On November 21, BOXBLUR hosts a special, intimate concert with acclaimed singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, whose close friendship with the artist has resulted in multiple collaborations and intersections between Cummings’s painting and Wainwright’s music. While tickets are sold out for Wainwright’s concert, BOXBLUR will post highlights of the event at a later date. In advance of Wainwright’s performance, Cummings has created a life-size theatre set inspired by 19th century puppets and theaters—a nod to Cummings’ own history as a radical puppet maker and to the imagery and allusion in both his and Wainwright’s work, both of which explore LGBTQ+ identity, adolescence, sexuality, coming of age, psychology, equity, and justice. Though Muse was conceived prior to Covid-19, the history of puppetry as an art form to animate and convey the needs of human society, particularly during difficult times, are as relevant a reference as ever. The idea of puppets as a proxy for human experiences is particularly cogent in this moment of danger associated with physical encounter.
BOXBLUR Mission Statement:
BOXBLUR emerged from a history of performances at Catharine Clark Gallery. In 2016, this effort was formalized as BOXBLUR, a fiscally sponsored program of Dance Film SF. Annually, BOXBLUR hosts dance films in the experimental category selected by the SF Dance Film Festival, a central component of its partnership with Dance Film SF.
The mission of BOXBLUR is to host and produce socially engaged performances, which are realized in conversation with a visual artist's work. BOXBLUR often collaborates with other organizations that amplify communal values. Notably, it has partnered with museums, cultural and non-profit organizations, particularly in the SF Bay Area, such as the ICA San Jose, Berkeley Art Museums, Fort Mason Center for Arts & culture, Gray Area, Immigration Institute of the Bay Area, Musuem of the African Diaspora, San Francisco Art institute, The LGBT Asylum Project, SF Arts Education Project, Minnesota Street Project, St. Joseph's, Words on Dance, Immersive Arts Alliance, Small Press Traffic, California College of the Arts, Hubbell Street Galleries, Photo Alliance, International Rescue Committee, Oasis Legal Services, Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, and Roots Community Health. BOXBLUR seeks to expand the possibilities for performance in non-proscenium settings.
BOXBLUR events have included musicians and composers such as Rufus Wainwright, Shinji Eshima, Classical Revolution, Clubfoot Orchestra, SF Contemporary Music Players, Sarah Cahill, Phyllis Chen with Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese, Kaveh Rastegar, and EOS Ensemble; dancers and choreographers such as Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, Oliver Halkowich, Dance Kaiso, Catherine Galasso, Benjamin Freemantle, Adji Cissoko, Michael Montgomery, and Maya Gurantz; performance artists and actors such as Monique Jenkinson aka as Fauxnique, Viktoria Naraxsa, Marvin K, White, and Ellen Sebastian Chang; master printers, Erin McAdams and Mullowney Printing; a fashion event organized by Leila Talukder; and readings with poets and writers such as Vincent Katz, Forrest Gander, Norma Cole, Yedda Morrison, Cliff Hengst, and Tongo Eisen-Martin.
BOXBLUR has also produced programs off-site at Texas Contemporary with Houston Ballet and Chris Doyle; at sites throughout the US during the 2020 election with Nina Katchadourian's project Monument to the Unelected; and on the SF Bay and Oakland Estuary with Shimon Attie's Night Watch and in collaboration with Immersive Arts Alliance and more than 40 different non-profit organizations and artists. Night Watch received press from many outlets, including on the PBS Newshour by Mike Cerre.
BOXBLUR is supported through private donation and has been funded by the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, Candy Jernigan Foundation for the Arts, Pew Charitable Trust, and many other individuals and companies.
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