oz arts // a bending of its own kind

A Bending of Its Own Kind was a live creative collaboration between visual artist Mary Mooney and choreographer Rebekah Hampton Barger that debuted to a packed sold-out audience June 15, 2017, closing out OZ Arts' Third Season. Rebekah Hampton Barger examined the psychology behind physical limitations of her personal struggle with severe scoliosis in a broad range of gravity-challenging movement. Barger’s deeply autobiographical choreography blended classical and aerial dance with a stage of billowing aerial fabric. Throughout FALL’s rehearsal process, painter Mary Mooney studied the language, movement and color palette of Hampton Barger’s new dance work. Interpreting the challenges of chronic pain and stigma, Mooney translated the physical and emotional struggle into a visual expression in paint.

Three large-scale works were created in response to A Bending of It’s Own Kind and painted on Mooney’s signature museum-grade acrylic “canvas.” These works were later installed in OZ Art’s entrance gallery accompanied by pieces from Mooney’s body of work Denied Realities. Mooney’s artworks “served as a permanent record to this ephemeral moment”, according to Oz Art’s then-artistic director, Lauren Snelling.

works from the Live Performance