Integration

This weekend Marten Evergreen performed LIVE at The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Boise Fundraiser. We were a part of a Variety Show held at the Boise State University Special Events Center featuring many local talents. The audience paid a ticket price to help fund the organizations free programs to the public and there was a silent auction of art. NAMI offers help to individuals and families who live with mental illness, disorders, and addictions. 

Marten Evergreen is: Lukas Evergreen and Lisa Marten

Often we perform with our 3rd member Krysta Nebeker. For this particular performance it was Lukas and myself performing. 

We are a performance art company that collaborates with other artists and performers. Marten Evergreen is all about having fun and peforming avant-garde productions with multi-mediums of art (music, dance, painting, drama) in ways that bring us to the public in hopes of connecting with our community through creativity and love. We perform the emotions and the stories of the individual - these lead them to the need and the expression of art. The art we share is beyond the dance, beyond the paint, beyond ourselves. It is that moment, that climatic mental state, just before, that art is. 

Our work explores relational aspects of human spirituality and identity. As we use our bodies to create art, much like the catalyst of performance art in the 1960's and 1970's (2D artists took visual art into 3D by utilizing the body in performance). We are re-addressing the original intent from visual two dimensional work into the third dimension and then back into the second dimension. Being 2D artists ourselves, we do this by performing our mixed media avant-garde work upon a canvas (with a reveal at the end) and therefore going from 3D back into 2D.

Normally we have a few months notice before we are to perform (which gives us ample time to work on our performance piece, rehearse, and prep). We were notified 1 1/2 weeks before the event that they really wanted us to perform and so we got to work quickly sketching out a piece that would work for an event like NAMI. All it's elements flowed easily for us and we began rehearsals and prep. 

As to technical preparations we didn't need to do too much because we had just performed at GRAVITY where we had reconstructed our performance space armature ("The Bubble Cube"). So for this performance we only needed to prep the dance canvas surface and redo the linen backdrop (which had been the flooring last time). For the dance canvas we stretched linen over a large particle/plywood board and primed it. We also quickly went out to our local thrift/charity shops and purchased all white clothing for this performance. 

Day of we loaded all of our gear into both our trucks and headed downtown to the BSU campus where the SpEC was located. The performance was in the evening but we were able to get access to the venue in the late afternoon to do our initial set up backstage. YES this performance was INSIDE on a STAGE! We have occasionally performed inside in concert venues and bars on stages with stage lighting and controlled climate, but with the nature of our kind of street edgy avant grade kind of performance art...we normally perform outside in alley ways, parks, parking lots, and backyards. And with performing outside we have experienced our share of extreme weather (snow and freezing cold, high winds, spurts of rain, and intense 100 degree F temps). We were very excited to perform inside this time (as it had been a rainy windy week outside!)

We LOVE our fans! We were able to recruit a couple of our dedicated fans to help us during the intermission of the event to set up our performance space on the stage right behind the curtain. There were several acts of talent during the first part of the show. We were to go on right after intermission and then there would be more acts after us. 

We constructed our "Bubble Cube" the same as we did for the GRAVITY show but then we flipped it on one end so the front end was open (instead of the top). We use PVC piping with 3 way joints to produce a cube. The floor is a stretched linen that the PVC piping is slid into. The sides we wrap with large industrial saran cling wrap used for wrapping pallets of boxes, etc. (I was asked this question last time...and no it's not the small kind you buy from the grocery store). We wrap it so we create a barrier of protection for the audience and the area around us (from paint splatter). Since we were setting up on a stage we unrolled a large sheet of painters plastic over the entire stage to protect the surface from painted foot prints. This time we would be moving in and out of the "Bubble Cube". 

The view from the stage

We had a huge backstage dressing room with lights and a bathroom! We felt pampered! With the nature of our street art style performance art typically we're hurriedly changing behind our "Bubble Cube" trying to conceal ourselves from festival crowds or we're shoved into a public bathroom stall to change, or we arrive already in costume to avoid the scenario. This time we had a real dressing room! 

Once into our costumes we took the time to get into our performance head spaces. 

This is me contemplating.

This is Lukas breathing before he puts on his head wrap that would obscure his face. 

STILLS OF THE PERFORMANCE:
for full explanation and video of the performance keep scrolling down this post

SHOTS AFTER THE PERFORMANCE:

So here is the "after" of the performance space. As you can see our "Bubble Cube" serves as a protective barrier for the paint throwing/splattering that we do in our performances. And it also looks cool! 

The "after" photo back in the dressing room. You could say that Marten Evergreen really gets into their work! 

Here is the finished painting created by our dancing and movements. 

Yes...there is glitter in it! 

We allowed it to be up for auction to help benefit NAMI. 

FULL PERFORMANCE BELOW:

"Integration"

performance art piece by

MARTEN EVERGREEN

music by The Irrepressibles

artist statement

The journey of an individual coming to terms with what's within. 

Discovery. Struggle. Acceptance. Embrace.

This is the dance. 

piece summary

There is full video below of the performance. 

The music really helped us as a guide for this piece. 

Lisa represents the individual going through the process of discovering who they are. Lukas represents the struggles of life (whether that be mental illness, disorder, addiction, hardships. relational, emotional, spiritual, physical. other's initiated or self initiated.) The individual can experience isolation within the struggle. Whatever life brings or throws (from within, from others) whether good or bad, the individual is forced to deal with/handle it only out of what they are capable. At one point Lisa reaches out and together with Lukas they dance with the paint (representing the individual coming to acceptance of themselves and allowing what life is to integrate with them, becoming more of who they are, accepting who they are, and being who they were meant to be.) We really desired this piece to be able to speak to not only those who struggle with mental illness...but to all of us who live and breathe. For we all have our own journeys within. Integration is accomplished when we allow the struggles we face to guide us to who we were meant to be. 

Thank you again to NAMI for asking Marten Evergreen to be a part of such a wonderful event. We have been honored to come along side you to help raise funds for all you do. 

FULL VIDEO OF OUR LIVE PERFORMANCE:   

Tonight's showing at NAMI was absolutely stunning. Enjoy this video of Marten Evergreen's performance!
Posted by Jessie Nilo on Saturday, May 9, 2015