VIGIL: Prayers of Healing for the Living and the Dead: SETTING THE SCENE

Cilla Vee VIGIL Final Performance (Summoning Chimes section) Photo by Fred Hatt

One week to prepare!!!

Tuesday June 23^rd 2020, Chashama sends official letter of acceptance and contract agreement documents for “Enliven NYC” grant award funded by NYSCA and the NEA.

I scramble around like crazy for eight days!

Gathering, buying and borrowing materials I’ll need.

The next Tuesday - June 30^th, I’m driving overnight from Asheville NC to Brooklyn NY.

I-26 / I-81 / I-78. 12 hours.

(Sally Saturn knows this route like the back of her tire treads.)

View of Brooklyn Bridge from the park. Photo by Fred Hatt

Wednesday July 1^st, I arrive at 9am.

Chashama’s storefront gallery space, Furman Street building, Pier 6, Brooklyn Bridge Park – facing East River waterfront.

Gorgeous location!

Directly across the street from the gallery. The ship is an oyster restaurant! Photo by Fred Hatt

Pier 6, Brooklyn Bridge Park. Photo by Fred Hatt

One Brooklyn Bridge Park - facing waterfront. Front of building on Furman Street. Photo by CEB

Cavernous space, stretching back 48 feet from its 18-foot wide front windows. Raw. Concrete floor. Small bathroom in back with toilet and sink.

Good Wi-Fi from coffee shop next door. (Yes – COFFEE SHOP RIGHT NEXT DOOR!!! Keigo’s – good coffee, sweet peeps.)

Front of Chashama gallery space and Keigo's Coffee. Photo by CEB

Looking into empty gallery space. Photo by CEB

And here is the inside! It's a blank slate just waiting to be filled! Photo by CEB

I have the key. I let myself in. It’s mine.

MINE FOR 30 DAYS!

Click here to see photographs:

FLICKR ALBUM - Setting The Scene:

Day 1 – Entering Space

Me and my STUFF! Photo - CEB Selfie

View from my window. Photo by CEB

CHASHAMA – New York based organization founded by Anita Durst in 1995 to honor the legacy of deceased theatrical visionary Reza Abdoh. Chashama works with property owners to secure temporary spaces for the presentation of avant-garde and experimental artists.

ENLIVEN NYC – sponsored by the New York State Council for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. A multi-location project created by Chashama to provide Live Art during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Performers maintain social isolation in storefront gallery spaces, creating work viewable to the public through window.

VIGIL: Prayers of Healing for the Living and the Dead

My response to the current crises of global pandemic and violence.

COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter.

A 30-day vigil.

Each day a different theme.

30 prayers in 30 days.

From Cilla Vee VIGIL Final Performance (Wandering Souls section) Photo by Fred Hatt

PREPARING THE SPACE

There are steps necessary to prepare the space.

Each of these can be ritualized and dramatized as HEALING VIGIL themes, intentions and Prayers.

Day 2 – Cleaning

Physical and energetic cleansing of my environment.

VIDEO - Day 2 – Cleaning

From an "Admirer"!

Day 3 – Tabula Rasa

Creating a blank slate.

VIDEO - Day 3 – Tabula Rasa

Day 3 - Tabula Rasa. Photo by CEB

Day 4 – Feng Shui

As a mode of organization (for my materials and mind).

VIDEO - Day 4 – Feng Shui

Day 4 - Feng Shui. Photo by CEB

Day 5 – Light

Setting track lights and noting the daily sunlight rhythm.

VIDEO - Day 5 – Light

Day 5 - Light. Photo by CEB

Click here to see photographs:

FLICKR ALBUM - Days 1 – 8:

DAILY ROUTINE

I am staying at Anita’s penthouse apartment across the river in the Lower Manhattan Sea Port.

The Durst family driver, Glenn, takes Sally to park her at their upstate home, where they are residing for the summer.

Each day my commute is by water. The East River Ferry from Wall Street to Pier 6, or to Dumbo and walk across the park.

For 30 days I’m on the water and on the waterfront.

I am floating.

Daily Ferry ride. Photo - CEB Selfie


Interview with - and photo by - Juliette Buffard Scalabre

(When walking back late over the Bridge, I would encounter the BLM Occupation outside City Hall. Very cool bunch of Antifa folks – festival like activities – music, juggling, hoola hoops, picnics, dogs, camping out etc. – but with a determined and resolute undertone. Cops were all lined up along the street next to the occupied area. This standoff went on for most of the month. However, the occupation was eventually dispersed with the usual heavy-handed tactics. I noticed a number of young black women in the NYPD and wondered where they stood, or how they felt in regards to the protests and subsequent police responses.)