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Artist Statement
I see performance as an alchemical process. I make performance and performance installations to shift the energy of a space and to allow for a collective experience of presence in a disconnected and over-mediatized world. I create ritualized “machines” and “scores” that involve processing my own body as both agent and object or inviting viewers to process or witness me in a game-like system. These works continue my investigation of the body on a continuum from material to icon to character, and allow me to occupy multiple positions along that continuum, often at the same time.
I design these amalgams of body, movement, and material to catalyze social critique: an alchemy of realism. Where are we headed in terms of consumption, media, environment, and food supplies? I work with found materials and re-purposed objects, cast-offs, and ordinary substances (like Cheetos and tampons) re-envisioned. I use things that bind and transform-- physical movement, wax, ace bandages, plastic packaging—to make myself into a post-societal human paquet congo (the vodou wrapped objects whose contents determine their power).
For example, in “Papoose” (the video culmination of a live performance) I bind myself to young trees with ace bandages recovered from the trash, exploring wrapping and rocking as transformative processes (the piece was made directly after the earthquake in Haiti). I am performing outside a hut I have built from trash, a kind of emergency preparedness kit cum luxury condo of the future. The video, the performance, and the hut are all part of my ongoing “The Hut Project”, a series of site-specific huts made of locally sourced found materials. Each hut acts as a temporary dwelling and container for live performance, having tea with guests, and community discussion on topics such as sustainable housing, water quality, and permaculture. “I set off to seek my fortune and I got a little lost and then I remembered what you said…” is also part of “The Hut Project”. A 3 hour durational performance made for Hut #5, it consisted of 9 rituals that reinvented civilization in micro-form through activities such as crawling, guarding, harvesting micro-greens, and preparing food for the audience.
I was trained intensively in classical ballet, modern dance, and choreography, and this history informs my physical skill, use of body, ways of working improvisationally, and appreciation of live presence. I was trained equally intensively in analytic philosophy (with a Ph.D. from Princeton). My training in these two traditional forms shapes my desire to work in the fold that generates mind and body. Before that, I grew up in a cluttered basement in Brooklyn; I have used found objects as the glue for alchemical processes ever since.
I see performance as an alchemical process. I make performance and performance installations to shift the energy of a space and to allow for a collective experience of presence in a disconnected and over-mediatized world. I create ritualized “machines” and “scores” that involve processing my own body as both agent and object or inviting viewers to process or witness me in a game-like system. These works continue my investigation of the body on a continuum from material to icon to character, and allow me to occupy multiple positions along that continuum, often at the same time.
I design these amalgams of body, movement, and material to catalyze social critique: an alchemy of realism. Where are we headed in terms of consumption, media, environment, and food supplies? I work with found materials and re-purposed objects, cast-offs, and ordinary substances (like Cheetos and tampons) re-envisioned. I use things that bind and transform-- physical movement, wax, ace bandages, plastic packaging—to make myself into a post-societal human paquet congo (the vodou wrapped objects whose contents determine their power).
For example, in “Papoose” (the video culmination of a live performance) I bind myself to young trees with ace bandages recovered from the trash, exploring wrapping and rocking as transformative processes (the piece was made directly after the earthquake in Haiti). I am performing outside a hut I have built from trash, a kind of emergency preparedness kit cum luxury condo of the future. The video, the performance, and the hut are all part of my ongoing “The Hut Project”, a series of site-specific huts made of locally sourced found materials. Each hut acts as a temporary dwelling and container for live performance, having tea with guests, and community discussion on topics such as sustainable housing, water quality, and permaculture. “I set off to seek my fortune and I got a little lost and then I remembered what you said…” is also part of “The Hut Project”. A 3 hour durational performance made for Hut #5, it consisted of 9 rituals that reinvented civilization in micro-form through activities such as crawling, guarding, harvesting micro-greens, and preparing food for the audience.
I was trained intensively in classical ballet, modern dance, and choreography, and this history informs my physical skill, use of body, ways of working improvisationally, and appreciation of live presence. I was trained equally intensively in analytic philosophy (with a Ph.D. from Princeton). My training in these two traditional forms shapes my desire to work in the fold that generates mind and body. Before that, I grew up in a cluttered basement in Brooklyn; I have used found objects as the glue for alchemical processes ever since.
CV
JILL SIGMAN
www.thinkdance.org
http://thinkdance.wordpress.com
thinkdance@attglobal.net
Born and works in New York City
EDUCATION
A.B. (1989), M.A. (1996), Ph.D. (1998) in Philosophy, Princeton University
Certificate in Theater and Dance (1989), Princeton University
Ballet: 12 years; Joffrey Ballet School, Ballet Center of Brooklyn,
Modern: Humphrey, Limón, Graham, Horton, Hawkins, Contact Improv, Composition
Flamenco: Mariquita Flores (NY), Marina Baden (Berkeley)
Roma (Gypsy) Dance: Amala Summer School (Valjevo, Serbia)
Creative Space/Performance (Janine Antoni)
Mixed Media Sculpture (Silya Kiese)
Movement For Actors (Kriszta Bodonyi)
Dance History/Writing (Elizabeth Kendall, Mindy Aloff)
Improv Theater (Vincent Van den Elshout)
Voice (Elissa Weiss)
Alexander Technique (Diann Sichel)
Bartenieff Fundamentals (Laban Institute for Movement Studies)
Neuromuscular Patterning (Dianne Miller)
Pilates (Kathy Grant, NYC; Ingrid van Houcke-Lootvoet, Belgium)
GRANTS, AWARDS, HONORS
Re-Performer in Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present MoMA Retrospective (2010)
Acadia Summer Arts Program (ASAP) (2011)
EMPAC Residency (2010)
The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council MCAF (2009)
The Mertz Gilmore Foundation (2008)
The Jerome Foundation (2008, 2010)
The Bay and Paul Foundations (2008, 2007)
The American Music Center Live Music for Dance Program (2008, 2007)
The Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation (2011, 2008, 2006, 2003)
Guapamacataro International Residency in Art and Ecology (2007)
Denison University Guest Residency (2007)
New York State Music Fund (2007)
The Puffin Foundation (2007, 2001)
Movement Research Artist in Residence (2005-07)
NYSCA Commissioning Funds (2005)
Maggie Allesee National Ctr for Choreography at Florida State University: Choreographic Fellow (2005)
TAKT Kunstprojektraum Gallery, Berlin: one month residency and performance/exhibition (2005)
MOVE:133 Beekman, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Performance Residency Program (2005)
Kri Foundation Invited Guest Residency: New Delhi, INDIA (2005)
University of Iowa Guest Residency (2004)
Gina Gibney Dance "Women at Work" Award for Choreographic Achievement (2003)
Swarthmore Project Artist Residencies: Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA (2009, 2003, 2000)
Space Grants from the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center (2001, 2003)
Space Grants from Gibney Dance Center (2001, 2002, 2003)
PERFORMANCE:
The Hut Project (2011): multi-site series of structures made of found materials with live performance
Written On (2011): solo performance in which audience writes on wax shell of performer
Brain Song (2011): ritual for solo performer, 5 calf brains, and audience with cell phones
Connecting (2010): solo performance ritual based on the work of Marina Abramovic
Nat. Mur.: 5 Rites (2010): 2 ½ hour performance installation; rites of passage w bones, branches, cow heart
Our Lady of Detritus (2009): portable public performance for 3 performers at 5 outdoor NYC sites ; site specific rural solo performance in Michoacan, Mexico
Nu-Gro (2009): solo performance installation with sculptural “paquet congo”
ZsaZsaLand (2009): multimedia performance for 6, live DJ, environment, and audience with cell phones
Aftermath (2009): solo performance installation with wax balls and mummification
Office Rituals (2008): solo guerrilla performance in vacated corporate office space
Paradise and Its Dis-Ease (2008): 4 hour performance ritual with DJ, cheetos, musicians, and 3 performers
RUPTURE (2007): multimedia dance for 5 performers set in a ring of broken eggshells
Pulling the Wool (2004): multimedia performance carnival involving movement, live music, sculpture, video, and 11 performers in a 2-story gymnasium
Flood Light (2003): movement/light collaboration with lighting designer Severn Clay
I Cut the Rug in My Day (2003): piece for 6 performers to be viewed from 3 sides
Vision Begins (2002): interdisciplinary solo show with movement, video, and text
Warbody (2002): performance installation for 8 performers, photo exhibit, video, and sound installation
Guerrilla Diversions (2001): nomadic site-specific solo show made for P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
Fragile (2001 adaption; 1999 original): solo show originally made for former Belgian printing house
Fiver (2001): collaboration with composer/pianist Sharon Zhu and a toy piano
Shelter (1999/2000): solo about homelessness with soundscore involving people living on the street
Athena, Goddess of Wisdom (1999/2000): solo involving sound footage of a seminar in analytic philosophy
GUN SHY (1999): site-specific solo involving 8 waterguns, made for the gardens at Wave Hill
Ach, Rosalie! (1998): solo involving 18 lbs. of mussel shells
Town Within A Town (1998): collaboration with director Bobo Jelcic and five actors in Groznjan, Croatia
The Big (1998): duet for two performers and a large wooden bowl
Démaquillage (1998): quintet for five dancers who draw on themselves with lipstick
Still Life (1997): sextet for six women and a table of real and fake fruit
Embers (1997): solo
I Have Seen the Scar Become a Star (1996): solo
COMMISSIONS
St Nicks Alliance Brooklyn exhibition space (upcoming 2012); GroundWorks Dance Theater (2010); Pennsylvania Dance Theatre (2010); 92nd St. Y Harkness Dance Center (2011 and 2001); Dance Theater Workshop (2008); Danspace Project (2007); Dixon Place (2004); Red Dive (2003); P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center (2001); Dancing in the Streets (1999); The Puffin Foundation (New York on New York) (1999)
NEW YORK VENUES
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center; Brooklyn Museum; HERE; Dance Theater Workshop; Danspace Project; P.S. 122; Dixon Place; Dancing in the Streets (Wave Hill); 92nd St Y; Brooklyn Arts Exchange; Williamsburg Art Nexus; Movement Research at the Judson Church; LMCC/Creative Time; Office Ops; The Construction Company; University Settlement; Dancenow Festival; Chashama; The Westbeth Gallery; Next Stage Company; Brooklyn College; Brecht Forum; The Art Students League of NY; Queens Botanical Garden; Solar One; Van Cortlandt Park; Port Authority Bus Terminal
INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL VENUES
CODA International Festival (Oslo, Norway)—upcoming October 2011
Performance Art Festival TOUGH (Osijek , Croatia)
TAKT Kunstprojektraum (Berlin, Germany)
American Center (New Delhi, India)
Vooruit Drukkerij (Ghent, Belgium)
Theater Bellevue (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Le Regard du Cygne (Paris, France);
National Theater (Beograd, Serbia)
Cankarjev Dom (Ljubljana, Slovenia)
City Theater (Paks, Hungary)
Plus additional appearances in Belgium, Croatia, Poland
Regional appearances in NJ; California; Tennessee; Pennsylvania; Iowa
ALTERNATIVE PERFORMANCE SITES (partial list)
•A dilapidated Belgian printing house •A medieval Croatian hill village •An 18c. munitions storage building •A drained out swimming pool •The gardens at Wave Hill •A 19c. 2-story gymnasium •A fence on the Gowanus Canal •A residential New Jersey street •A replica of a Victorian naturalist’s field hut •A road in rural Mexico •A vacated corporate office suite
RELATED POSITIONS
jill sigman/thinkdance: Artistic Director (1998-present)
Movement Research: Artist Advisory Council Member (2008-present)
Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography: National Resource Council Member (2006-present)
Dance NYC: Advisory Board Member (2009-present)
Gibney Dance Center Artist Advisory Group (2010-present)
Eugene Lang College (The New School): Associate Professor of Performance Theory (2008)
Brooklyn College (CUNY): Adjunct Associate Professor of Philosophy of Art (2000)
InYourSpace Projects: Co-Founder of Art-Based Activist Organization (2001-present)
Portland Dance Lab [National Dance Project RDDI]: Faculty Mentor (2006)
Movement Research Performance Journal: Guest Editor (2002, 2006, 2007)
The Gender Project: Artist Advisory Board (2002-2005)
Manhattan Neighborhood Network Public Access Cable: Producer (2001)
JILL SIGMAN
www.thinkdance.org
http://thinkdance.wordpress.com
thinkdance@attglobal.net
Born and works in New York City
EDUCATION
A.B. (1989), M.A. (1996), Ph.D. (1998) in Philosophy, Princeton University
Certificate in Theater and Dance (1989), Princeton University
Ballet: 12 years; Joffrey Ballet School, Ballet Center of Brooklyn,
Modern: Humphrey, Limón, Graham, Horton, Hawkins, Contact Improv, Composition
Flamenco: Mariquita Flores (NY), Marina Baden (Berkeley)
Roma (Gypsy) Dance: Amala Summer School (Valjevo, Serbia)
Creative Space/Performance (Janine Antoni)
Mixed Media Sculpture (Silya Kiese)
Movement For Actors (Kriszta Bodonyi)
Dance History/Writing (Elizabeth Kendall, Mindy Aloff)
Improv Theater (Vincent Van den Elshout)
Voice (Elissa Weiss)
Alexander Technique (Diann Sichel)
Bartenieff Fundamentals (Laban Institute for Movement Studies)
Neuromuscular Patterning (Dianne Miller)
Pilates (Kathy Grant, NYC; Ingrid van Houcke-Lootvoet, Belgium)
GRANTS, AWARDS, HONORS
Re-Performer in Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present MoMA Retrospective (2010)
Acadia Summer Arts Program (ASAP) (2011)
EMPAC Residency (2010)
The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council MCAF (2009)
The Mertz Gilmore Foundation (2008)
The Jerome Foundation (2008, 2010)
The Bay and Paul Foundations (2008, 2007)
The American Music Center Live Music for Dance Program (2008, 2007)
The Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation (2011, 2008, 2006, 2003)
Guapamacataro International Residency in Art and Ecology (2007)
Denison University Guest Residency (2007)
New York State Music Fund (2007)
The Puffin Foundation (2007, 2001)
Movement Research Artist in Residence (2005-07)
NYSCA Commissioning Funds (2005)
Maggie Allesee National Ctr for Choreography at Florida State University: Choreographic Fellow (2005)
TAKT Kunstprojektraum Gallery, Berlin: one month residency and performance/exhibition (2005)
MOVE:133 Beekman, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Performance Residency Program (2005)
Kri Foundation Invited Guest Residency: New Delhi, INDIA (2005)
University of Iowa Guest Residency (2004)
Gina Gibney Dance "Women at Work" Award for Choreographic Achievement (2003)
Swarthmore Project Artist Residencies: Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA (2009, 2003, 2000)
Space Grants from the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center (2001, 2003)
Space Grants from Gibney Dance Center (2001, 2002, 2003)
PERFORMANCE:
The Hut Project (2011): multi-site series of structures made of found materials with live performance
Written On (2011): solo performance in which audience writes on wax shell of performer
Brain Song (2011): ritual for solo performer, 5 calf brains, and audience with cell phones
Connecting (2010): solo performance ritual based on the work of Marina Abramovic
Nat. Mur.: 5 Rites (2010): 2 ½ hour performance installation; rites of passage w bones, branches, cow heart
Our Lady of Detritus (2009): portable public performance for 3 performers at 5 outdoor NYC sites ; site specific rural solo performance in Michoacan, Mexico
Nu-Gro (2009): solo performance installation with sculptural “paquet congo”
ZsaZsaLand (2009): multimedia performance for 6, live DJ, environment, and audience with cell phones
Aftermath (2009): solo performance installation with wax balls and mummification
Office Rituals (2008): solo guerrilla performance in vacated corporate office space
Paradise and Its Dis-Ease (2008): 4 hour performance ritual with DJ, cheetos, musicians, and 3 performers
RUPTURE (2007): multimedia dance for 5 performers set in a ring of broken eggshells
Pulling the Wool (2004): multimedia performance carnival involving movement, live music, sculpture, video, and 11 performers in a 2-story gymnasium
Flood Light (2003): movement/light collaboration with lighting designer Severn Clay
I Cut the Rug in My Day (2003): piece for 6 performers to be viewed from 3 sides
Vision Begins (2002): interdisciplinary solo show with movement, video, and text
Warbody (2002): performance installation for 8 performers, photo exhibit, video, and sound installation
Guerrilla Diversions (2001): nomadic site-specific solo show made for P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
Fragile (2001 adaption; 1999 original): solo show originally made for former Belgian printing house
Fiver (2001): collaboration with composer/pianist Sharon Zhu and a toy piano
Shelter (1999/2000): solo about homelessness with soundscore involving people living on the street
Athena, Goddess of Wisdom (1999/2000): solo involving sound footage of a seminar in analytic philosophy
GUN SHY (1999): site-specific solo involving 8 waterguns, made for the gardens at Wave Hill
Ach, Rosalie! (1998): solo involving 18 lbs. of mussel shells
Town Within A Town (1998): collaboration with director Bobo Jelcic and five actors in Groznjan, Croatia
The Big (1998): duet for two performers and a large wooden bowl
Démaquillage (1998): quintet for five dancers who draw on themselves with lipstick
Still Life (1997): sextet for six women and a table of real and fake fruit
Embers (1997): solo
I Have Seen the Scar Become a Star (1996): solo
COMMISSIONS
St Nicks Alliance Brooklyn exhibition space (upcoming 2012); GroundWorks Dance Theater (2010); Pennsylvania Dance Theatre (2010); 92nd St. Y Harkness Dance Center (2011 and 2001); Dance Theater Workshop (2008); Danspace Project (2007); Dixon Place (2004); Red Dive (2003); P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center (2001); Dancing in the Streets (1999); The Puffin Foundation (New York on New York) (1999)
NEW YORK VENUES
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center; Brooklyn Museum; HERE; Dance Theater Workshop; Danspace Project; P.S. 122; Dixon Place; Dancing in the Streets (Wave Hill); 92nd St Y; Brooklyn Arts Exchange; Williamsburg Art Nexus; Movement Research at the Judson Church; LMCC/Creative Time; Office Ops; The Construction Company; University Settlement; Dancenow Festival; Chashama; The Westbeth Gallery; Next Stage Company; Brooklyn College; Brecht Forum; The Art Students League of NY; Queens Botanical Garden; Solar One; Van Cortlandt Park; Port Authority Bus Terminal
INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL VENUES
CODA International Festival (Oslo, Norway)—upcoming October 2011
Performance Art Festival TOUGH (Osijek , Croatia)
TAKT Kunstprojektraum (Berlin, Germany)
American Center (New Delhi, India)
Vooruit Drukkerij (Ghent, Belgium)
Theater Bellevue (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Le Regard du Cygne (Paris, France);
National Theater (Beograd, Serbia)
Cankarjev Dom (Ljubljana, Slovenia)
City Theater (Paks, Hungary)
Plus additional appearances in Belgium, Croatia, Poland
Regional appearances in NJ; California; Tennessee; Pennsylvania; Iowa
ALTERNATIVE PERFORMANCE SITES (partial list)
•A dilapidated Belgian printing house •A medieval Croatian hill village •An 18c. munitions storage building •A drained out swimming pool •The gardens at Wave Hill •A 19c. 2-story gymnasium •A fence on the Gowanus Canal •A residential New Jersey street •A replica of a Victorian naturalist’s field hut •A road in rural Mexico •A vacated corporate office suite
RELATED POSITIONS
jill sigman/thinkdance: Artistic Director (1998-present)
Movement Research: Artist Advisory Council Member (2008-present)
Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography: National Resource Council Member (2006-present)
Dance NYC: Advisory Board Member (2009-present)
Gibney Dance Center Artist Advisory Group (2010-present)
Eugene Lang College (The New School): Associate Professor of Performance Theory (2008)
Brooklyn College (CUNY): Adjunct Associate Professor of Philosophy of Art (2000)
InYourSpace Projects: Co-Founder of Art-Based Activist Organization (2001-present)
Portland Dance Lab [National Dance Project RDDI]: Faculty Mentor (2006)
Movement Research Performance Journal: Guest Editor (2002, 2006, 2007)
The Gender Project: Artist Advisory Board (2002-2005)
Manhattan Neighborhood Network Public Access Cable: Producer (2001)
Our Lady of Detritus, performance (2007)A live performance made for sites near the Guapamacataro Hacienda in Michoacan, Mexico, the piece mixes Mexican mortuary and devotional imagery with fluorescent junk foods to create new devotional icons for an American consumer culture of decadence and decay.
Our Lady of Detritus, performance (2007)A live performance made for sites near the Guapamacataro Hacienda in Michoacan, Mexico, the piece mixes Mexican mortuary and devotional imagery with fluorescent junk foods to create new devotional icons for an American consumer culture of decadence and decay.
Aftermath, performance (2009)A live performance in an installation of shredded office paper, fake flowers, Christmas lights, and wax body parts. Sigman casts wax shells of her body as another performer sells them to viewers, brokering deals individually. Some of the shells contain fake money. The post-apocalyptic tourist site creates images of mummification and money worship.
Aftermath, performance (2009)A live performance in an installation of shredded office paper, fake flowers, Christmas lights, and wax body parts. Sigman casts wax shells of her body as another performer sells them to viewers, brokering deals individually. Some of the shells contain fake money. The post-apocalyptic tourist site creates images of mummification and money worship.
Aftermath, performance (2009)A live performance in an installation of shredded office paper, fake flowers, Christmas lights, and wax body parts. Sigman casts wax shells of her body as another performer sells them to viewers, brokering deals individually. Some of the shells contain fake money. The post-apocalyptic tourist site creates images of mummification and money worship.
Nat Mur: 5 Rites, performance (2010)A live performance consisting of five 30-minute rituals. Nat Mur is a homeopathic remedy dealing with societal grief. Sigman did this performance after taking a very high potency dose of this remedy. In this section, she attempts to crawl with as many organ-like objects on her back as possible, while blindfolded.
Nat Mur: 5 Rites, performance (2010)A live performance consisting of five 30-minute rituals. Nat Mur is a homeopathic remedy dealing with societal grief. Sigman did this performance after taking a very high potency dose of this remedy. Here, in the final ritual, she wraps a cow heart with bandages for 30 minutes.
Nat Mur: 5 Rites, performance [detail] (2010)A live performance consisting of five 30-minute rituals. Nat Mur is a homeopathic remedy dealing with societal grief. Sigman did this performance after taking a very high potency dose of this remedy. In the final ritual, she wraps a cow heart with bandages; the finished cow heart is show here.
Nu-Gro, performance with installation (2009)A performance installation consisting of “paquet congo” made of cast off bags, plastic, branches, fake money, and wax. Sigman performs in that environment, as another empowered object, wrapped with rope, fake moss, parts of pantyhose, and wire. She carries a backpack of soil, a box of seeds in her mouth, and emergency water packets tied to a tampon, and plants the seeds in the soil at the end of the performance. Nu-Gro presents a dystopic future of remembered practices of being animal/human.
Nu-Gro, performance with installation (2009)A performance installation consisting of “paquet congo” made of cast off bags, plastic, branches, fake money, and wax. Sigman performs in that environment, as another empowered object, wrapped with rope, fake moss, parts of pantyhose, and wire. She carries a backpack of soil, a box of seeds in her mouth, and emergency water packets tied to a tampon, and plants the seeds in the soil at the end of the performance. Nu-Gro presents a dystopic future of remembered practices of being animal/human.
The Game, performance (2009)“The Game” is a performance within a performance, an interactive structure within a set of activities and objects called ZsaZsaLand that took place in an unmarked project room in Bushwick. Viewers were invited to move to the caution tape and photograph Sigman (blindfolded) on their cell phones. Sigman danced to loud music from a live DJ alternating with silence. Viewers could choose to text their photos, post on Facebook or refrain in this party-meets-detention-cell.
The Bodies Score, performance (2010)Two performers engage in a shape-shifting “score” in which they continually take on the sternum of another body and have to say “male”, “female”, or “don’t know” to tag their own changing physicality. They migrate toward a pile of giant cow femurs.
Papoose, performance (2010)In this ritual, Sigman binds herself to young trees with ace bandages recovered from the trash. She explores wrapping and rocking as transformative processes. This piece was made in response to the earthquake in Haiti.
Papoose, performance (2010)In this ritual, Sigman binds herself to young trees with ace bandages recovered from the trash. She explores wrapping and rocking as transformative processes. This piece was made in response to the earthquake in Haiti.
Hut #3, temporary structure for sleeping and live performance (2010)Hut #3 is part of The Hut Project, a series of site-specific structures built of found and re-purposed materials. It was built of found objects including traffic cones, ace bandages, police sawhorse, Mac boxes, and packing materials at EMPAC in Troy, NY. Sigman slept in Hut #3 and did daily movement mappings of the space surrounding the hut.
Hut #4, temporary structure for sleeping and community dialogue (2010)Hut #4 is part of The Hut Project, a series of site-specific structures built of found and re-purposed materials. It was built of found objects including wormwood sticks, plastic, tampon applicators, discarded clothes, and wormwood leaf sachets in discarded pantyhose at The Border in Bushwick, Brooklyn, close to the toxic Newtown Creek where the wormwood was harvested. Hut #4 was surrounded by vermi-compost in which guests planted seeds. Sigman lived temporarily in Hut #4 and invited local guests to have tea and talk with her about their neighborhood. The hut also housed 2 community dialogues about housing and sustainability.
Hut #4, temporary structure [detail] (2010)Tampon applicators as door frame fetish on Hut #4. Hut #4 is part of The Hut Project, a series of site-specific structures built of found and re-purposed materials. The huts imagine a future when our current uses for our trash will be long forgotten and ordinary objects will become fetishized as the ritual icons of an ancient culture.
Hut #5, temporary structure with living plant system, for live performance and community dialogue (2010)Hut #5 is part of The Hut Project, a series of site-specific structures built of found and re-purposed materials. Hut #5 incorporated a living system including herbs, sprouts, and oyster mushrooms. It was also the site of a 3 hour durational performance, 2 free movie nights, 4 community discussions, and a dance party.
I set off to seek my fortune and I got a little lost and then I remembered what you said…, performance (2010)3 hour solo performance made for Hut #5. It was composed of 9 rituals and 18 definitions that were typed sequentially between rituals. The rituals included harvesting micro-greens, and preparing food for the audience. The piece re-invents the components of civilization (e.g. agriculture) in micro-form.
Written On, performance (2011)A performance made for the “Educational Bodies” conference at Harvard University, Sigman created a “theory-body machine” in which audience members were invited to inscribe theoretical texts onto her casing of hot wax, then whisper their text in her ear. Sigman spoke the whispered texts through a microphone so they were projected into the large lecture hall. She explores the idea of the body’s facticity as always present in academic theorizing.