LOVE: Un/Balanced | 2019 | Video Projection and Performance | Dimensions Vary

This collaborative performance features Desiree D'Alessandro alongside Nicholas and Melissa Tangredi

This work explored the theme of love in a hybrid work that also integrated interactive, sculptural, and digital components. Foam core cards were provided to the public where they were invited to write words, personal testimonies, and more that they associate with relationships on each card. For the duration of the exhibition, the artists utilized these cards and worked together to assemble a "house of cards," which spanned several feet high, symbolizing that love is a fragile balancing act that takes patience, collaboration, and perseverance. As things faltered, the artists tried again. The audience resonated with this work not just in the opportunity to reflect on their relationships, but also in their reflections on life in general---all good things take time, effort, and balance. For the digital component, projected on the house of cards assembled was a video montage of romantic moments in cinematic history. The discord between how easy love is represented in media and the amount of effort the artists exuded constructing the house of cards acted as a reminder that in real life, things don't always come easy. A love where it takes work, companionship, equal and balanced commitment and dedication is a love that truly lasts.

 This site-specific performance was enacted with the help of the Arts Council of Hillsborough County Individual Artist Grant and a Support Stipend from the Can Serrat Artist Residency Program.  

I explored walking as a simultaneous conditioning routine and meditative ritual that resonated with the history of the surrounding Can Serrat site in Catalonia. My walks ranged from the quiet town of El Bruc and the beautiful trails within the Monterrat Natural Park, to the religious paths of Sant Jeroni to the remote alleyways and bustling thoroughfares of the city of Barcelona. During these visceral explorations, I began to experience a discomforting psychological  and metaphysical phenomenon. I became inspired by the Catalan legends and lore surrounding the Pesanta, an enormous black dog with steel paws that causes nightmares, angst, and a feeling of a heavy chest or heart.  I began to revolve my site-specific investigative walking performances around La Caça per que el Pesanta / The Hunt for the Pesanta. While I hunted for the beast as the source of my feelings of uneasiness during my 30-day residency, I began to get the feeling that the beast was also hunting me. The Pesanta's presence amplified when I received news that my father was terminally ill. The Pesanta still lingers in my mind and in my heart to this day.  

 This collaborative performance features Desiree D'Alessandro alongside Rozalinda Borcila, Laura Bergeron, Raul Romero, and Victoria Skelly  

The Tampa Museum of Art, USF Contemporary Art Museum, and Going Green Expo at the SunDome have been stages for this performance. Collaborators assumed the role of  experimental researchers interested in walking as the subject of study – what it means, how it’s interpreted, and the related social contexts of  space and power. The researchers shared with viewers their peculiar walking kit and an extensive “walking typology,” a list of walking forms  covering everything from pilgrimage to protest march, from cakewalk to walking the line. Viewers agreed to assist in the continuation of these studies and were tagged with their walk selection and performed a demonstration for the researchers as well as other viewers. These performances invariably contaminated the entire space of their deployment,  pointing to everyone present as a walking performer-both at the event,  and in life (Rising & Falling: How We Walk, 2008).