Cult of Color: Call to Color
Notes on a Collaboration
March 22 – April 27, 2008
Arthouse at the Jones Center proudly presents Cult of Color: Call to Color – Notes on a Collaboration, March 22 – April 27, 2008.
The Story
Cult of Color: Call to Color is a chapter in Trenton Doyle Hancock’s ongoing artistic mythology. Hancock’s paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, and individual performances work together to represent his characters, the Mounds, the Vegans, and other imaginative creatures, who are at the center of the artist’s unfolding operatic narrative. Hancock’s characters and their dilemmas embody themes of life and death, the struggle between good and evil, love, authority, spirituality and moral relativism. Biblical in scope, mythological in content, and comic book in style, the story tells of a battle fought between the gentle Mounds and the mutant Vegans. In this chapter of Hancock’s story we are introduced to the Vegan minister, Sesom (Moses spelled backwards) who, like his namesake, offers the possibility of salvation to the unruly and war-like Vegan followers through the intervention of a loving character, Painter. And, just as all the Vegans appear to convert to the goodness of “The Cult of Color,” one antagonist, Betto Watchow, resists. The ensuing violent struggles for power between these forces of will are at the core of this episode of Hancock’s tale. Balancing moral dilemmas with wit and a musical sense of language and color, Hancock creates a painterly space of psychological dimension.
The Collaboration – a ballet and an exhibition
This unique project originated with Stephen Mills, Ballet Austin’s Artistic Director, who invited Trenton Doyle Hancock and Graham Reynolds to collaborate with him to create a new ballet based on Hancock’s ongoing visual narrative. Reynolds composed the music as well as the sound environments, and Mills created the unique choreography. Hancock conceived the story, designed the costumes, sets and properties which include a backdrop curtain and fabric made in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and
Museum, Philadelphia.
The exhibition is presented in conjunction with Cult of Color: Call to Color a new ballet commissioned by Ballet Austin and created by visual artist Trenton Doyle Hancock, choreographer Stephen Mills and composer Graham Reynolds. Ballet performances will be held at the AustinVentures StudioTheater at Ballet Austin, 501 West 3rd Street, April 3, 4, 10, 11, 12, with matinees April 6, 12 and 13, 2008.
The Exhibition
The exhibition traces various aspects of this original, cross-disciplinary collaboration among three Texas-based artists – Trenton Doyle Hancock, Houston; Graham Reynolds and Stephen Mills, Austin. Within the Arthouse gallery walls the artists’ inspirations will reveal themselves, and the form and structure of the work, its very essential nature, will be exposed. Additionally, the exhibition will explore the complexity of translating an artist’s visual world into a compelling, innovative performance including original music and dance. The exhibition will present four environmental installations derived from the ballet: the characters, the Forest, the Cave, the Ossitecture and the Battle. The galleries will include Hancock’s paintings, notes, drawings, and formal and informal sketches that inform the design and concept of the production, as well as artworks that inspired the backdrop curtains, stage props, and costumes. Hancock will also create site-specific installation elements at Arthouse. Reynolds’ entire score will be available and his sound elements will texture the artistic spaces. Mills’ working process will be represented through video and video projection as well as photographs.
A catalog will be published.
About Arthouse
Headquartered at the Jones Center in Austin, Texas, Arthouse is the oldest statewide contemporary visual art organization in Texas. Arthouse seeks to promote the growth and appreciation of contemporary art and artists in Texas. Through its exhibitions and programs in Austin and statewide, Arthouse helps nurture artists’ careers and deepen public understanding of contemporary art.
All exhibitions and programs at Arthouse are free and open to the public.
For more information on Arthouse, please visit www.arthousetexas.org ,
or contact Virginia Jones at vjones@arthousetexas.org or at tel. (512) 453-5312.
