Interactive Sound Installation Art Pioneer Liz Phillips’ World Premiere “Biyuu” Featuring Professional Butoh Dancer Mariko Endo Reynolds

Brooklyn, NY: June 2 & 3, Roulette presents two enchanting evenings of sound and movement presented by pioneer sound and video artist Liz Phillips, with movement performed by professional Butoh dancer, Mariko Endo Reynolds. Phillips and Reynolds have worked together to produce this energetic, original work titled “Biyuu” (a Japanese word which mimics the sound of bamboo bending in the wind). Their investigation of the body in both potential energy fields and in nature—bamboo, tall reeds and water (recorded at the Edith Read Sanctuary) will be brought to the stage. Biyuu at Roulette is the world premiere of this performance and follows in the footsteps of Phillips enormously successful collaboration with The Merce Cunningham Dance Company.  The culmination of Phillips and Reynolds work has resulted in a beautiful, delicate, visceral audio and visual feast for the audience as these two incredible artists fuse together their undeniable talents.

On the tuned stage Reynolds body will become an antenna as she shifts shape, moving near ground and reaching out. Her body will act as a conductor and the space around her will be activated, creating sound responses. Phillips will translate, transpose and shift spectrums, activating water, sound and color formations as the projections fall on translucent paper scrims and the weather balloon. The paper will act sometimes as the loudspeaker, at other times as a sensor. As Reynolds performs, she will move the weather balloon to capture images and transform the stage. Seen and unseen waves of water, sub audio, audio, radio frequency, ultrasonic and light will become tactile material as Phillips creates a hypersensitive 3D sound and video installation which reinvents the performance landscape.

This project has been funded by many individuals through USA Projects, Parabola Arts Foundation, the David Bermant Foundation and Roulette.

About Liz Phillips
New York-based artist Liz Phillips has been making interactive multi-media installations for the past 30 years, which combine audio and visual art forms with new technologies to create a fascinating interactive experience. Born in New Jersey in 1951, Phillips received a B.A from Bennington College in 1973. In 1981, she co-founded Parabola Arts Foundation, a not-for-profit organization created by five media artists from varied disciplines (music, sculpture, film, video) which provides funding for art-related projects. Phillips has made and exhibited interactive sound and multimedia installations at numerous art museums, alternative spaces, festivals, and public spaces. These include The Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Spoleto Festival USA, the Walker Art Museum, Ars Electronica, Jacob?s Pillow, The Kitchen, and Creative Time, among others. Phillips has also collaborated with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and her work was presented by the Cleveland Orchestra, IBM Japan, and the World Financial Center.

About Mariko Endo Reynolds
Mariko Endo Reynolds is a professional Japanese Butoh Dancer. She trained with the legendary performer Akira Kasai, one of the co-founders of the Butoh movement. She has toured Japan and the United States as a principal dancer in one of Japan’s representative Butoh companies, Dairakudakan. In addition to her foundation of dance, she has studied psychoanalysis and energy healing and that influences her approach to dance as a sculpture of consciousness.