Jen DeNike, Scrying

Scrying, a "non-narrative performance ballet" that was performed as part of PopRally's event series at MoMA on January 12, 2010, marks something of a formal departure for Jen DeNike, who typically deals in video and photographic media. Many of her consistent artistic motifs--explorations of sexuality, gender, spirituality, power, movement, the human form--are still present in this work, and here she, choreographer Melissa Barak and dancers Grace McLoughlin and Lucy Van Cleef discuss the piece. Joanna Agnelli, the daughter of medium Jackie Barrett, both of whom worked closely with DeNike regarding conversations about Scrying, provides greater insight into the stimuli behind the work's creation. The ballet is dedicated to Barrett and artist Damien Echols who inspired the project. Also included is some disembodied audio of the performance itself (24 minutes).



DeNike spoke with Michael Rush during PERFORMA09 about this piece and Twist, her PERFORMA contribution here.

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