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| Nate's harmonium, laptop, and found objects |
This was the first show in the Black Box that I had a chance to see as an audience member. That being said, I'm really glad it was my good friend
Nathan Wheeler's performance piece about the loss of his childhood home in the
Four Mile Canyon fire on September Sixth, 2010. I knew going in that this would be an emotional and powerful piece, and indeed it was. The Daily Camera did a great
review of the work that tells more about the background of the piece. Nate describes the performance as the progression of his emotional processes. He used the show for catharsis, as well as to make a product to give back to the community that supported him throughout the ordeal.
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| Skye and Luke warming up |
I took Sept.Sixth to be a piece in four movements each describing Nate's emotional cycles and evolution during and after the fire. Nate sat on the ground and played harmonium and sang alongside police-radio scans. This built up with a contact mic piece with objects retrieved from the site including metal pieces, concrete, and anything that survived. Finally he reincorporated the microphone singing and screaming through heavy distortion. In this time, you could see anger, loss, acceptance, and denial morph through his facial expressions as he brought the piece to a close. Luke Iwabuchi performed a Butoh type dance during this movement that also captured the anguish of the loss by fire.
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| Curtis Broome on drums |
Nate then moved to his guitar with Curtis Broome on drums. Their duo began with a slow, introspective melody. While seemingly optimistic, there were still feelings of anger and loss. This was especially true when the second half of the song began in a much faster tempo, complete with double bass pedal and heavily distorted power chords. Unfortunately, at the showing I went to (Friday) there were projection malfunctions, and I was unable to see the projections Nate had worked so hard on. With that being said, it was nice to be able to focus on the performers.
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| Nate and Curtis |
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| Mark playing on found aluminum chunks |
The next movement represents Nate's emotions and reactions the day after the fire.
Janet Feder,
Mark McCoin, and Luke performed on chunks of melted aluminum connected to contact mics. Janet and Mark also added in other subtle textures with prepared guitar and a lap steel, as well as playing on found objects. Meanwhile, Skye Hughes and Nate performed a contact dance that was very reminiscent of the soul-searching he must have been going through. This movement was also important as part of Nate's process to try something new by performing through dance. The sounds and movements in this part of the performance were beautifully crafted and choreographed and evoked a strong connection to Nate's 'immediate' acceptance of the event.
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| Nate on Harmonium |
Finally, as part of the cycle of the performance, Nate returned to his platform and harmonium to perform a recapitulation of his first piece. He also brought along his
10-key... Nate's most infamous input device. Using this tiny keypad, he triggered subwoofer frequencies and recordings of his harmonium and other frequencies. He completed the cycle, shut down his computer, and humbly stood up for applause.
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Skye Hughes, Janet Feder, Mark McCoin, Nate Wheeler,
Luke Iwabuchi, Curtis Broome |
Nate received this residency last year, long before the fire and was originally set to perform in October. His original theme was to explore how humans relate to nature, so the culmination of the two events was more than appropriate. However, his ability to use the artistic process as a form of therapy was a courageous and powerful statement to his resilience as both and artist and as a human being. As soon as the day after the fire, he returned to the site one to two times a week to collect photographs and objects. I've never seen anyone deal with tragedy in such a powerful way, and I congratulate Nate using the process to give back to the community that supported him throughout his ordeal.
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| Found Objects |
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| Sculpture of melted metal and glass |
