Joan Jeanrenaud: Aria at Yerba Beuna

There are some details that will be missing until I get to the other side and scan some stuff, but I just can’t wait to post pictures of Jean’s performance piece a couple of weeks ago at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, here in SF.  It was a collaborative piece where she played her cello live with an pre-recorded composition of sounds, sitting at the center of 4 screens of images which had a sort of collage of images, all related to the theme air.  Speaking of rotating: she sat on a podium that took one hour to rotate a full time (very cool and subtle!).  She played 2 Saturdays in a row and during the week between, her cello was suspended and one could play it with the use of a whistle-like device-didn’t see this part, but such a fascinating cycle.  All of this was part of a contemporary Bay Area artist event happening that night.  Very artsy-another highlight was the 2 dudes outside dressed in pink and playing tennis.

Some backstory on Joan:  Joan is a founding member of the Kronos Quartet, a cellist and a composer.  Her work is very contemporary, pushing sound and music into new territory like such artists as John Cage and Philip Glass.  She has toured the world and played with the best!  And she is the sweetest person you could ever meet.

So, last minute, they didn’t have any particular outfit in mind for the performance and my friend Michele thought that something of the wooly felted kind might do the trick.  I had a cute little dress that I had been holding onto for years, just waiting for some reinvention, and it fit Joan like a glove.  Best yet: it provided a nice base to sew on some aria-inspired materials.  Michele suggested “clouds” and I had a more abstract white felt piece that was very sculptural and abstract-this got sewn onto the skirt to create a strangely prongy skirt.  I tried discharging the top to create a painted pattern of cloud splotches, but the discharge did not take and so I sponged dye onto some silk noil and made little clouds (some silver gutta on the center of alternating ones).  Add a feathery scarf to it for wear-about-ability and it was a darn sharp looking little outfit!  

I love a challenge!