Oh, patents! Isamu Noguchi Akari (sculpture) lamps

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

The famous and prolific Japanese American sculptor, Isamu Noguchi [1904-1988], created a series of lamps that he called Akari sculptures. A series of sculptures that would bring together traditional Japanese craftsmanship with Western modernism, in new functional ways of lighting. The Japanese term “akari” means light with associations similar to English that include both “illumination” and “weightlessness”.

Noguchi’s light sculptures were consistent with his belief that art should be made accessible for everyone to enjoy. In Noguchi’s own words (2021): 

“...The Akari lamps for instance were partly motivated by wanting to have my art in everybody’s home. The smallest can be got for less than 10$. And I think they are as much an expression of myself as anything else I do.”

The functional aspects of Noguchi's Akari sculptures were patented inventions. For example, among several Akari lamp patents awarded to Isamu Noguchi, the US utility patent US2781444, titled Lamp construction, was granted on February 12th, 1957. The patent recites the means to mount an electric bulb onto a Japanese lantern-type lamp, with a scope extending to floor, table, ceiling, wall or bed lamps. Thus, the new patented electric design seeks both to modernize and to preserve the simplicity and compactness of traditional Japanese, candle- or oil powered lanterns. Lanterns that were also made to collapse flat, so they might be shipped in envelopes. As a result, the invention comprises rapid assembly and disassembly, lightness for storage and shipment, also built into every aspect of the new electrical mounting. 

The patent Figure 2 below depicts a side elevation view of the lamp construction. The construction comprises a distensible lampshade 24. The lampshade 24 is secured above by a reduced section 36, resulting from the symmetrical convergence 55 of the vertical, upside-down U-shaped frame 22. A “spider” frame 23, attached to the lowest lampshade ring 49, further secures the lower end of the lampshade 24. Inside the vertical, upside-down U-shaped frame 22, a bulb 21 is mounted on a socket 20. The socket 20, slips through an opening, at the lower curved end 38 of the vertical, upside-down U-shaped frame 22. 

An image of a marketed floor lamp embodiment of the invention is included below the patent Figure 2, as well as the open "pizza box" conditioning for the compact Akari floor lamp 5A and its assembly. 

Akari 5A with box and elements (designed 1952)

References

The Noguchi Museum (The Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum, in Long Island City, NY.)

www.noguchi.org

Noguchi in his own words. (Nov. 22, 2021). YouTube video [04:26]. Barbican Center, London, UK. 

https://youtu.be/IbcleKnGEMU

Interlude - Amy Sherald at the SFMOMA

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

From November 16th, 2024, to March 9th, 2025, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is hosting the largest-ever collection of Amy Sherald oil-on-canvas paintings. The exhibit, titled Amy Sherald: American Sublime, displays nearly 50 portraits, from 2007 to 2024, of mostly everyday black Americans, consistent with her desire to engage viewers in a more complex understanding of American identity. Best known for her 2018 portrait of Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, which usually hangs at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute, Amy Sherald directly addresses the notorious absence of black men, women, and children, in American portraiture. Her portraits are radiant, and only temporal in the way her subjects are dressed and positioned to tell a story.

A video of her work, included in the exhibit, shows the elaborate photoshoots and staging of her portraits, using actors. For example, the show’s poster--Any Sherald’s 2022 painting For love and for country, depicting two queer sailors kissing-- is directly reminiscent of the world-famous (1945) photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt, titled V-J Day in Times Square. A portrait where, in fact, the 1945 kissing subjects were simply swapped and replaced by the two kissing queer black men, on a brilliant turquoise background. In Any Sherald's take, the two subjects, in the exact same position, are also completely oblivious of the world, as they claim their love. Love also, in 2022, of a more tolerant, red, white and blue country, shown with the blue striped shirt, red bandana and white sailor hat.

Amy Sherald identifies with a tradition of American realism represented by Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth. But her realism celebrates the sublime individual, vibrantly cloaked. Plus, Amy Sherald quotes extensively from such black literary geniuses as Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison for the titles* complementing her portraits. For example, from Morrison’s Beloved, she titles two of her 2015 portraits: Freeing herself was one thing, taking ownership of that freed self was another and Fact was she knew more about them than she knew about herself, having never had the map to discover what she was like.

After the San Francisco MOMA, the show moves on to the Whitney Museum, in New York City. 

----------

*Portrait titles from top to bottom: Grand Dame Queenie (2013), Precious jewels by the sea (2019), For love and for country (2022), Kingdom (2023), Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (2018), The bathers (2015), A god blessed land (Empire of Dirt) (2022), They call me Redbone but I'd rather be Strawberry Shortcake (2009), Untitled (2018), Breonna Taylor (2020), The boy with no past (2014), When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be (Self-imagined atlas)(2018).

References
Amy Sherald: American Sublime.
Exhibit at the SF MOMA, November 16 to March 9, 2024.
Chan, C. (Sept. 2024). Quiet Beauty: Amy Sherald’s American Art.  SF MOMA.  
https://www.sfmoma.org/read/quiet-beauty-amy-sheralds-american-art/ 

More from the scene of That Famous V-J Day Kiss in Times Square. Life Magazine. 
https://www.life.com/history/v-j-day-kiss-times-square/

Smith, R. (Sept. 12, 2019). Amy Sherald's shining second act. NYTimes. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/12/arts/design/amy-sherald-michelle-obama-hauser-wirth.html 

Interlude – Cecilia Vicuña (1)

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

2022 is a huge year of recognition for Cecilia Vicuña, Chilean artist, poet, filmmaker, performance artist and activist. Vicuña is currently on show in the rotunda of the New York City Guggenheim Museum (May 27- September 5, 2022), and at the 59th International Art Show, at the Venice Biennale (April 23 – Sept. 25, 2022), where she was awarded a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Vicuña’s art is also commissioned by Hyundai, for an upcoming exhibit at the Tate Modern’s Turbine Room, in London, UK (Oct. 11, 2022 –  April 16,  2023).

About her art, Vicuña states: “Every work of mine seems to be made by a different person, but they are also completely coherent.” (Loos, 2022) Perhaps, that this is the reason why the selection of Venice Biennale pieces highlights her work on canvas, while the selection of Guggenheim pieces highlights her work on quipus. A take on the Andean system of inscription, using knotted cords (quipus in Quechua), the untied ends of which, Vicuña interpreted as an invitation to complete. Ancient threads and knots, which tell a story without words. A history that can nonetheless be accessed through knotting, and to a certain extent rewritten, with new knots that tie into the old ones.

Thus, the Guggenheim show exhibits "Quipu del Extermino" (The Extermination Quipo), the bloodied history of indigenous populations, or of other bloodied his/herstories. Vicuña writes on the walls of the Guggenheim "can we/ack/now/ledge/ex/termi/nation?”, "the quipu is the speaker of blood".

 

Artist, poet, and activist in exile, Vicuña fled Pinochet’s brutal takeover, and dictatorship, for more than two decades, in Chile (Sept. 11, 1973 – March 11, 1990). Fleeing first to London, she then lived several years in the Andes, (in Bogotá, Columbia), settling finally in New York City, since 1980.

The painting below, titled La Comegente (The People Eater), from the 59th International Art Show, at the Venice Biennale, is the artist’s attempt to purify the earth.

The following piece was also curated for the 59th International Art Show, at the Venice Biennale. This piece, titled Virgen Puta addresses the well-known archetypical duality virgin-whore. According to the artist, the duality is depicted on a curvature of space, as patron saint, protecting misguided women, such as herself.  

References

Biennale ART 2022
https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2022

Cecilia Vicuña
http://www.ceciliavicuna.com/

Guggenheim Museum - Cecilia Vicuña Spin Spin Triangulene.

https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/cecilia-vicuna-spin-spin-triangulene

Lloyd-Smith, H. (July 14, 2022). Cecilia Vicuña: the artist.

https://www.wallpaper.com/art/cecilia-vicuna-artist-profile

Loos, T. (March 12, 2021). In the studio with Cecilia Vicuña.
https://galeriemagazine.com/in-the-studio-cecilia-vicuna/

del Valle Schorske, C. (Aug. 22, 2022). Cecilia Vicuña’s Desire Lines. NY Times Magazine.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/25/magazine/cecilia-vicuna-art.html?campaign_id=52&emc=edit_ma_20220826&instance_id=70289&nl=the-new-york-times-magazine&regi_id=174597009&segment_id=102434&te=1&user_id=a19b1dc75bfc443afa94dcc93cf5f29e

Tate Modern Turbine Hall
https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern/turbine-hall

Interlude - The Sinner (Le Pêcheur)

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

...on the Malecon Avenue in Havana, Cuba (June 5, 2022)

Interlude - The Women's Building MaestraPeace Mural

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

In honor of Women’s History month, celebrated during the month of March, the spotlight is focused on the monumental MaestraPeace Mural, adorning The Women’s Building in the Mission District of San Francisco, California. Launched in 1993, the 5-story exterior mural, was completed in 2000 by a collective group of seven muralistas [1] (women muralists), while the interior mural of the common areas was completed in 2010. The exterior mural was then completely restored in 2012, by the original muralistas, together with a younger generation of muralistas.

The MaestraPeace mural depicts goddesses, activists, artists, writers, curanderas (women healers), and numerous other female figures, celebrating the many contributions and accomplishments of women, across cultures and time, both historical and mythical. In the most hopeful muralist tradition of Mexico, the MaestraPeace mural envisions a world healed of its injustices. 

Located on the corner of 18th and Lapidge Streets, the mural is 65 feet high, and 160 feet wide, on each of the 18th Street and Lapidge Street facades. The mural decorates four surfaces of The Women's Building: the Lapidge Street façade, the 18th Street façade, the corner space at the intersection of Lapidge and 18th Streets, and surfaces inside the building's common area strairwell.

The Women’s Building was the first women-owned and operated Community Center in the US. A women’s non-profit enterprise, dedicated to incubating diverse Bay Area Women’s Projects, the Women’s Centers were founded in 1971. In 1979, the expanding group bought a building called Drove Hall, and transformed it into The Women’s Building. The Women’s Building rents space, and hosts events, programs and other organizations.

The San Francisco Women's Building
MaestraPeace Mural - Valencia Street facade
Copyright © The Artists

Depicted, for example, on the east (Lapidge Street) façade (shown above):

Rigoberta Menchu (at the top center). Winner of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize for her social justice work on behalf of the indigenous peoples of Guatemala.  

Women elder profiles (facing each other, on each side of the façade): Two elder women profiles are depicted on the Lapidge Street façade (a Scandinavian Sami woman profile on the left, and an Asian woman profile on the right).  

Coyolxauqui, Aztec Goddess of the Moon (right hand). Dismembered for having prevented the birth of her brother, the God of War, then entombed in stone. Coyolxauqui is depicted in Rigoberta Menchu’s right hand, breaking free from her stone tomb. 

Yemayah, powerful Yoruba Orisha goddess (left hand). In ancient times, in Africa, Yemayah was the symbol of rivers, fertility and life, wearing clear beads. Then, she became mother of the oceans and salt water, and acquired blue beads.  

Guanyin (below left profile of a Sami woman elder). East Asian goddess of compassion and mercy. Protects women, and grants children to those who want them.  

Georgia O’Keefe (far left). North American painter, known as the mother of American modernism, and for her flower and skull paintings. In the panel next to the life size painting of O’Keefe, a skull reminiscent of the ones she painted, together with seven flowers, each one painted by one of the seven muralistas, as a bouquet signature for the mural.

Lilian Ngoya and Audre Lorde (below Yemayah). Ngoya, leader of the South African Resistance Movement is depicted burning her passbook, required of all Black South Africans, during apartheid. Ngoya is also depicted holding hands with Audre Lorde. Renowned North american poet, feminist, civil right activist and lesbian, who dedicated her life and talent to “confronting and addressing injustices of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia“.  

Ancestor Mask from Gabon, Africa (Between Ngoya and Lorde). The mask is painted at the center of a map of Africa, symbolizing what is both seen and unseen. 

Hanan Ashrawi (below Audre Lorde). Palestinian legislator, activist and scholar, chief spokesperson for the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East peace process. 

Lolita Lebrón and other women political prisoners (below Coyolxauqui). Lebrón was a Puerto Rican nationalist, who spent 23 years in prison, after being convicted for fighting for the independence of Puerto Rico. The other women political prisoners are portraits of women, currently serving sentences worldwide. 

Maria Sabina (below Lolita Lebrón) Mexican Mazatec curandera (woman healer), known to work with plants, depicted healing the woman sitting in front of her.

Painter from Mithila, India (below the right Asian profile of a woman). The craft is passed on from woman to woman over thousands of years.

________________

Note [1] Original seven muralistas of The Women's Building MaestraPeace mural in San Francisco: Juana Alicia, Miranda Bergman, Edythe Boone, Susan Kelk Cervantes, Meera Desai, Yvonne Littleton and Irene Perez.

References

Alicia, J. et. al. (2019) MaestraPeace: San Francisco’s Monumental Feminist Mural. Foreward by Angela Davis. (224 pages) Berkeley, CA: Heyday.

San Francisco Women's Building https://womensbuilding.org/

San Francisco Women's Building - MaestraPeace Mural. https://womensbuilding.org/the-mural/ 

San Francisco Women's Building - The muralists. https://womensbuilding.org/the-mural/#whoarethemuralistsection

Interlude - A mason's dream

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Daniel Rozin

 Angles Mirror (2013)

References

Daniel Rozin – NYU Tish School 
https://tisch.nyu.edu/about/directory/itp/95804818

Oh, patents! Daniel Rozin’s Mechanical Mirrors

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Usually, patents and art invoke two very different creative processes. Patents disclose inventions, which are required to be both useful and to fulfill certain conditions of patentability [35 USC 101], such as novelty [35 USC 102], and non-obviousness to those skilled in the art [35 USC 103]. All of which conditions and definitions are specified in the separate branch of Patent Law, set forth in the US Federal Code Title 35 (USC 35) and in the US Code of Federal Regulations Title 37 (CFR 37). Prior to being patented, inventions are also filed and subjected to a lengthy examination process at a government patent-granting agency, such as the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), in the United States, the European Patent Office (EPO), in Europe, regrouping countries party to the European Patent Convention, or other national Patent Offices, such as the Japanese Patent Office (JPO), or the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CIPA). 

Once granted, a patent then confers to the inventor(s), heirs or assignees, the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or importing the invention, without prior licensing, or agreement with the inventors, heirs or assignees. Such patent rights are also granted for a certain period of time, usually 20 years for a US utility patent [35 USC 154], and 15 years for a US design patent [35 USC 173], contingent upon the payment of yearly maintenance fees, per the provisions of the US Federal Code Title 35, Article 41 [35 US 41].

Art, by contrast, is unregulated, unbound to the provisions of the Law, or the conferral of rights, and without utilitarian requirements, to name just a fraction of the more obvious differences. In rare instances, however, such irreconcilable differences in the creative process of art and patented invention come together, in an interesting reciprocal dynamic. Indeed, this is precisely what drives Daniel Rozin’s mechanical mirrors.

Rizon, an Israeli-American artist and NYU professor, whose art installations each depict different sorts of mirrors, (i.e.; surfaces where people are reflected), relies on patented inventions to make the installations work [Rozin, NYU]. Thus, Rizon is both artist and inventor, drawing on a combination of sensors, motors, custom software, video camera and computers to create his interactive digital art, each installation functioning as a mechanical mirror. All of the pieces are explorations at the intersection of viewer participation and image creation, powered by patented mechanical engineering, informing art. No one could otherwise conceive of wood pieces (whether round or square) or fluffy toys, functioning as mirror surfaces, capable of reflecting viewers, much less make all of the pieces of the installation actually work together as a mirror.

The following video showcases some of Rozin’s captivating mechanical mirror installations. In particular, the Penguins Mirror, the Wood Mirror, the Troll Mirror, the Pompom Mirror, the Peg Mirror, and the Fur Mirrors, are shown.  

The following US patents, awarded to Rozin, and most recent patent application, are members of patent families that include World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Canadian (CA) and Australian (AU) patents. Patents that each recite inventions, supporting the display of Rozin’s art installations, depicting mechanical mirrors.

• US6552734B1 - System and method for generating a composite image based on at least two input images.
• US6553138B2 - Method and apparatus for generating three-dimensional representations of objects.
• US6891561B1 - Providing visual context for a mobile active visual display of a panoramic region.
• US20020031252A1 - Method and apparatus for generating three-dimensional representations of objects.

References

[35 USC 41] Patent fees – Patent and trademark search systems.   https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/mpep-9015-appx-l.html#d0e301581

[35 USC 101] Inventions patentable. https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/mpep-9015-appx-l.html#d0e302376

[35 USC 102] Conditions for patentability - Novelty.   https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/mpep-9015-appx-l.html#al_d1fbe1_234ed_52  

[35 USC 103] Conditions for patentability - Non-obvious subject matter.   https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/mpep-9015-appx-l.html#al_d1fbe1_19797_b0  

[35 USC  154]  Contents and term of a patent - Provisional rights.   https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/mpep-9015-appx-l.html#d0e303482

[35 USC 173] Term of Design Patent. https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/mpep-9015-appx-l.html#d0e304510

China National Intellectual Property Administration (in English): https://english.cnipa.gov.cn/

Desimone, J. (Jan. 19, 2016) Q&A: Daniel Rozin reflects on his mirror artwork. MOCA – Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, FL. https://mocajacksonville.unf.edu/blog/Q-A--Daniel-Rozin-reflects-on-his-mirror-artworks/  

Daniel Rozin – NYU Tish School: https://tisch.nyu.edu/about/directory/itp/95804818

European Patent Office (in English): www.epo.org

Japan Patent Office (in English): https://www.jpo.go.jp/e/

US Code of Federal Regulations - Title 37    https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/mpep-9015-appx-l.html

US Federal Code - Title 35: https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/mpep-9015-appx-l.html

United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO): www.uspto.gov 

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) - Nick Cave's Soundsuits

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

At the intersection of Black Lives Matter, the legacy of Jim Crow laws from the South, the resurgence of the KKK, and the horrors of the unequal impact of the COVID 19 pandemic in the USA, Nick Cave's Soundsuits, evoke yet another dimension of personal protection. 

In the artist and dancer's own words, regarding the transformation and empowerment felt wearing a Soundsuit, Nick Cave states:

"a suit of armor where I hid my identity. I was inside a suit, you couldn't tell if I was a woman, or a man; if I was black, red, green or orange; from Haiti or South Africa. I was no longer Nick. I was a shaman of sorts." (Quoted in Fine Arts, Fall 2020.)

 

Sequin Reuse Soundsuit 2008 (1)

Birds Reuse Soundsuit

Stuffed Animals & Bean Bags Reuse  Soundsuit, 2010. 

Bird and Cat Soundsuit 

Toy Top Reuse Soundsuit

Sequins Soundsuit

Crocheted Doily Reuse. (1)  Soundsuit

Crocheted Doily Reuse (2)   Soundsuit

(1) Recently acquired by the De Young Museum in San Francisco, CA, the Nick Cave Soundsuit (2008)  is currently on show in the Museum's Saxe Gallery. 

References

Burgard, T. A . (Fall 2020) Nick Cave's Sounsuits: Moving Sculpture. Fine Arts. p. 22.  Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco - de Young - Legion of Honor.

Keiren (May 8, 2916) ) Nick Cave Soundsuits. Insteading https://insteading.com/blog/nick-cave-sound-suits/ 

Santora, O. Nick Cave Monograph. https://www.oliviasantora.com/nick-cave-monograph

SoundsuitShop http://soundsuitshop.com/SSS%20Sales%20Kit_2020.pdf

Oh, patents ! Mining wastewater transformed into art (UK) (3)

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

To prevent 4000 tons (122 billion liters) of iron oxide from entering waterways and watersheds, each year, in the UK, the BritishCoal Authority manages 75 mine water treatment plants, at former British coalfields.

The University College of London (UCL) Slade School of Fine Art partnered with the Coal Authority for the production of paint pigments, using the iron oxide solids (i.e.; ochre) extracted from the mining wastewater, processed at the treatment plants.

Five pigments, ranging from primrose yellow to burnt terracotta, were created from the iron oxide sludge extracted at five different water treatment sites, within the context of a doctoral thesis focused on “The origins of earth colors and their contemporary significance.” The doctoral candidate and artist, Onya McCausland, collected samples from the Coal Authority treatment plants and then worked with UCL chemists to produce five strikingly different pigments for artist paint.  The project culminated with an exhibit at UCL Cloisters titled Five Colours Five Landscapes, in April 2018, and recognition of the five water treatment sites as Public Works of Arts in the UK, considering they contribute the raw material pigments for top-grade artist paint. 

The process invoked for oxidizing iron in the UK coal mine wastewaters is different from that which was implemented in the US, by grassroots activists, community organizers, Ohio University academics and artists, in the Appalachians (see previous posts). The UK process invokes aeration cascades, which provide the (invisible) iron contained in the mine wastewater with oxygen to encourage oxidation. The oxidized iron then settles as sludge at the bottom of pools, separating from the water, which flows through reed beds, for removal of any remaining iron oxide solids, and release into the waterways. 

The video below shows the British Coal Authority coal mine wastewater treatment process, currently in use..

Collaboration between the Coal Authority wastewater remediation engineers and the UCL Slade School of Fine Art has resulted in a highly desirable product (i.e., pigments for artist paint). A collaboration which inscribes itself in a new climate-friendly future. In Onya McCausland's terms: 

What sets these coal ochres apart is the quality of their colour and their sustainable production as part of the remediation legacy of the coal mining industry. This is in contrast to the current practise of importing natural ochres from unsustainable unnamed sources across the globe.

Three images of Onya McCausland’s paintings, using the pigments derived from iron-oxide sludge at the Coal Authority mine water treatment facilities, are included below. The paintings, respectively titled Saltburn Main 1, Deerplay Hill and Cuthill Red 1 were exhibited, in the UK, at the contemporary art Anima-Mundi Gallery, within the context of the Onya McCausland solo show  Landscapes, Oct. 20-Dec. 8, 2018. The paintings, exhibited on the three floors of the Anima-Mundi Gallery,  honored the landscapes where the iron-oxide ochres were sourced, in particular, Saltburn in East Yorkshire, Deerplay in Bacup, Lancashire, and Cuthill in West Lothian, Scotland, for the paintings included below. 

© Onya McCausland - Saltburn Main 1

© Onya McCausland - Deerplay Hill

© Onya McCausland - Cuthill Red 1

References 

Anima-Mundi Gallery - Onya McCausland Landscapes solo exhibit, Oct.20-Dec.8, 2018. https://www.animamundigallery.com/news/2018/10/23/only-mccausland-landscapes-opens-at-anima-mundi 

Buckloa, I. (2018) Visions of Excess: Exhibit essay (Onya McCausland Landscapes).   https://www.artsy.net/animamundiart/article/anima-mundi-onya-mccausland-landscapes 

Coal authority (UK)   https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/the-coal-authority

Onya McCausland https://onyamccausland.com/

Onya McCausland - UCL Slade School of Fine Art - Research Fellow.   https://www.ucl.ac.uk/slade/research/projects/onya-mccausland

Onya McCausland UCL Cloisters Exhibit - Five Colours, Five Landscapes April 2018 https://onyamccausland.com/ucl/

UCL (University College London) Slade School of Fine Art. Art https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2018/apr/artist-creates-paint-pigments-coal-mine-sludge

Terminology – Choreography on lockdown (choréographie confinée)

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

In the finest tradition of modern and post-modern dance, where the exploration of even the most dislocated body movement becomes medium of expression, or where grace and elegance might be found in everyday movement, dancers on lockdown are performing from their homes. Inspired by the most mundane tasks, such as drying your hair, sweeping, and cooking, dancers are practicing and creating in very tight spaces, completely unsuited for dancing, and the propulsion needed for movement-mediated expression. 

Despite lockdown orders, social distancing, and canceled theatre programs, dance troupes worldwide, for example in Russia, Europe, Africa, the US and Canada, are safely continuing to perform, The dancers are continuing to create together, exploring new possibilities, showing how they are coping with their new locked-down working conditions, alternatively expressing the new normal. Choreographies on lockdown are thus produced, enabled through cellphone videos of individual performances, in turn, edited, mixed, and composed—enough to continue kindling the spirits of Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham. 

Below, the Mikhaelovsky Theatre Ballet at home choreography, envisioned, composed, created, and performed, in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

-

Mikhaelovsky Theatre Ballet at home

The below-referenced, freely available, Youtube performance videos capture a few more modern and post-modern choreographies on lockdown. Choreographies that have prevailed over the assault of the SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) pandemic.

References

Artistik Studio (France)

https://www.artistik-studio.com/

Artistik Studio en confinement... ça donne ça !!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gQzjOm9768
Atlantique Ballet Contemporain (ABC) (France)
https://conservatoire.agglo-larochelle.fr/danse/atlantique-ballet-contemporain
Atlantique Ballet Contemporain  -  Corps Confinés 2020 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0nJ05iMqY8
Ballet du capitole (Toulouse, France)
https://www.theatreducapitole.fr/web/guest/ballet-du-capitole

Ballet du Capitole  - May 1st.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6Jn9oLloQs

Ballet du Capitole (Toulouse, France) - Fantaisies confinées

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGuvovNsg9k
Cape Town City Ballet (South Africa)
https://www.capetowncityballet.org.za/

Cape Town City Ballet - Lockdown Waltz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAUwNcFjSt8
Cie Tartansa - Aurélie Girbal (France)
https://www.compagnietatansa.fr/amo-team/aurelie-girbal/

Cie Tartansa - Chacun pour tous (each for all) (version confinée) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM_Pl1vM6Pc

Czech Ballet (Czech Republic)
https://www.narodni-divadlo.cz/en/ensembles/ballet

Czech Ballet Special Performance during lockdown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTn-JAbogpM
Dutch National Ballet (Holland)
https://www.operaballet.nl/en/ballet/ballet

Dutch National Ballet Ballerina dances in the empty streets of Amsterdam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BclyFzZtE4k

Dutch National Ballet - Ballet connects dancers in lockdown  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuvXG4As80c

Houston Ballet (USA)
https://www.houstonballet.org/

Houston Ballet  - HB at home "Stay"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STC8NITyDMM
MikhailovskyTheatre (St. Petersburg, Russia)
https://mikhailovsky.ru/en/

MikhailovskyTheatre - "Ballet at Home" 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eASysqdHzKo
Opéra National de Bordeaux (France)
https://www.opera-bordeaux.com/nuriya-nagimova-16273

Opéra National de Bordeaux - Danseurs en confinement “Ballet Preljocaj”  de Nuriya Nagimova. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmGy8h1TFS8

Opéra de Nice (France)

http://www.opera-nice.org/fr/saison-ballets

Opéra Nice Côte d'Azur - 55th day on lockdown - "I feel you"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCq0r0KaaTU
Opéra Nice Méditéranée -  12th day on lockdown -  "Workout"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks3mRHGx4Xc
Opéra National de Paris (France)
https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/artists/ballet

Opéra National de Paris - "Dire merci"  Message de soutien du BNP (Ballet National de Paris)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIiG14Ggmu0&t=34s

Opéra National de Paris - Confinement 2020 - Remerciements du Ballet du BNP (Ballet National de Paris)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hllbH71TfZE

Opéra National de Paris - Les danseurs offrent un ballet en visioconférence réalisé par Cédric Klapish

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiM-x4fPFRI&t=26s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiM-x4fPFRI&t=194s
Opéra National du Rhin - Saison OFF - Dance me to the end of love - Leonard Cohen (in French - Video dedicated to all essential workers)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcvCWeSrsws
Semperoper Ballett (Dresden, Germany)
https://www.semperoper.de/en/whats-on/ballet.html

Semperoper Ballett at home: Dancing through the day 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJASR8xUrNo
The National Ballet of Canada
https://national.ballet.ca/Homepage

The National Ballet of Canada - Bach to Barre! Staying Home with TSO  mus(Toronto Symphony Orchestra)  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_AxMA_dE4Q

The National Ballet of Canada - Dancing in Isolation 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTi9o3PZemY

Staatsballett Berlin (Germany)
https://www.staatsballett-berlin.de/en/

Staatsballett Berlin - From Berlin with love | Creating in Times of Corona https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7Vt2MVJk4o