Interactive Multi-media Installation Spotlights Milwaukeeans' Choices and Changes

MILWAUKEE - June 3, 2018 - PRLog -- Milwaukee is a city divided by highways, waterways, and political and economic choices. In their new Alfons Gallery installation of moving sculpture, local performers Andrea and Daniel Burkholder use video, theatrical sets, interactive technology, and live action to explore the city's people, places and history, and the impact of change.

An opening reception for the installation, "The Accumulation of Acts," will be held Sunday, June 10, from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m., with a talk by the artists at 2:00 p.m.

In "The Accumulation of Acts," imagery of bridging, weaving, and industry suggests that every choice and act contributes to the history of a place and our relationship to that place.

"'The Accumulation of Acts' installation and performance speak to our ever-changing environment," said Valerie J. Christell, Alfons Gallery's director and curator. "Though they are focused on the Milwaukee community, Andrea and Daniel's foundational concepts also reflect the experience of individuals across the globe who are attempting to make meaningful connections with their personal environments, as well as with 'the other.'"

In 1 x 1, performers inhabit two 6' x 6' modular platforms, on which they build, alter, and demolish their world.   By exploring their ever-changing relationship to the space and, thereby, each other, they are reflecting today's shifting communities and social interactions.

In this piece behind the performers, a video of driving the perimeter of Milwaukee is projected. Below the performers is a handmade river symbolic of the three rivers separating Milwaukee's neighborhoods.

The second of the installation's two parts is One Square Foot, a multi-media work featuring video interviews with Milwaukeeans reflecting on places that hold significance for them, projected on two diagonal screens in an immersive, living room-style setting.  Eight site-specific dances, based on these interviews, will be performed throughout the city, bringing the project back to the neighborhoods where research for it was gathered.

"Andrea and Daniel's ongoing performances, along with guest performers, present a distinctive vision and outreach for the Gallery's offerings about environment and culture," Christell said.

Andrea Burkholder is a choreographer, performer and teacher based in Shorewood, Wisconsin. For more than a decade, she directed and performed with the acclaimed Arachne Aerial Arts in Washington, D.C. She has performed with numerous dance companies, most notably with Seize the Day! Mixed Abilities Performance Company for 10 years. Andrea has presented her own choreography throughout the Metropolitan Washington, D.C., region in venues that include the National Building Museum, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Dance Place, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Recent aerial dance choreography has been seen in Warped Dance Theater's Contact + Air (2016) at the Stefanie H. Weill Center for the Performing Arts in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.  Andrea holds a B.A. in dance performance and choreography as well a B.A. in Spanish translation from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Daniel Burkholder is a choreographer, improviser, performer, teacher, and lighting designer based in Shorewood, Wisconsin. Daniel has presented work at venues including the Tribeca Performing Arts Center and 92nd Street Y in New York City; Danceworks in Milwaukee; the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, College Park; CenterStage at Reston Community Center in Virginia; as part of the Mid-West Regional Alternative Dance Festival, Breaking Ground: Contemporary Dance and Film Festival in Arizona; and a week-long residency in Manta, Ecuador.  Daniel is Assistant Professor of Dance at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He holds an M.F.A in Dance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2011), an M.A. in Dance from American University (2002), and a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College (1990). He holds a Certificate in Somatic Studies from Moving on Center/School for Participatory Arts 1999), and is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner (2005).

From May 2015 to June 2017, Andrea and Daniel produced, curated and performed Real Time, a monthly series throughout Milwaukee that sought to encourage more people to attend performing arts through regularly scheduled, professional, open-priced events.

"The Accumulation of Acts" is on view through August 5, 2018.

About Alfons Gallery

Alfons Gallery is located at St. Joseph Center, 1501 S. Layton Blvd. (27th Street and Greenfield Avenue) in Milwaukee. Free parking is available in the lot that is accessible on 29th and Orchard (Alexia Circle entrance). For more information on Alfons Gallery, please email vchristell@sssf.org, call 414-385-5273, or visit the Gallery's website at www.sssf.org/gallery. Gallery hours are Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday 12:00-3:00 p.m., and by appointment.

Alfons Gallery's mission reflects the local and global work of the School Sisters of St. Francis. Exhibitions explore cultures and advocate for social justice, peace and the environment through the artistic vision.  Special events aim to both educate and inspire viewers about our world and the impact every individual makes in it.

About The School Sisters of St. Francis
The School Sisters of St. Francis are an international community of Catholic sisters who unite with others to build a just and peaceful world. Founded in 1874, they now have sisters, associates, staff, donors and volunteers actively working to address the needs of those who are poor and marginalized by society. For information about the School Sisters of St. Francis, please visit www.sssf.org.