Newsome’s work draws its name from the form’s five basic moves: hand performance; catwalk; floor performance; dips and spins; and duckwalk. Each is presented by a single dancer dressed in a bright hue chosen by Newsome to symbolize the particular vogue element she showcases. As they traverse the stage in a loose circle, the performers’ movements—by turns improvised and scripted— coalesce in a rhythmic whole. Accompanying the dancers are five musicians who mimic their choreography through a similar combination of pre-determined and extemporaneous improvised passages, with renowned opera singer Stefanos Koroneos and distinguished vogue commentator Kevin Jz Prodigy interjecting throughout. His back to the audience, a laptop computer by his side, Newsome “conducts” the ensemble from the foot of the stage. Characterized by angular and linear body movements and the assumption of a series of rigid poses, vogue was inspired by the stylized self-presentation of fashion models on the catwalk and in the pages of magazines. As Newsome’s work illuminates, it also evokes a number of qualities long associated with the medium of drawing: the latter’s emphasis on repeated gestures; its mapping of time and space. Employing a specially designed motion-tracking software that traces flashes of color in real time, Newsome translates the dancers’ dexterous gestures into colorful line “drawings” that appear on his laptop during the performance via live video feed. “[T]he dancers,” the artist explains, “act as my pen, creating lines, shapes, landscapes, and an array of narratives.” Previously relying on a traditional video camera, for the creation of FIVE (The Drawing Center) Newsome utilizes an Xbox Kinect camera, which will be placed at a strategic location on stage, enabling him to capture more accurately the nuances and trajectories of the dancers’ highly-stylized movements. The resulting images recall modernist abstraction and the physicality of 1950s action painting. Projected on-stage during the performance that generates them, printed as works on paper, the linear abstractions will also serve as the basis for future sculptural work. In addition to Newsome’s new, live commission, The Drawing Center is presenting video documentation of FIVE (ARTHK)—staged at the 2012 Hong Kong International Art Fair—and the images associated with that performance. Given Newsome’s emphasis on improvisation and use of local dancers and musicians, although inter-related,
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