Sarah Friedland’s 3-channel video installation of a durational dance, CROWDS investigates the choreography of crowd typologies and the slippages between them. Much like a flock of murmurating birds, the thresholds between these crowd types are blurred and distorted: the rocking of bodies in prayer slip into the shaking of raving dancers, the training exercises of sports teams slide into the structured formations of fascist spectacles.
Premiered at the Ann Arbor Film Festival and Performa19 Biennial.
CROWDS
71 min x 3 channels, digital video, 2019
A 3-channel video installation of a durational dance, CROWDS investigates the choreography of crowd typologies and the slippages between them. Much like a flock of murmurating birds, the thresholds between these crowd types are blurred and distorted: the rocking of bodies in prayer slip into the shaking of raving dancers, the training exercises of sports teams slide into the structured formations of fascist spectacles. Focusing on these collective formations, movements, and gestures, CROWDS uses dance to interrogate the distinctions we make and to destabilize the relationship between ideologies and moving bodies. It attempts to articulate the embedded choreographic register of our political discourses and polemics, reflecting what is amassed and what is lost as we gather and disperse.
Direction/Choreography/Editing by Sarah Friedland. Produced by Brighid Greene and Sarah Friedland. An Art Factory International Production. Cinematography by Luca Nervegna. Sound Design by Denera James and Assaf Gidron.
World Premiere at Ann Arbor Film Festival, Off the Screen! expanded cinema section. Subsequent installations at as part of the Performa 19 Biennial in a Solo Exhibition at La MaMa Galleria, at MAM Rio (Museu de Arte Moderna de Rio de Janeiro) as part of Festival ECRÃ, at the Wassaic Project, and at The Granoff Center for Creative Arts for The Conference for Research on Choreographic Interfaces at Brown University.
Recent: Digital premiere at Hartnett Gallery (3/29/21 - 4/26/21) as part of solo exhibition Assembled Choreographies curated Almudena Escobar López. Features digital interface designed by Friedland with new media artist Jonas Eltes and a commissioned text written with Tess Takahashi. Still images and gifs from CROWDS acquired as part of Museo Wunderkammer’s digital collection.
Press: Brooklyn Rail, Movement Research, Screen Slate, Frieze, Wassaic Project.