In what is half philosophy paper/half artist talk, Sigman gives a first person account of live, body-based performance, and talks about why it matters—why we might find it important and valuable in a time and culture where its economy and labor don’t seem to justify it. Along the way, she suggests a crucial difference between live and virtual performance and reflects on how live performance cultivates connection and compassion in its viewers, using examples from her own work in performance and installation. Sigman received her Ph.D. from the philosophy department in 1998 and has since gone on to a career as an interdisciplinary artist and performer; this paper is in some sense a “report from the front.”
Friday, December 9 from 4 – 6pm
Robertson Hall, Bowl 2
Reception to follow in the Tower Room, 1879 Hall
For more information about Sigman’s work, see:
- https://www.flickr.com/photos/27503284@N07/albums
- https://vimeo.com/180822780
- http://www.thinkdance.org
Jill Sigman is an interdisciplinary artist and agent of change whose work exists at the intersection of dance, visual art, and social practice. She choreographs with bodies and materials. Working with things we cast off such as “garbage” and “weeds”, Sigman helps us to re-see our environment and envision a future in which we re-connect with the natural world and each other in meaningful and empathic ways. Sigman has built huts out of trash in places such as The Ringling Museum of Art, a community center in Greenpoint, and a fjord in the Arctic, She was originally trained in classical ballet and analytic philosophy, and she has been an Artist in Residence at Movement Research, Guapamacátaro Interdisciplinary Residency in Art and Ecology (Mexico), The Rauschenberg Residency; a Choreographic Fellow at MANCC and the Center for Creative Research at NYU; and a Creative Campus Fellow at Wesleyan University. She is working on a book called Ten Huts which will be published by Wesleyan University Press. She grew up in Brooklyn.