Jeffrey Gibson American, member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and Cherokee, born 1972
TO FEEL MYSELF BELOVED ON THE EARTH, 2020
video (color, audio)
16 minutes, 19 seconds
Edition 1 of 2
Jeffrey Gibson’s video TO FEEL MYSELF BELOVED ON THE EARTH was conceived of and produced during the past few months during the global Coronavirus pandemic, civil unrest demanding equity and...
Jeffrey Gibson’s video TO FEEL MYSELF BELOVED ON THE EARTH was conceived of and produced during the past few months during the global Coronavirus pandemic, civil unrest demanding equity and justice for BIPOC people, and tremendous national political divide. Jeffrey felt unable to focus and and stabilize himself creatively. He turned to breathing, physical movement, and nature to reconnect and generate some grounding for his own well being.
TO FEEL MYSELF BELOVED ON THE EARTH features a number of trained and untrained dancers from diverse backgrounds, many of whom Jeffrey has worked with before, to capture un-choreographed movement in garments made by his studio. The garments are stitched together from hundreds of smaller pieces of fabric with texts authored by Jeffrey. The dancers movements vary from ballet, to voguing, to club dancing to performance, as the dancers transition from states of meditative breathing to movement. The six different performances were filmed in locations including in nature, in a pool, and in the city. For the soundtrack, Gibson brought together drummers from various musical and cultural traditions. Each drummer was recorded separately playing drums Gibson made by stretching hides over industrial food service buckets, then each painted with a different phrase, such as A TIME FOR CHANGE, and A TIME TO HEAL. Their movements and breath perform a manifestation of healing over the sounds of polyrhythmic drumming that moves from chaos to harmony while mixing in some sounds sampled from the different locations. The title, TO FEEL MYSELF BELOVED ON THE EARTH, is an excerpt from a poem by Raymond Carver titled Late Fragment. Gibson has referred to Carver numerous times before because of his direct and brief way of describing complicated relationships and emotions.
CREDITS:
Director: Jeffrey Gibson
Assistant Director and Director of Photography: Itziar Barrio
Camera: Erin Smith
Additional Camera: Jeffrey Gibson, Chelsea Knight
Aerial Videography: Angelo Soriano, Mark DiConzo
Editor: Chelsea Knight
Sound Composition and Recording: Tristan Shepherd
Audio Mixing and Mastering: Ryan Howe
Performers: Wendell Cooper aka MX OOPS, Orlando Harbutt, Davon Rainey, Emilio Rojas, Roxy Romero, Kyralesa C. Wiley
Drumming and Vocals by: Diamond Anderson, Andrya Ambro, Rodney “Okai” Fleurmont, Cornelio Joseph, Cinque Kemp, Anastasiya Kastromina, James Albert Lopez
Additional Audio Recording: Black Trans Lives March, NYC - September 25, 2020
Production Assistance: Brian Barlow, Kirby Crone, William Singer
Locations: Artist’s Home, Art Omi Sculpture & Architecture Park, Westbeth
Special Thanks:
Ruth Adams, José Chardiet, Kirby Crone, Rachel Gonzales, Kavi Gupta, Nicole Hayes, Hui Lee, Coco Ma, Danielle Norris, Rune Olsen, Andy Overton, Christine Pfister, Ellen Salpeter, Paige Simpson, Albert Thurton, Joe Versace, Henry Williams
TO FEEL MYSELF BELOVED ON THE EARTH features a number of trained and untrained dancers from diverse backgrounds, many of whom Jeffrey has worked with before, to capture un-choreographed movement in garments made by his studio. The garments are stitched together from hundreds of smaller pieces of fabric with texts authored by Jeffrey. The dancers movements vary from ballet, to voguing, to club dancing to performance, as the dancers transition from states of meditative breathing to movement. The six different performances were filmed in locations including in nature, in a pool, and in the city. For the soundtrack, Gibson brought together drummers from various musical and cultural traditions. Each drummer was recorded separately playing drums Gibson made by stretching hides over industrial food service buckets, then each painted with a different phrase, such as A TIME FOR CHANGE, and A TIME TO HEAL. Their movements and breath perform a manifestation of healing over the sounds of polyrhythmic drumming that moves from chaos to harmony while mixing in some sounds sampled from the different locations. The title, TO FEEL MYSELF BELOVED ON THE EARTH, is an excerpt from a poem by Raymond Carver titled Late Fragment. Gibson has referred to Carver numerous times before because of his direct and brief way of describing complicated relationships and emotions.
CREDITS:
Director: Jeffrey Gibson
Assistant Director and Director of Photography: Itziar Barrio
Camera: Erin Smith
Additional Camera: Jeffrey Gibson, Chelsea Knight
Aerial Videography: Angelo Soriano, Mark DiConzo
Editor: Chelsea Knight
Sound Composition and Recording: Tristan Shepherd
Audio Mixing and Mastering: Ryan Howe
Performers: Wendell Cooper aka MX OOPS, Orlando Harbutt, Davon Rainey, Emilio Rojas, Roxy Romero, Kyralesa C. Wiley
Drumming and Vocals by: Diamond Anderson, Andrya Ambro, Rodney “Okai” Fleurmont, Cornelio Joseph, Cinque Kemp, Anastasiya Kastromina, James Albert Lopez
Additional Audio Recording: Black Trans Lives March, NYC - September 25, 2020
Production Assistance: Brian Barlow, Kirby Crone, William Singer
Locations: Artist’s Home, Art Omi Sculpture & Architecture Park, Westbeth
Special Thanks:
Ruth Adams, José Chardiet, Kirby Crone, Rachel Gonzales, Kavi Gupta, Nicole Hayes, Hui Lee, Coco Ma, Danielle Norris, Rune Olsen, Andy Overton, Christine Pfister, Ellen Salpeter, Paige Simpson, Albert Thurton, Joe Versace, Henry Williams
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