author: Reviewed by Jennifer Shennan
date: March 16 2002
source: the Evening Post
The BodyCartography Project, directed by Olive Bieringa and Otto Ramstad, has been performing site-specific events in and around Wellington since 1998. Their work crosses boundaries between dance, installation art and kinetic sculpture. It has high visual impact and offers a series of images that can seem like the eye’s equivalent of haiku or stylized photographs that advertise fashion in landscape settings.
This year’s location was around the shore of the lagoon, in the water, over the rocks, across to the far side and up the grassy knoll – all a most attractive part of Wellington’s waterfront. The passing traffic in the background, and flying objects above – be they birds or aeroplanes – seem sometimes to be part of the work and emphasized the sense of mediative stillness among the thirteen performers.
Accompaniment was provided by an ensemble of eight musicians, led by Michelle Scullion. Seated near the boating sheds, they played effective sequences with Latin rhythms, a jazz feel, or more percussive sounds. Bieringa’s work. after years of study in Europe with celebrated tutor Mary Fulkerson, shows that influence and yet carries its own stamp of response to the city where she grew up.
