Works

SAD BLIMP and SAD BLIMP ROCKET are up at ArtPrize 2022.

SAD BLIMP ROCKET at AH-NAB-AWEN Park

/ Fri, Sept. 23 - SAD BLIMP TV will be projected on SAD BLIMP ROCKET by mobile projectors at 8pm


• / Sat, Sept. - SAD BLIMP ROCKET will fly from 11am-1pm

SAD BLIMP at ROSA PARKS CIRCLE

• / Sat, Sept. 24 - SAD BLIMP will fly while the Grand Rapids Ballet premieres excerpts from the new collaborative ballet with Satellite Collective, “Liar Lear King” and 5pm and 7pm with night projection to follow

Kevin Draper, with Satellite Collective, would like to propose the installation of a 40 foot long aerostat hovering thirty feet above the ground acting as a cinema screen during the night, and a silent observer during the day. We intend to premiere a series of film and visual work on this canvas. The aerostat is nicknamed SAD BLIMP.

It is Satellite’s intention for this world premiere to be the first point on a long journey, as the aerostat has been engineered to be an aerospace grade installation, with the assistance of military engineers and input from Macy’s balloon makers. We intend this idea to grow, and maybe one day, be hanging out in space for tourists.

Satellite Blimp will bring the silent witness of ancient observation blimps to the waterways of New York, bearing witness in ground projections and real time performances on these giant canvases.

Mercy is gone missing but the cameras never stop rolling. Dramas cannot therefore stop unfolding.

LIAR LEAR KING is a multi-stage, multi-form work directly facing the impact of narcissism and bullying on our society. It fuses dance, short film, visual art, live music, opera, and spoken word into a dynamic experience centered by dance and driven by story.

LIAR LEAR KING is an adaptation of King Lear set in New York, 1972. The story is focused not on King Lear and his tragedy, but on Cordelia his daughter, and her epic journey as she becomes a force who can mount an invasion of her own country, only to die at the hands of her own sisters. In the social and political environment of the United States, this theme resonates.

LIAR LEAR KING is an organizational work, producing a sum of intellectual property that functions outdoors, onstage, online, and via music and spoken word, with shared creator's rights and control. This is a model which performing artists are perfecting in the post-COVID world.

This multidisciplinary work is expressly designed to be experienced in alternate channels by those differently abled in sight or hearing, or ability to physically access the performance. The nature of the work, and how it impacts the audience, is dependent on the abilities through which it is experienced.

Echo & Narcissus will engage original music, live chamber performance, visual art, ballet, digital multimedia, opera, and lighting design. The ambition of the project’s scope is matched by the deftness of its team.

Had its debut at Brooklyn Academy of Music September, 2018. Satellite Collective received a Citation for achievement in the arts from the Borough of Brooklyn. Kevin Draper, Artistic Director, also received a Citation for achievement in the arts from the Borough of Brooklyn.

Echo & Narcissus will be the 17th interdisciplinary performance work by Satellite Collective since its founding eight years ago.

Illuminate the unrest and discord of our contemporary political moment.

Echo and Narcissus (full performance synopsis): Narcissus, the forceful one, enters, making calls like a hunter. Then she, Echo, the graceful, refined one enters. He is primal, almost feral; she is charming. He is smitten and calls her to him; a heated flirtation begins. Her friends seem skeptical; they enter a vibrant tableau. She wants to go to him; her protective friend tries to deter her, but is unsuccessful. Narcissus interacts with her peers but tangles with her protective friend. In a filmed interlude, we witness Narcissus’ violence. The conflict escalates further between Narcissus and Echo’s protective friend. Echo discovers them fighting and gets between them. She is pulled by their conflicting forces, wanting both. For now, she goes with Narcissus. We see the conflict playing out inside her friends. Then, a horrible incident, the death of Echo’s friend; Narcissus seems responsible. As the others mourn, Narcissus is no longer welcome. Echo is engulfed in a chaos of grief. Narcissus pleads with her to speak to the police on his behalf, “it was an accident.” She knows it was not; Narcissus’ violence ended her friend, and she is now unable to walk. She has been disillusioned. Echo finds healing through the support of her friends.