ASU presents 'Security System' and companion piece 'Room 1'
Arizona State University’s department of Interdisciplinary Arts and Performance presents “Security System,” an inflatable performance installation. The portable sculpture performance investigates fear and the illusion of safety. “Room 1,” Security System’s partner piece, looks at the bedroom as a site of intimacy, illness and vulnerability.
A large inflatable sculpture, Security System is an ongoing conversation between performance, sculpture and architecture within the concept of invisible borders. The installation is a collaborative between ASU’s Marianne M. Kim and Chicago artist Joseph Ravens. Kim is an assistant professor in the department of Interdisciplinary Arts and Performance in the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at ASU’s West campus.
Security System will be displayed from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesday, March 6, and then from 12 to 3 p.m., Thursday, March 8, on the Fletcher Lawn at ASU’s West campus, 4701 W. Thunderbird Road, Phoenix. On Wednesday, March 7, Security System will be displayed from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., on the Student Services Lawn at ASU’s Tempe campus. Partner piece, Room 1, will be displayed beginning at 7 p.m., Tuesday, March 6, at an opening reception in the IAP Art Gallery, University Center Building, at ASU’s West campus.
Performers are located within the sculpture and are displayed and examined for approximately three to four hours each day. Security System performers’ actions blur the line between task-oriented functionality and invented ritual. Visitors are invited to examine the idea of safety and the systems we develop in an effort to feel security. Performers play the role of inventor, victim, witness and perpetrator. The evolving collaboration has been presented in the United States, Canada and Romania. After its Arizona premiere, the project moves to Slovenia in 2008.
Security System and Room 1 are Kim and Ravens’ latest collaboration. Kim is an interdisciplinary arts and educator working in dance, theatre and video art. Her most recent works have been presented by Collision Symposium at the University of Victoria, man.in.fest International Experimental Theatre Festival in Romania, DeBalie Center for Culture and Politics in Amsterdam, and Kinesthetic Kino in San Francisco.
For the past decade, Ravens has been creating performances that encompass text, movement, film, video, new media, installation, costume and object. He is the founder and artistic director of Ravenous Production, and a recipient of the Illinois Arts Council Fellowship for Interdisciplinary Performance Art.