Featured Artist

I was invited to a unique preview of this upcoming show, Contra Naturam, at ICEHOUSE Project Space. For the uninitiated, this is an intimate space where artist KK Kozik invites artists to install, perform, and collaborate with the original ICEHOUSE on her property in Sharon, CT.

This is not just a work of art, but a collaborative masterpiece. Artist Janet Biggs and dancer Davian Robinson, under the curation of KK Kozik, have created a three-channel video installation. This is a profound response to William Buckley Jr’s harsh words on disability, a smart riposte that challenges and inspires.

Enclosed in the intimate space of the ICEHOUSE, the viewer immerses in sound, vibration, and video of both Robinsons’ eclipsing performance and the remarkable feat of ice boat racing, filmed by Janet Biggs, each navigating terrain, space, and sound. Sound is time, and time becomes sound, echolocation threading a path through space. One of the earliest forms of sea navigation was sensing waves pounding on a hull, both their depth and distance to land, allowing early navigators another way to explore using the senses of touch and sound.

Similarly can the wind be heard against the sail as the iceboats, attached to the sharpest blades, fly across the ice, cutting exquisite lines akin to drawings onto the surface. These winter ice races are becoming a rarity due to global weather shifts.

This inspirational collaboration ignites its sensorial trail here moving forward with the support from the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology at Virginia Tech to work together throughout the following year, creating choreography based on spatialized sound and building new adaptive technologies, working with Biggs, Robinson, two mathematicians, a physicist, and sound engineer. Watch this incredible work launch here while you can.

“A dream first starts with a vision” – Davian Robinson

Opening August 10th 4-6pm public welcome
34 Upper Main Street, Sharon CT
By appointment until September 14th
Still images courtesy of ICEHOUSE Project Space, Janet Biggs, and Davian Robinson.

Janet Biggs is a research based interdisciplinary artist known for her immersive works in video, film and performance, often focusing on extreme landscapes and situations navigating the territory between art, science and technology.

Davian Robinson is a dancer, USA Paralympic athlete for cycling, and public speaker amongst a long list of achievements.

“Dancing for someone who’s blind, that’s unheard of. Not many people know of blind dancers, so for me this is to break through that barrier… to bring inclusiveness into a space that they have not seen before.” – Davian Robinson