By Sam Skopp
This past Saturday, the Camera Obscura Art Lab hosted a dance workshop titled Cultivating the Expressive Body with instructor Jeremy Hahn. Originally taught at the Annenberg Beach House, Hahn has brought this workshop, which combines meditation and improvisational dance, to the Camera Obscura Art Lab. Accompanying Hahn was guitarist and composer Eric Pham, who provided improvisational musical accompaniment to participating dancers.
“There’s a lot of freeing your body and freeing your mind,” said Cultural Affairs Coordinator Naomi Okuyama.
Dancers of all levels were welcome at this event, which combined some of Hahn’s personal approach to improvisational dance with existing methods for contact improvisation, as the style of dance is sometimes called.
Additionally, narrative painter Zeal Harris has begun a residency at the art lab during the period of August 13 – November 19 as part of their residency program, which both showcases an artist’s work and provides opportunities to the public to receive specialized instruction from them.
“As part of our residency program, we ask our artists to share their work with the public, especially in a participatory way,” said Okuyama.
Much of Harris’ current output, which she describes as narrative painting, incorporates significant portions of text onto her canvases.
One of Harris’ upcoming workshops, titled Developing Story Through Painting Retablos teaches her style of narrative painting through the Mexican Ex-Voto tradition, which involved untrained artists offering devotional thanks through painting. Harris’ workshop takes a broader approach to this form, not necessarily incorporating a religious element, but maintaining the element of amateur self-expression. This workshop will be offered on October 15 and 22.
The Camera Obscura Art Lab is currently accepting applications for its January artist residency. For application details, as well as a full list of upcoming events and workshops by Zeal Harris, visit arts.smgov.net.
