Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Body Talk: Willi Dorner’s Human Sculpture

There are times in urban living, when one can feel akin to Alice in her overgrown state: a giant in a world of small things with no place to put oneself (or one's necessities). I feel this way every morning in fact, when, as part of my morning routine, I move the diminutive waste basket that resides next to my bed to the other end of the bed, tetris-like, in order to create the six-inch space needed to open the storage drawer below the bed wide enough so that I can squeeze my hand in said drawer to reach those pesky socks.

It is those times when I spare a thought for the performers who work with Austrian art director and choreographer Willi Dorner, who gets his jollies from squeezing human bodies into the most unlikely of places and forms. I know what you're thinking: Human sculpture? Isn't that like the guys who paint themselves silver and stand on a box and try not to blink? But this is not ordinary human sculpture. Dorner's work – both on stage and his interventions in major cities – redefines space through human form. And, in less pretentious sounding lingo: He stages really cool-looking sculptures in unlikely places using really bendy humans. I've included photos of Dorner's previous Bodies in Urban Spaces project, a collaboration with photographer Lisa Rastl below. So if Dorner and his cohorts land in a city near you sometime in the future, you'll know it's not just a panicky group of lost Cirque du Soleil performers.


Sent from James' iPhone

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