Performance 3

Critical Analysis

Erika Harrsch/Collaborative – Performance

                When attending Bodymaps, a collaborative piece that had been on campus, I was not sure what to expect and was very pleasantly surprised to find out what a unique and beautiful piece this was. This piece was put together by our own visiting artist, Erika Harrsch, for the visuals, as well as compositions by Paola Prestini and the very talented cellist was Jeffrey Zeiger. The piece took each of these artist’s talents and created a show that was gorgeously entrancing as well as thought provoking.

            The visuals created by Harrsch in collaboration with the Zeiger on the cello was a beautiful mix of media that I would never have thought of. The visuals brought together very innocent images such as butterflies, as well as very sexual images that somehow still managed to maintain modesty.  The colors were used so gracefully together and blended well in the entirety of the piece. The silhouettes of men and women making love, of sorts, went across the screen as Zeiger played the cello. In some of his pieces there was a more simplistic plain white backdrop with lights of different colors shining upon the surface. All decisions both visually as well as audio, had been put together so smoothly and seamlessly, yet it is very obvious that there is a tremendous amount of work involved. The hard work and talent of each of the artists is easily seen by the audience. Zeiger had said before he played a very fast piece, that Prestini had said, “If you don’t mess it up, you’re not going fast enough.” That being said the audio had been so intense at some points that with the visuals as well at times one could almost feel overwhelmed, but in an enjoyable way.

            This is one of the most unique performances I have seen. I am really fascinated and in admiration at the idea of the visual arts and the audio arts coming together. Watching Bodymaps inspirational in that art can lead one down so many different roads and it really just matters what opportunities one jumps on and gives their heart to as these artists had done collaboratively. Two questions I would ask are: Is she going to expand off of this project for her next project and do something related? And how long did it take her to put all of this together?