Monument (2008)
Monument is a 50-minute dance theater work for seven dancers that explores the relationship between the human environment and the natural environment, and the extent to which that relationship has become unbalanced. Monument is built around the notion of inadvertent (and in some cases disastrous) human monuments, like the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island that, along with the Great Wall, is one of few man-made structures visible from space and at its peak is taller than the Statue of Liberty.
Hailed by critics and audiences at its Chicago premiere in April 2008, Monument follows the voracious, frenzied course of our individual acts of consumption along the one-way ride to the trash-heap. This final destination, the landfill - that accidental social sculpture - looms large in Monument, a physical culmination of desire and expenditure. With Monument, the artists hope to encourage examination of personal practices of consumption.
Credits
- Concept and direction: Carrie Hanson
- Choreography: Carrie Hanson with the company
- Installation: Joel Huffman/Vertu
- Video: Jackie Kazarian and Doug Stapleton
- Sound design: Richard Woodbury
- Music by The Deviants, Vinko Globokar, Zbigniew Karkowski, Ulf Langheinrich, The Rolling Stones, Iannis Xenakis
- Costume: Abigail Glaum-Lathbury
- Performance: Julius Carter, Christina Gonzalez-Gillett, Damon Green, Carrie Hanson, Jonathan Meyer, Nikki Pinchott, Cara Sabin
Monument premiered at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts in Chicago in April 2008.
Monument was supported by funding from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Mayer and Morris Kaplan Family Foundation, the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, the Weasel Fund, Dance Bridge/Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.