Isabel Lewis
Site: Cherokee Street Yoga
On Saturday, June 1st, Isabel Lewis stages a new ‘occasion’ at Cherokee Street Yoga. Considered celebratory gatherings of things, people, plants, dances, and scents, Lewis’ occasions take place in decorated environments where visitors can drift in and out of attention and sociality. Lewis unfolds a specific dramaturgy attuned to her guests and their energies to shape a live experience using choreography, music, spoken address, and storytelling in ways that allow for conversation, contemplation, dancing, listening, or just simply being. Easing the formalities of distanced observation typically found within the theater and exhibition contexts, Lewis is interested in aesthetic situations that move beyond the merely visual and into a site where the entire human sensorium is addressed. Hosted occasions conjure the ancient Greek symposium where philosophizing, drinking, and the erotic were inseparable. Lewis's spoken discourse engages the question of living an "eudaemonic," or flourishing, life in the 21st century. Lewis ponders how to generate a sensibility more deeply attuned to not only human interrelations but also to our intercourse with the entire ecosphere.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Isabel Lewis is of Dominican and American origin and was raised in southwestern Florida. From 2004 to 2009 she lived in New York City and presented commissioned dance work at the Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, Kitchen, Movement Research at Judson Church, New Museum of Contemporary Art, and Performance Space 122. In 2009 she moved to Berlin and began to explore a practice that negotiates different genres and contexts. Drawing from her background in choreography and literary criticism, Lewis uses the occasions to investigate both the role of the artist and the role of the host. Occasions have been presented by the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Frieze London, Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, Kunsthalle Basel, Liverpool Biennial, and Tanz Im August Berlin.
