The Ackland Art Museum will serve as a forum where one form of art will interact with another this month.
On March 15, The Ackland will host performances inspired by artist Yayoi Kusama. The Ackland has an exhibit on display titled "Yayoi Kusama: Open the Shape Called Love." The exhibit opened on Jan. 31 and will close on April 12.
The live performances being held are in conjunction with the series and will be the third dance performance in relation to the exhibit.
Killian Manning is the choreographer for the upcoming performances. Manning is a professor at UNC-Greensboro with scholarly interests in performance studies, cultural studies, feminist theories, embodiment, and identity. She has also been a choreographer for 35 years.
In addition to a dance performance in the gallery, Manning has also choreographed a piece that will be combined with an experimental film titled "Self-Obliteration (1967)." Manning said she drew a lot of her inspiration from Kusama’s battle with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
“She suffers from OCD, so that idea of obsession and repetition is a wonderful choreographic tool to work with,” Manning said. “The idea of repetition and obsession with the movement repeats so often that it becomes distorted in some ways. We had a lot of fun in the studio playing with that idea of the movement.”
Allison Lathrop is the Ackland’s head of public programs. Her favorite piece featured in "Yayoi Kusama: Open the Shape Called Love" is the most recent work presented, titled "Infinity Mirror Room - Love Forever."
“You feel like you're either like a small dot on a big planet, or that you're like part of the bigger cosmos,” Lathrop said. “It has that kind of weird, but amazing feeling. Even though it looks like a small little cube, once you actually interact with it, it's just as mind-blowing as all of her other work.”
Lindsey Hale is the Ackland's public programs coordinator. Her role consists of scheduling guests and handling a lot of the logistics behind the scene's details. She enjoys this aspect of her job because it allows her to watch the audience react to the art itself and to the performances.
