COBBLE HILL — Ariel Goldberg, a writer and artist, is taking up residence at The Invisible Dog Arts Center — not setting up house but to work and perform in its gallery spaces as a part of this year's Summer Theater Residency series.
Goldberg and Jacquelyn Landgraf, an actor, director and writer based in Brooklyn, were chosen to be the artists in residence through a competitive application process, said Lucien Zayan, director of the Invisible Dog Arts Center, located at 51 Bergen St.
The winning artists use the spaces of the gallery to not only hold public performances in front of an audience, but also as a work space.
“We invite two companies every year to work here on the stage and to perform,” Zayan said. “We don’t provide the artists with any funding, but we give them a space to work and any technology or electricity they might need.
“It’s usually a work in progress, but the goal is to provide an opportunity for the artists to show their work in front of a large audience.”
Goldberg, a Greenpoint resident, will be the next and final artist to perform in the series, with a performance dubbed “The Photographer,” which rotates around a press conference, slide lecture and newscast. She will be using a log of images to analyze the complicated relationship between photography and the modern language.
Her public performance will take place at the Invisible Dog Arts Center on July 18 at 8 p.m.
Goldberg is a writer and artist, and has published books, including "Picture Camera, The Photographer Without a Camera," and "The Estrangement Principle." She has read her works at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Berkeley Art Museum.
“The concept of the piece is to obsessively examine photography in a great mundane way,” Goldberg explained. “I play the main character, The Photographer, who is a cross between a political leader and a non-accredited expert.
“Right now, were at a point where photography is entering the realm of language, and photographs are replacing standard modes of communication. I want people to experience an excessive log of photographs, and see how they feel about it.”
Landgraf made her public performance last weekend, performing a piece called “Blue-s-cat,” by French-African playwright Koffi Kwahule. In the English translation, translated by Chantal Bilodeau and produced by Landgraf, a man and a woman are trapped in an elevator. The performance used improvisational rhythms of jazz to explore the inner monologues of the two characters.
“Alone in an unnamed city, confined in a suffocating space, stubbornly protecting their own mental and physical territory, they are rendered further isolated by their own thoughts,” the artist described the work on the center’s website.
The Invisible Dog is already making plans for next year’s series, Zayan said, though the rules might change a bit. He says, instead of two, he’s hoping to invite only one artist in residency next year.
“This will help us follow up with the artist more than we do now,” Zayan said.
