Against the Current
2020
Eastbank Esplanade, Willamette River, Portland, OR
multi-site projection / installation / performance
Tags: Installation, Multi-channel film installation, Performance, Embodied research, Collaboration, Interdisciplinary research, Site-responsive performance, Social practice, Environmental art
Against the Current was a mile-long series of video performance installations stretched along the east bank of the Willamette River, commissioned by the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art for the 2020 Time-Based Art Festival (TBA:20). Created and directed by Fernanda D’Agostino with Mobile Projection Unit, the project explored water as a source of vitality, healing, and turbulence, drawing together performers from Portland, Tokyo, Mexico, and beyond.
The installation unfolded in three main sites: Springs evoked water’s restorative power through immersive projection and performance; Rapids mapped glitched footage of American waterways across the Morrison Street Bridge; and Confluence brought together ritual and embodiment through video mapping, live coding, and live feeds, transforming performances into a phantasmagoric dreamscape.
I appeared both in recorded footage and in live performance along the riverside, contributing embodied movement to the project’s ritual and ecological themes. I joined a global network of collaborators, weaving memory, gesture, and presence into a meditation on water as both force and lifeline.
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Concept, creative direction: Fernanda D’Agostino
Produced by: Mobile Projection Unit
Commissioned by: Portland Institute for Contemporary Art’s Time-Based Art Festival (TBA:20), 2020
Sound score: Crystal Cortez
Performers: Yunuen Rhi, Sophia Wright Emigh, Jaleesa Johnston, Sarah Turner, Sarah Brahim, Yaara Valey, Justin Charles Hoover, Linda K Johnson, Ela Fala Dance Collective, Kusanagi Sisters, among others
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