Author: Ezra Dickinson

Mother Mask (2012)

(2012) mask created for Mother for you I made this performance.

 

I only have a few images of my mother taken within the last ten years. When I imagined creating a mask of my mother I found myself feeling lucky to have this image as my only and best photo. I have the color original. In a progression of performative ideas, I xeroxed the color into only black and white. My first use of the xerox’d photo of my mother was for a Ten Tiny performance, for this performance I made a dress out of 80 copies of my mother’s face.
For this mother mask, I gave myself the task of finding a store bought mask that had the same expression as my mother in this photo. Taking multiple copies I began to recreate my mother’s face overlaid on the preexisting mask (of Hillary Clinton).
My mother has a healthy fear of the government that is amplified by her imbalance. I thought it was a poetic gesture with a mother’s son portraying her face skin deep over Hillary, walking the streets searching for the last few ferries among the cement of the big city.

 

Photo Anthony Rigano

Photo Tim Summers

The NM Urn (2012)

(2012) Cardboard sculpture for gallery installation, with New Mystics collective

 

Created as a memory of the past, this urn is entirely made from cardboard. Standing nearly five feet tall, this work was created for a gallery installation by the New Mystics at Seattle Central College. Photos highlight my contributions.

 

Then I burned the urn, I plan to place the collected ashes into a small ceramic man urn.

Manifest Destiny’s Child (2012) film

(2012) Music Video, Corespondents, Seattle WA (Related to Mother… Film and Performance)

 

Music video created for the Corespondents and the performance of Mother for you I made this. Filmed and edited by Douglas Arney (of the Corespondents). Choreographed and performed by Ezra Dickinson. Music video features 14 versions of Ezra Dickinson and one that is not Ezra. The concept for this video is a remembrance for Ezra of growing up with a schizophrenic mother.

 

La Boca (2012)

(2012) Mural, Neighborhood of La Boca, Buenos Aires Argentina.

 

Mural painted as a gift to the neighborhood of La Boca. Walking through Buenos Aires I was approached and asked if I was a painter (my pants had paint splatters all over them). When I said yes, I was presented with this wall and asked if I wanted to paint something, of course I said yes. For three days I painted on a very precarious ladder, while kids blew up firecrackers, little grandmothers fed kittens, and the whole neighborhood collected by me to watch this mural take shape. It was an amazing experience.

 

STar (2012)

(2012) Mural

 

Commissioned by Sound Transit for display on Capital Hills’ former red wall around the construction site of the light rail station. For the holidays, ten artists were paired with ten nonprofit organizations to create a work of art on a holiday star. I was paired with Velocity Dance Center. I created this geometric line pattern using painter’s tape and acrylic paint.

 

Photo Alex Garland

projects: SDP

Seattle Dance Project 

 

Project 7 (2014)

 

Dancer and movement collaborator
Performances:
ACT Falls Theatre, Seattle WA

 

photo Gabe Bienczycki

Project 5 (2012)

 

Dancer and movement collaborator
Performances:
ACT Falls Theatre, Seattle WA

 

photo Gabe Bienczycki

Mother Printed Poem (2012)

(2012) Text block printed on muslin, created for Mother for you I made this performance.

 

In developing my route for the performance of Mother for you I made this, I found myself gravitating towards the Federal Court House because I felt its backdrop during the performance could stand in as a symbol for the machine of America that forgets so many of its parts. I wanted to write a poem speaking to a courtroom and its judge: an only child pleading with the court/country’s constituents to see the forgotten and vulnerable, an only child pleading for the rights of his institutionalised mother. In my short film Listen I read this poem to an empty counsel chamber in Seattle’s City Hall. 

 

Photo Nate Watters

To create this work I first had to measure the length between a desirable grove of trees located in the courtyard of the Court House. Having the exact distances between each tree, I started to create the layout of each word and each sentence. I had to take into consideration the direction that the poem would unfurl from my belly and how the audience was going to be viewing this work as I wrapped this poem through the trees. Once I had these steps completed this allowed me to determine the total length that was going to be needed to both complete the poem and also begin sewing the full length of muslin together. In total this poem is a hundred and fifty feet long. I hand printed each letter of each word, meticulously measuring each sentence so that it fell in the middle of its allotted length. I created a special undershirt that had a built compartment that housed and allowed for the poem to look as though it was being pulled from my belly. When the poem was wrapped in the trees it created a five pointed star, I think of this as not a nod to the stars on the American flag but a ritual space delineation each and every time I completed the task of wrapping. I am truly proud of this particular performance element. I feel this work digs deep to speak truth to power, and for my love of my mother. (from Mother for you I made this performance)

 

Photo Nate Watters

Photo Nate Watters

Photo Nate Watters

Allosaurus Mask (2012)

(2012) mask created for the performance of Mother for you I made this

 

Inspired by looking through National Geographic as a child, this mask was modeled after a photograph that always stuck in my memory–a brightly colored model of an allosaurus tied down riding in the back of a pickup truck. I made this mask using cardboard, masking tape and acrylic paint. This is a very light weight mask that has found a role in numerous short films, namely Dinosaurs and Sea Hawks and Foreign and Familiar, in addition to setting the stage for the closing moments of Mother for you I made this.

 

Please Don’t Touch.. (2011)

(2011) Performance. Commissioned by the Live At The Film Forum series. Seattle WA

 

Directed and developed by Actually Really (Ezra Dickinson and Paurl Walsh) 
Sound by Paurl Walsh
Video by Douglas Arney
Choreography/performance by Ezra Dickinson
Please Don’t Touch The Ballerina by Actually Really was the first stage in experimentation using motion sensors attached to the performer generating and modulating the sound for the performance in real time. The idea that we are playing with is filming a dancer improvising while having the motion sensors attached, capturing both movement and sound. Next the composer takes the footage of the dancer improvising and generating sound, and composes the sound by reorganizing the dancer’s movements. In the final stage the dancer learns the new composition by way of the reorganized and composed video footage. In this process we take the composer and turn him in to the choreographer, and take the choreographer and turn him in to the composer.
This work’s foundation is built on cycles. Each of the three main components has a repeated pattern built on the frame of a forty-eight minute performance. Actually Really is a collaboration formed by Paurl Walsh and Ezra Dickinson to explore new technology in performance and sound.

 

Please don’t touch the ballerina Press Review:

Seattle Times: Dance and wireless technology combine