Simone Forti has been creating dance “constructions” since the 1950s. Now, at 87, she has her first West Coast museum show up at MOCA in downtown LA. The exhibition features the artist’s drawings, live and recorded performances, holograms that bring her movement to life, and more in a career-spanning retrospective.
“Her work isn't really about dance in the traditional sense, where there's a start and a finish, and we're passive audience members,” notes Lindsay Preston Zappas, founder and editor-in-chief of Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles. “It's really about movement, and how movement almost can help us understand the world and our own bodies and the relationship to other people.”
Simone Forti, Planet, P.S.1 Long Island City, NY, 1976, performed with music by Peter Van Riper. Pictured: Simone Forti and Sally Banes. Image by Peter Moore. Courtesy of The Box, Los Angeles.
Simone Forti, Planet, P.S.1 Long Island City, NY, 1976, performed with music by Peter Van Riper. Photo by Peter Moore. Courtesy of The Box, Los Angeles.
Simone Forti, Bug Jump, 1975-1978, 120-degree multiplex hologram, 56 3/4 x 20 x 13 in. Courtesy of The Box, Los Angeles.
Simone Forti, Still from Zuma News, LA, 2013, video (color and sound), 12:36 min. From NONFICTIONS – Gorbachev Lives / Zuma News / Questions – a joint work by Jeremiah Day / Simone Forti / Fred Dewey. Courtesy of The Box, Los Angeles.