Wednesday, December 4th, 2019

Opera for Television: Selected Videos by John Sanborn

With performances, choreography, compositions, and other contributions by Robert Ashley, Sarah Cahill, Luciano Chessa, Robert Dekkers, Phillip Glass, Bill T. Jones, Charlotte Mundy, Negativland, Paul Pinto, Terry Riley, David Van Tieghem, (Blue) Gene Tyranny, Dorian Wallace, Theresa Wong, and Pamela Z           

Over the course of his long career, John Sanborn has consistently worked with music, theatrical texts, choreography and dance, to produce a paradoxical, Wagnerian “total art” for the post-modern world: opera for Television. His videos are diverse, variously featuring video synthesis, experimental narrative, personal-poetic meditations, melodrama, and music.  But the result is nevertheless cohesive, revealing an artist who draws deeply upon video’s intrinsically interdisciplinary nature, to fully engage the senses, while wrestling with life’s great difficulties in a spirit of humor, joy, and irreverence.