Isaac Julien: Cast No Shadow

What does performance art mean to you?
Performance art has a very specific history, but I am not sure if it relates to what contemporary artists are doing today. I have utilized performance as a way of working with actors or models in a Bressonian sense, where a number of unrelated events are evoked in specific locations, which are filmed and edited to create a semblance of what could be called performative acts. I like the idea of thinking about the performative because of how it relates to Judith Butler’s well-known idea of playing with or against gender roles and common-sensual assumptions about difference and sexual identity. Performa is quite a special performance-art biennial, so for me it feels very cool to be invited to be in it.

How would you describe your Performa piece, Cast No Shadow?
I originally conceived Cast No Shadow when I was approached by [Performa curator] RoseLee Goldberg, who said to me that she thought it would be great to make a performance of my work. It is a collaboration that has been developed with Russell Maliphant into a live evening of dance and film. The trilogy of works originated as audiovisual film installations—two have live choreography by Russell, and one is a stand-alone film with choreography by Stephen Galloway within it—and focus on aspects of location and dislocation, voyages and traveling. A starting point for True North (2004) is the story of Matthew Henson, the African-American explorer now considered to be the first man to set foot on the north pole. In Fantôme Afrique (2005), Ouagadougou is featured, the capital city of Burkina Faso that is at the heart of the Pan-African film festival, FESPACO, and that continues to keep a powerful hold on the imagination of modern-day filmmakers. Finally Small Boats (2007) considers the journeys of people traveling across the Mediterranean from Africa to Europe, seeking a dream of a better life. The figure of Vanessa Myrie appears both live and cinematically as a significant but elusive figure in all three works. It also makes reference to Italian cinema and includes scenes filmed in locations from Visconti’s The Leopard. The five-screen audiovisual installation of is titled WESTERN UNION: Small Boats, and can be seen in my solo exhibition at Metro Pictures Gallery.

How does multimedia art maintain its relevance in our age of YouTube?
Multimedia art is about the event and experience of actually witnessing something which is ephemeral. It is art which is not for sale, and its rise in popularity is an actual backlash against the Internet, I would argue, but I see my work as audiovisual installations with live art and dance components—I hate the term multimedia art!”

Cast No Shadow is at BAM Harvey Theater (651 Fulton Pl between Ashland and Rockwell Pls, Fort Greene, Brooklyn; 718-636-4100) Nov 6, 8–10. Julien’s solo show WESTERN UNION: Small Boats is at Metro Pictures (519 W 24th St between Tenth and Eleventh Aves, 212-206-7100) until Nov 17.

Video

True North
Encore II (Encore II (Radioactive))