Collaborative performance with Beth Elliott, for Shundahai, an event with Exploding Cinema at Area10, 11/09/04.

For more than two years, Beth and I have collaborated on a series of site- and context-responsive performances titled Melting Plot. Hand-animated, overhead-projected interactions between a female marionette made of ice and an odd cast of composite acetate engravings (shape-shifting Umbrella Men, Parachute Dog, Earthworm et al) generate different proto-cinematic narratives, all subject to the ice puppet’s gradual disintegration. (See also number 19.)

For this first 'screening' from a platform high above the audience, the animators are concealed behind the projection screen to create a cinematic context. In subsequent shows, however, we present the low-tech manual workings of Melting Plot live animations as integral to the performance.