Dancing With Rothko, 2018

Shot with a Nikon FM on Kodak Portra 400 film. Dancing with Rothko - This is a part of an experimental series of shots I took at the MoMa with the help of my friend, Ivana, and Mark Rothko’s monumental canvas, No. 16, 1958 (Red, Brown, and Black). Shot on Kodak Porta 400 film, I wanted to compliment (or answer) Rothko’s visual language with an actual person. My friend's red and black color-block blouse was a perfect contrast of colors that would speak to the canvas behind her, but in order to achieve the effect of Rothko’s visual language in human form a thought suddenly came into my head - I had Ivana spin in front of the canvas and slowed the camera shutter down to 3 seconds. It is well known in spiritual circles that dancing releases the energy that the human soul stores to communicate with the Earthen elements. In having Ivana spin I thought to release some of the emotional shamanic power Rothko often infused into his canvas - the soulful energy he used to make his canvases “breathe” and communicate, as it were. The effect is that of her kind of “dancing” with the canvas and, in a surreal moment, almost blending into it.