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Michelle Ellsworth

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Postmodemgrrrl (talk | contribs) at 22:38, 17 June 2019 (Updated bio to reflect Ellsworth's current position, added performance history, added recent notable works, added honors and awards.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Michelle Ellsworth is an American performance artist and a Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at University of Colorado Boulder. Her work spans live performance, video, performable websites, and drawing, and employs absurdist humor, carpentry, technology, monologue, and dance.[1] Ellsworth has exhibited and performed at On The Boards (2004, 2005, 2012, 2015, 2019), Fusebox Festival  (2013, 2015, 2019), American Realness (2015, 2018), Bard's Fisher Center for the Performing Arts (2017), Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival in Groningen, Netherlands (2016), Made in the U.S.A Festival at the Onassis Cultural Center in Athens, Greece (2016), Chocolate Factory Theatre in New York, NY (2015), Brown University (2011, 2015), Abandon Normal Devices Festival in Liverpool, UK (2013), Danspace (2012), DiverseWorks in Houston, TX (1996, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009), and Dance Theatre Workshop in New York, NY (1992, 1993, 1996, 2007).

She has been called a "jittery performer who expertly folds nervousness into her character"[2] and "an excellent comedian, impersonating a slightly scatterbrained TED talk lecturer."[3] Some of her major works include TIFPRABAP.ORG, The Objectification of Things, Preparation for the Obsolescence of the Y Chromosome, and Clytigation. She has received, among other awards, the Guggenheim Fellowship,[4] the Doris Duke Impact Award,[5] a Creative Capital Grant[6] and a United States Artists Knight Fellowship.[7] ArtForum has said she is "doing some of the most engrossing explorations of how the body and technology coexist and collide."[8]

Notable Works

Post-Verbal Social Network (PVSN)

Post-Verbal Social Network (PVSN) consists of a set of digital and analogue prototypes for embodied communication. Through choreographic gestures and experimentation with mechanical apparatuses, JavaScript, and Arduino, Ellsworth seeks alternatives to language and mediated interaction. Premiered at On the Boards in 2019.[9]    

The Rehearsal Artist

The Rehearsal Artist is an intimate performance in which a small audience views choreography derived from the canon of social science experiments through a one-way mirror. The audience's attention is gradually drawn to their shifting sense of stability, and to the act of watching itself. Premiered at We're Watching Festival at the Bard Fisher Center for the Performing Arts in 2017.[10]

Clytigation

Clytigation was developed as a sequel to Ellsworth's Phone Homer, picking up after the famous murder. In it, Ellsworth speculates on devices which can mask her location and identity, such as an interpersonal drone. She considers the personal and social implications of war, relating Clytemnestra's story to her own experience after 9/11.[11]

Phone Homer: Clytemnestra's Guide to Surveillance-Free Living

Phone Homer: Clytemnestra's Guide to Surveillance-Free Living reimagines the epic poemThe Iliad and investigates the dynamics of being a “first lady.”  For the work, Ellsworth developed a standalone internet, pre-recorded conversations, and other tools to imagine a life that is protected from surveillance and liberated from interpersonal drama. Premiered at the Made in the USA Festival at the Onassis Cultural Center in Athens, Greece in 2016. [12]

Preparation for the Obsolescence of the Y Chromosome

Ellsworth's performance Preparation for the Obsolescence of the Y Chromosome considers preparing for a world without men. By contemplating the passing of her father alongside a 2003 article in which New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd presents the notion that the Y chromosome has been slowly losing matter over millennia, creates an "artistically wild, scientifically accurate movement/theater, performance piece."[13] [2][14] The work combines recent scientific research with personal narrative and absurd gestures, Beginning the performance with the statement, "I don't mean to make trouble" as she snaps her fingers, the critic Nancy Wozny writes in response, "Oh, yes you do, Ms. Ellsworth!" pointing to the rebellious and irreverent perspective that informs and energizes this piece and her body of work at large.[15]

The Objectification of Things

The Objectification of Things is a performance which follows the life of a hamburger from birth to death and ultimately resurrection. Taking the attention away from humans and instead focusing on consumable things of the everyday, the work approaches serious issues like climate change through an entry point of humor. The work weaves together dance, game shows, lectures, and scientific data and research.[16]

Honors and Awards

References

  1. ^ "Michelle Ellsworth". University of Colorado-Boulder. Retrieved February 26, 2016.
  2. ^ a b Burke, Siobhan (2015-01-13). "Michelle Ellsworth and Jeremy Wade at American Realness". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  3. ^ Seibert, Brian (2015-11-13). "Review: Michelle Ellsworth's Provocative Protocols". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  4. ^ "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Michelle Ellsworth". Retrieved 2019-06-17.
  5. ^ "Michelle Ellsworth | Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards". ddpaa.org. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  6. ^ "Creative Capital - Investing in Artists who Shape the Future". creative-capital.org. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  7. ^ "Michelle Ellsworth". United States Artists. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  8. ^ Rocco, Claudia La. "Claudia La Rocco on the fall 2015 performance season". artforum.com. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  9. ^ "Post-Verbal Social Network | On the Boards". www.ontheboards.org. Retrieved 2019-06-17.
  10. ^ College, Fisher Center at Bard. "Michelle Ellsworth The Rehearsal Artist at Bard College". fishercenter.bard.edu. Retrieved 2019-06-17.
  11. ^ ""Clytigation" by Michelle Ellsworth Blends Technology and Greek Mythology". Creative Capital. Retrieved 2019-06-17.
  12. ^ www.onassis.org https://www.onassis.org/whats-on/made-usa-judson-church-ringing-harlem-made-measure/made-usa-phone-homer. Retrieved 2019-06-17. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  13. ^ Rinaldi, Ray. "Chromosome conundrum begs her to question "Y"". www.denverpost.com. The Denver Post. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  14. ^ "Michelle Ellsworth - PICA". PICA. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  15. ^ Wozny, Nancy (October 2015). "Dance Renegades: Online Oddball". Dance Magazine. 89 (10): 29. ISSN 0011-6009.
  16. ^ Osnes, Beth (October 2009). "Performance Review: THE OBJECTIFICATION OF THINGS". Theatre Journal. 61 (3). Johns Hopkins University Press: 489–490. ISSN 0192-2882.


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