Symptom, performer, 2010-2013

Synopsis:  Symptom examines the human body, as both an object of study and as a producer of knowledge, to investigate notions of social bodies versus biological bodies, and explore the gaps between seeing, knowing and empathy. Conversing with the early works of Dan Graham and Bruce Nauman amongst others, Symptom is a bold visual work of sculpture, drawing, movement and text. The performance inspects the slippage between subjective and objective understandings of the human body, where a symptom acts as an indicator, trait, feature, mark or sign that is open for interpretation.

Co-creators: Olive Bieringa and Otto Ramstad with contributions from Emmett Ramstad.
Sound Design: Andrea Parkins
Writer: Aren Aizura
Performers: Otto Ramstad and Emmett Ramstad
Lighting design: Michael Wangen
Program design: Micah Bazant

Venues: CounterPULSE, San Francisco, CA, February 14th-17th, 2013
COiL Festival, Performance Space 122, NYC, January, 2011
Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis, 2010

Review: Symptom, Maxe Crandall and Selby Wynn Schwartz, Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory, 2014. PDF

For more information please see: http://www.bodycartography.org/

Photos by Sean Smuda