These videos are inspired by the performance works of grapeshade.
My aim was not to document their performances as such, objectifying the activities, but to capture the elements which make the experience of the performance so movingly unique. Each grapeshade performance creates an uncharted new world that exists only in the moment in which it is being created. It is not a narrative about single persons, but how each individual becomes a medium that fulfills a function and how each element communicates with other elements, so that a strong synergetic field develops.
An important challenge in the making of the videos was to gain an awareness of these connections and relationships; and to create a method for capturing them on video. For the video-shooting I decided to use a basic algorithm, a very simple formula in order to eliminate the conventional choices which are usually available to the video maker. While the rules set were very rigid, the capturing of the images required spontaneous decisions. The editing respects entirely the original time frame axis set by the music.
The videos, I hope, enable the spectator to discover in-between spaces and to participate in the exploration of a new world which is being created in the moment of its improvisation. The videos thus create a point of view that is both complex and revealing of the spirit with which the artist performers are working.
- Carlos Bustamante
