YARDWORK
Interactive, virtual artmaking
YardWork is The Yard’s interactive, virtual art making program. At the heart of this program is our desire to stay connected when we cannot be at The Yard in person. We aim to create a virtual space where you can have personal interaction with artists, which is a hallmark of The Yard’s summer programs.
Although YardWork 2020 has wrapped, be sure to follow us on social media to hear about future YardWork initiatives!
YardWork 2020
From June - August 2020, YardWork featured artists who would have performed in the Yard Arts 2020 summer season, which was cancelled due to COVID-19. Using video, each artist offered an art making task that could be done from home. Learn more about each artist and the responses to their work below.
Notes From The YardWork Artists
TruDee, the alter ego of deborah lohse
June 2020
Rainbow Ribbon Blessing
The Rainbow Ribbon Blessings
TruDee, the alter ego of Deborah Lohse
JUNE
Rainbow Ribbon Blessing
A NOTE FROM DEBORAH LOHSE: TruDee, my alter ego, is a manifestation of optimism, fearlessness, unconditional love and play. She was born in 2014 out of a dare to try on a hot pink onesie with a mullet wig in a San Diego thrift shop. She danced her way out of the dressing room, Long Island accent intact and hasn’t stopped since. She creates short physical dance comedy vignettes, which she uses to transform any space into a stage.
Raphael Xavier
July 2020
The Musician and The Mover
The musician and
The mover
Who Arrange both tone and rhythm in color
Are an Interpretation of sculpture from ash and chaos
Of disparate material
A Prolific ability to build from the ground up and change the rules and moods to mode
To change the tone, change the chord, change the movement to define the age of America
Is Now matter of mortar and pestle
It’s always easy to take another path when the sidewalk is closed
But Not here
Side walk coated with sweat and blood
The healing process exposes the scars that put us here in the first place
Smeared across the street with an open invitation to gaze at the open sores built from a sturdy foundation
The blacksmiths and craftsman at my side.
On our back, hands, knees, head and shoulders
The smell of soundscapes are riveting
Sax valves are pivoting
Gears are grinding in my sleep
Somebody’s got a dream about it
Erecting beams about it
It don’t stop cause you read about it
Those cool cats lived in dog years
Sometimes territory marked in tears
We bridged the gap and they burned the bridges
Stranded
And the concrete slabs became blank headstones
Manor of Morrisania
Raphael Xavier
Responses
Raphael Xavier
Distilling the art of breaking to its purest form, Raphael Xavier takes breaking vocabulary to uncharted territory. A multifaceted creator who draws inspiration from his many talents in dance, music, photography, and writing, Xavier’s original works are a transcendent mix of poetry, precision and spontaneity.
Jenna Pollack
August 2020
Scan, Select, Re-enchant, Animate
Originally slated as the Boston Schonberg Residency Fellow in our Yard Arts season, Jenna Pollack is our next YardWork artist. Extending the framework from Jenna’s ongoing collaborative process, we invite you to reimagine the mundane items found in your own home.
The Project
At the core of Jenna’s work is collaboration and process. The intersection of her artistic and institutional teams is explicit, allowing the process to explore the poetics of politics and the purpose of play. It scaffolds relationships as groundwork, not patchwork, for creativity, centering the drive toward a more sustainable arts ecosystem.
With sustainable design engineer Dr. Benjamin Linder, they have prototyped wooden figures that operate as both characters and landscapes. Their research explores the construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction of physical and emotional states to consider: what actions are within our control? What do we lose through inaction, and what happens when that is outrun out by the inertia of our previous choices? Nine months after meeting at the Olin College of Engineering, the dancer collaborators were invited into the research and into the studio, beginning the physical language-building between them and the dancers.
Join in!
Join in their team’s research by responding to the prompt: “scan, select, re-enchant, and animate”. Explore whatever surrounds you at home to re-envision everyday items and how you can interact with them.
Collaborative Team:
Dancer Collaborators: Victoria Awkward, Frederick Moss, Jenna Pollack, Whitney Schmanski
Engineer and Co-Director: Dr. Benjamin Linder
Sound Designer: Dewey Dellay
Lighting Designer and Production Manager: Harrison Burke
Responses
Jenna PollAck
Jenna Pollack is a Boston-based choreographer, performer, and educator. She teaches at Salem State University and for the Boston Ballet Trainees, and has worked for Springboard Danse Montréal since 2013.
Cover Photo: Jenna Pollack by Jenny Bergman of The Secret Bureau of Art + DesignTruDee photo by Whitney BrowneRaphael Xavier photo courtesy of Raphael XavierJenna Pollock by Jenny Bergman of The Secret Bureau of Art + Design