Video
Leaving Odysseus - 2009
This collaboration between dance/video artist Mike Baker and Chris Coon explores how our connections, meetings and engagements in the city (and indeed, our lives) are governed by indeterminacy through change - that we are always leaving - drawn away to the next engagement which itself holds the seeds of the next departure. This project has become a study of 'Leaving' as an event and how this lends a poignancy and pathos to our dealings with others.
This video is one in a series called "In The Company Of Strangers" produced, directed and edited by Mike Baker
View more video work by Mike Baker.
Not Here Reprise - 2009
"What is the appropriate behaviour for a man or a woman in the midst of this world, where each person is clinging to his piece of debris? What`s the proper salutation between people as they pass each other in this flood?"
In the Company of Strangers - AUT Masters in Art and Design, majoring in dance and video. Not Here Reprise is my next study carried out in collaboration with the Vancouver BC musician and composer, Chris Coon. The title is a blend which reflects our joint involvement with the concept of departure. I am indebted to Chris, not only for his cooperation and for the synchronicity of our shared vision, but for the sublime, compelling qualities of his layered sounds.
I wanted to combine here a sensory composite of figuration and abstraction - a view from the somatic body looking out. The haunting improv flute in the station is once again provided by Edouard Heilbronn. Many thanks to both musicians.
- Mike Baker