructure Miwa Matreyek describes the creation of Myth and Infrastructure: I asked my friends Anna Oxygen and Caroline Lufkin to make original music for the piece. I wanted the songs to be songs that feel complete on their own, rather than sound-design or sound-effects kind of tracks. The process started with me describing the feeling of the scene and music and sending clips of what I was making to help inspire the music...so it was a very back and forth process until everything fit and felt complete. The song during the island scene is a song by my friend Mirah off of her album (a)spera on K records. In terms of music in general that I listen to while I work, I guess it’s often music that makes me feel energized to work, or music that feels complimentary to the scene I’m working on. I am listening to a lot of iamamiwhoami, Joanna Newsom, Janelle Monae, Yeasayer and Fever Ray. This World Made Itself This World Made Itself is a live performance work that also involves filmed material. Created in 2013, it features the shadow of artist Miwa Matreyek – projected as a silhouette – while she, present on the theater stage and generating that shadow, interacts with images she has filmed. She refers to these filmed images as animation. The images are often photographic and move fluidly from one to the other. Sometimes various images are “collaged” together in a single shot. She thinks of this art form as merging film and theater to create a unique kind of spectacle. She sees this as an interaction with the fantastical world she has created in her video work. What is the thematic content of this piece you ask? A journey through the history of our planet richly presented both in terms of image and of music, from the epic beginnings of the universe through the modern and complex world peopled by – us! It feels a little scientific, as if we were flipping through the pages of a children’s encyclopedia – and at the same time emotional, surreal and dreamlike. 3 Kelly Willis of KCET Public Television describes it this way: This World Made Itself begins with incredibly beautiful animated images of molten rock and the formation of oceans and landmasses, and then moves on to the origins of life. Richly detailed and colorful – and yet entirely surreal – the imagery looks as if it was pulled from a children’s encyclopedia from the 1950s. Matreyek’s silhouette intercedes in the projected imagery, creating a mythic female presence moving gracefully through the prehistoric scene. We see her swimming in an ocean of fire, walking through tall grasses, traipsing across mountains. Since the 1990s and the digital revolution, as a culture we’ve been struggling to figure out our new reality. What is real, what is virtual and how do they connect? Media artist Miwa Matreyek tackles these questions in her artwork, which is impossible to label easily. She blends elements of theater, performance, animation and cinema to create magical live events layering multiple projections, recorded music and the image or silhouette of her own body moving through the projected images. The result is a spellbinding experience for an audience as we simultaneously marvel at the enchanting animated worlds she creates while at the same time try to imagine how the entire performance is working. What’s real? What’s animated? What’s projected? Original music is by Anna Oxygen and Caroline Lufkin, with additional music by Mirah and Mileece. Anna Oxygen is the stage name of Tacoma-reared Anna Jordan Huff. Early on, she enjoyed artists like Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, and she developed her voice along classical lines. She sang in choirs and musicals. She also kicked around in the Washington state folk music scene. Her music career got underway when she joined the musical group Space Ballerinas. This synth-pop group was based in Olympia, the capital of Washington. A little later on, she went out on her own, recording a solo album, All Your Faded Things in 2003. She hopped onto the Kill Rock Stars label for her second release, This Is An Exercise. Artists such as Beth Ditto and Mirah have contributed to her recordings. These days, Anna is based in Los Angeles where she guests on albums by the likes of The Microphones. While studying at CalArts, she formed Cloud Eye Control – a performance art group – with Miwa Matreyek and Chi-wang Yang. She is also part of the psychedelic folk group Day/Moon. She’s also done film work. Be sure to check out the 2005 flick,Police Beat. And finally, she also scores films such as the titles featured in this program, Myth and Infrastructure & This World Made Itself. Here is a partial list of the musical selections we will enjoy in this work of art: - Cello(LI) by Toneforrmaster - Intro/A Cosmic Drama by Flying Lotus - No Title by Careful - Shells by Mirah - The Water Kept Coming by Careful - Tiny Tortures by Flying Lotus 4 The Artist Miwa Matreyek Miwa Matreyek breaks artistic boundaries. This is why she scoops up accolades and awards, among them Center Theatre Group’s $10,000 Richard E. Sherwood Award for emerging theater artists. Mr. Sherwood was a longtime Los Angeles Center Theatre Group board member whose appreciation for the energy and talent of emerging artists led him to nurture innovative and adventurous Los Angeles- based theater artists. The imaginative animation, shadow play, and science we experience in Miwa’s works fits neatly into that category. “ I came into theater sideways from animation. Theater surprised me.” — MIWA MATREYEK Miwa started out majoring in physics! Later on, she switched to art. This allowed her to explore painting, photography and collage. After a while, she began to play with music as well. Adding music to her collages gave her art, “the quality of time and movement.” This in turn led her to animating those visual art images. It was during her time at California Institute of the Arts while studying animation, that her collaboration with theater artists kicked in. These associates “opened my eyes to telling layered stories combining a sense of ‘liveness’ with animation.” She says, however, that her devotion to science has not wavered. Her work explores “the mechanics of the body and the universe – what I would call the visceral experience of physics.” She is very happy, of course, to have scored the Sherwood award. “For emerging artists, who often have to find and carve out their own path, that recognition, that financial support,” she said, “is very important for establishing yourself.” Of her own work, she likes to say that she creates live, staged performances where she interacts with her animations as a shadow silhouette, at the cross section of cinematic and theatrical, fanatical and tangible, illusionistic and physical. Her work exists in a dreamlike visual space that makes invisible worlds visible, often weaving surreal and poetic narratives of conflict between man and nature. Her work exists both at the realm of the hand-made and tech. She travels as a one woman show, often incorporating artist talks and workshops. She performs her interdisciplinary shadow performances all around the world, including animation/film festivals, theater/ performance festivals, art museums, science museums, tech conferences and universities. A few examples are TEDGlobal, Museum of Modern Art and Sundance New Frontier. She received her MFA for Experimental Animation and Integrated Media from CalArts in 2007.