I have been working in print, video, and performances media to explore relationships between movement, music, and human vitality. Since my father a collaborative pianist, has had numerous open-heart surgeries and a heart-transplant, I have been searching for metaphors for the heartbeat and its connection to music. It seems to me that my father's will-to-live is linked to his vigorous life as a concert pianist, and that musical and artistic creation are very much connected to vital energies.
I am currently making installations, prints, and performances that associate percussion rhythms and internal rhythms of the body. Through learning various styles of African dance and drumming, I have begun to associate the drum rythm with the heartbeat. Most likely the first instrument ever used, the drum often creates the structure and 'pulse' of a piece of music.
In a recent collaborative piece with master drummer Henri Gao Bi, choreographer Adesola Akinleye, and several dancers, I combined video projection with dance and drumming using the drumbeat to suggest the heart sounds. The visual pattern of the drummer's hands projected onto the bodies of the performers created a unifying, background rythm. This image is a still from the video that was projected onto two of the performers.