Peripheral ARTeries
Eike Waltz
My “soloists”, mature elegance. My “corps de ballet”, like the turmoil on the streets of Berlin… 1972, whilst joining the Royal College of Art in London Professor Misha Black, my mentor, encouraged me to transform my “Pink Point Shoe Company” on paper into life-size three dimensional Sculptures. “Just do it”, rumbled the sculptor Sir Eduardo Paoluzzi, “you will never regret doing it. As you will forever regret not having done it”.And then, 1973, my “Pink Point Shoe Company” became one of the more interesting exhibitions seen in London. According to an Italian Art Magazine the show was interpreted as a metaphor for man’s alienation illustrating Marx’s remark that alienated labor and I quote “mortifies man’s body and ruins his mind”. Wow, was that on my mind? The “Pink Point Shoe Company” exhibited in different choreographies in London, Harlow, San Francisco and last 2010 in Santa Cruz at our “Sex & City” show. It was always
a dream of mine to bring the static figures a life in an animation. After seeing Rudolf Nureyev’s La Bayadère performed by the Paris Opera Ballet, the “Kingdom of the Shades” scene (meaning the “Kingdom of the an interview with Spirits”) became my reference for the animation called “The Shade of Amani”. The ballet La Bayadère was most likely influenced by an 1839 touring company of authentic Indian bayadères visiting Paris and London. Their celebrated principle dancer was called “Amani”. During 1855 it was reported that Amani had hung herself in a fit of depression in fog-bound London while longing for her beloved India. A typical artistic side line tragedy, buried in archives, woke my interest. A side line tragedy which inspired me to bring the “Pink Point Shoe Company” alive. Alive in a choreography only imaginable in computer animation.Digital animation does not only provide the viewer but also the choreographer with seemingly endless view angles inclusive imaginary by allowing the animator to add a new dimension and surreal interpretation creating a digital life form blurring our traditional perception of reality accepting and allowing Nico Amortegui us to fall in love with alien images. 24