5 minutes

a video sculpture
dance improvisations by
Mary Anne Santos Newhall

This work was originally inspired by illuminated manuscripts, yet as it developed, it veered from a specific reference. As the images emerged, they began to allude to Illuminations and other prose poems by the great French Symbolist Arthur Rimbaud. While working on the poems, Rimbaud spoke of his interest in hallucinations: “des vertiges, des silence, des nuits.” His perceptions continue to lucidly reveal the unexplored aspect of experience and thought.

“At the border of the forest–dream flowers tinkle,
flash, and flare,–the girl with orange lips, knees
crossed in the clear flood that gushes from the fields,
nakedness shaded, traversed, dressed by rainbow,
flora and sea.”

“The upland pond smokes continuously.
What witch will rise against the white west sky?”

“My eternal soul
Redeem your promise,
In spite of the night alone
And the day on fire.”

The soundscape is composed the dancer’s body moving through fallen leaves.