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Two Books is a meditative, interdisciplinary performance by artist Alexis Gideon and dancer Robin Cantrell that combines video, performance, music, paintings, dance, and holographic photography. The work tells a mystical story of creativity, integrity, and ambition in a capitalist society. Inspired by Carl Jung's The Red Book: Liber Novus, the work uses archetypes and allegory as an invitation to explore the mutability of identity, gender, imagination, and spirituality. The performance is followed by a talkback hosted by Professor Maria Elena Buszek.
In The Red Book: Liber Novus (written 1915-1930 and published posthumously in 2009), Jung posits that we have an earthly body (either male or female) and a celestial soul (of the “opposite” sex.) When the earthly body is aligned with the celestial soul (symbolically represented as a snake with the head of a bird), a unified fluidity is reached that encompasses the masculine, feminine, and everything in between.
In Two Books, the all-female cast represents the earthly body, while the music and lyrics represent the celestial male soul. As these elements interact, fold, and merge through shifts in media, a fluid, almost genderless, state is approached.
Contemporary choreographer and dancer Robin Cantrell performs the lead role of Conjurer, a hologram maker inspired by mysterious television transmissions of symbols and rituals. After receiving these transmissions, Conjurer consults her red book, where she mysteriously becomes the subject of its illustrations.
The television represents reason, logic, capitalism, and materialism all influenced by this moment in time. The Conjurer’s red book represents truth, beauty, transcendence, and the infinite. These “two books” (inspired by the Jungian concepts of The Spirit of Our Time and the Spirit of the Depths) circle each other in a clash for Conjurer’s soul. Everything that is received and created is a part of the Conjurer’s inner reality and her journey to understand the soul’s role in the human condition.
During live performances, Robin Cantrell dances Conjurer's three solos in front of the projected video while Alexis Gideon performs the music and lyrics of the piece.
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About the Performers
Alexis Gideon is an American visual artist, composer, and performer, best known for innovative animated live video operas and interdisciplinary work that use music as the foundational element. As a Jewish descendant of Holocaust survivors, Gideon creates interdisciplinary works that examine alienation, subjugation, and the human condition.
Gideon has performed and exhibited throughout the world, including at Moderna Museet Stockholm, New Museum of Contemporary Art, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Málaga, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Vdrome, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, and Time Zones Festival Italia.
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Robin Cantrell's career as a professional dancer, choreographer, and teacher has spanned more than two decades and over 60 countries. As artistic director of Indelible Dance, she has produced countless large-scale, immersive, multimedia, dance events. Her narrative dance films have garnered numerous awards and selections in film festivals globally.