My work is driven from an emotional center – the emotional body, if you will. But then, maybe it’s more accurate to say that the work is ignited from a repetitive, emotional response to something that I am witnessing on a macro level and experiencing on a personal level (i.e. my emotional response to the experience of technology taking over my body).  Once I’ve clocked this repetitive, emotional response, I begin to investigate and research the content surrounding the state of things that are creating a certain condition/situation/circumstance that we’re all navigating together, as humans.  The format or style of the work and the approach to the process varies with every piece, depending on the content, my current interests in how to present work, the actual spaces available to contextualize the work within, and how inter-related the space is with the actual process itself.

Sally: M.I.A. (solo) soloNOVA festival, P.S. 122, NYC 2008 Photo by Jill Steinberg

2) Where were you when you created (made) one of your favorite works?

In a warehouse space in San Francisco’s Mission District: CELLspace.  We transformed the entire space into an airport: the airport lobby, a corridor under construction, a waiting area, the airplane cabin (where the audience sat), and then took them on a crazy flight…music coming live from inside an actual plane…the captain sitting at and standing on an actual cockpit of a plane….a photo installation with rice & beans & suitcases spilling out of the tail of a plane. The way that we transformed the space, through set, lights, action, sound, and the integration of media, while maintaining the integrity of a strong, scripted  dance-theater piece was phenomenally exciting to me.  An audience entering into an entire, interactive experience, is ultimately the most engaged and engaging way to deliver theater, for me. Also, backing a  large UHAUL into the workshop/garage space and unloading various pieces of airplanes with my crazy set designer—and me sporting my badass shaved head boot wearin’, mid-20’s, can-do-anything attitude, while being filmed by a documentary crew,  was pretty fun too.

Flight W-2: Emergency Exodus CELLspace San Francisco 2000

3) How do you see your art in relation to cultivating community, and how does community effect the work you make?

I see it as the essence of the interaction, ultimately.  If we don’t know who we’re making work with or for, then it can’t possibly be as alive, engaged.  In the end, whether I have an idea that stems from my immediate surroundings and socio-political experience, or one that originates from a more historical, theoretical or personal/ emotional location—it all gets grounded in the reality of who I’m making the work with and who I’m sharing the work with.  Still, whether I’m aiming to serve or work with a specific community or communities, verses a more general/global audience, it’s all toward the same end, and that is: social justice and communication amongst ourselves (all of ourselves) about the human experience, with all of its dilemmas, ugliness and grace.

Under the Leaves Shuberta’s Fall 2003, New College of California, San Francisco Photo by Louise Bertelsen

4) What is your spirit animal?

Definitely the unicorn (if you mean my mythical spirit animal), or some version of the impala – aepyceros melampus – (if you mean my earthly spirit animal). One of the most common antelope of sub-Saharan Africa, the impala is an evolutionary success story and is capable of living in many different conditions. They are one of the few animals in Africa that have increased their numbers and range over the past century despite human encroachment and threat. They are very handsome antelope and their meat is tender and not gamy. (My impala is definitely a male.  They have the pretty horns, and when it comes down to it—I have some fairly masculine attributes: strong, stubborn, endurance based, dominant & submissive, adaptable to environment, I can be a strong and also a gentle leader).

5) What spaces in Northampton are you most curious to see inside of, or to (make) work in?

I hope to make work at A.P.E. one day sooner than later, as I love working theatrically in gallery spaces, and I think that one has some interesting potential that I haven’t yet seen tapped (in my short time here, thus far).  I’m mostly interested in old buildings with interesting spaces, and architecture that we don’t get to live inside of so often in contemporary life.  For this reason, I really enjoyed producing CONTACT at the Canal Gallery in Holyoke (former paper mill) on the Canal.  The building, inside & out is fascinating; the history is compelling and working with and against the sense of abandonment | quiet | isolation down there is profound.

From rehearsals for: CONTACT, an interactive performance installation Created & performed by a mixed ensemble of veterans of war & civilians In collaboration with Matt Mitchell’s 100facesofwareexperience.org Conceived & directed by Krista DeNio Canal Gallery, Holyoke (now called ‘The Guilded Brick’)