Jmy James Kidd's durational performance Body Bags @ Olafur Eliasson's Reality Projector @ Marciano Art Foundation, 12:27 pm

Jmy James Kidd & The Sunland Dancers performing a 5-hour durational work "Body Bags" at Olafur Eliasson's installation "Reality Projector" at the Marciano Art Foundation on Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles

12:27 pm

The last time I was at Olafur Eliasson’s Reality Projector at the Marciano Art Foundation, not 1, but 2 groups did spontaneous dance improvisations in Eliasson’s almost totally dark installation. Since that was only my 2nd visit to Reality Projector IDK how often spontaneous dance happens in this space, but apparently The Marciano took notice, and this weekend they’re facilitating a 5-hour durational dance performance today, and another 5 hours tomorrow:

Jmy James Kidd & The Sunland Dancers present Body Bags

On the occasion of Olafur Eliasson’s Reality Projector, Jmy James Kidd and the Sunland Dancers present Body Bags, a performative intervention in Eliasson’s site-specific light and sound installation. Curated by Brian Getnick, the performances will take place over two days, July 28-29.

Sliding and slithering on the floor, rising to move as five-limbed creatures and wildly bounding and twirling up through the air, the dancers’ performances will unfold over five hours within the expansive Theater Gallery in response to the shapes and audio of Reality Projector. Dance and mechanized installation will co-create a third work exploring the cinematic fantasy of light, sound, and bodies emerging out of the darkened interior.

Given that the illumination in Reality Projector is getting down somewhere in the vicinity of 0 footcandles, you’d think that capturing anything at all would be the challenge. It turns out that with today’s modern sensors this is actually doable. What’s hard is focusing! There was a central performance area marked by tiny LED strips and I used those LEDs for manual zone focusing. To my surprise, autofocus also somehow worked decently. I used my fastest lens, a Nikkor 50mm f1.4. All frames were shot at 1.4 and all frames were shot at the Nikon D750’s top ISO of 12,800. Exposure times ranged between 1/15 and 1/125 of a second.