Experience and Reflection Video
I am excited to share Experience and Reflection, a video about The Quiet Circus. It is the closest thing to a bird’s eye view of this project with its multiple layers, phases, and programs. My hope is that, together with the River Charrettes video posted a few months ago, this video will communicate the values and proposals…
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River Charrette Video
Jillian Jetton and I have been working with Byron Karabotsos on a video about the four River Charrette events that functioned in relationship to the three phases of weekly events at the Washington Avenue Pier. In looking through this footage I was moved by just how much happened, and the hugely different expressions…
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Audience and Performer are Not One and Not Two
The Quiet Circus River Charrette #3 took place at the Andalusia estate along the Delaware River— a strikingly bucolic contrast to the previous River Charrette, which took place a short distance downstream at an industrial recycling operation. Andalusia was built in response to the 1793 Yellow Fever epidemic in Philadelphia, in which 10% of the…
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River Charrette #4: Island of Signs at Fairmount Water Works
This weekend my mother Carolyn Brick and I perform Island of Signs at the Fairmount Water Works as our final River Charrette event with Philadelphia Contemporary. It is related to the Island score that happens as part of The Quiet Circus every weekend at The Washington Avenue pier in South Philly, but it is also…
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Kay Larson Reflects on The Quiet Circus
I was beside myself when Mary Jane Jacob invited Kay Larson to The Quiet Circus to present at one of our Reflection Events. Kay wrote Where the Heart Beats: John Cage, Zen Buddhism and the Inner Life of Artists, a moving and beautiful book in its intricate eloquence about struggle, transformation, and the deep coherence of…
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Reflection Event #3: Kay Larson at the James Turrell Skyspace
Sunrise Light Show and Lecture by Kay Larson Join The Quiet Circus for our final Reflection Event, held at dawn in the James Turrell-designed Skyspace in Chestnut Hill. After watching the sun rise through Turrell’s open roof light show, we will hear a presentation by Kay Larson, author of Where the Heart Beats: John Cage,…
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River Charrette #3: Martha McDonald at Andalusia
River Charrette #3 takes place in the pastoral setting of Andalusia along the Delaware River. It is just a short distance upstream from the commercial recycling operation that was the site of the previous River Charrette at RAIR. Andalusia, by contrast, is the bucolic, ancestral mansion and estate of Nicholas Biddle, one of the…
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River Charrette #2: Billy Dufala & Maiko Matsushima at RAIR
At our second River Charrette on Saturday, visitors participated in an intimate Silent Walking Tour through the grounds of a construction waste recycling facility in northeast Philadelphia that processes 450 tons of material a day. Passing sorting piles, operation facilities and an open field overseeing the Delaware River and the city of Philadelphia, the tour physically…
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River Charrette #1: Eiko Otake and Alan Greenberger at Bartram’s Garden
Please join us at Bartram’s Garden this Saturday, September 24th at 2:30 pm for The Quiet Circus: River Charrettes, a collaborative project by Headlong and Philadelphia Contemporary to engage and explore the city’s maritime, industrial, and creative heritage. Eiko Otake, an artist whose work and ideas are a profound touchstone for me, will perform…
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