Floating Grace:
a ritual performance
On Saturday September 26th
at sundown – 6:30pm-7:00pm
Linda Lauro-Lazin performed
Floating Grace
A ritual performance with silk lanterns
During the ritual performance, Lauro-Lazin released 28 lanterns on the Wallkill River from a canoe in Rifton, NY. There is one lantern for each of the 28 weeks since New York State has been on “pause”. She read the participants' words aloud as the lanterns floated away.The Wallkill is a tributary of the Hudson River which flows into the
Atlantic Ocean. The performance streamed on Instagram and FB Live.
Why?
Lauro-Lazin developed this project in response to a prompt from Eileen Jeng Lynch to create "performances in outward-facing locations, so the work can be viewed from the outside for the community" for Art Off-Screen @ Neumeraki
"Floating Grace is both individual and communal. The images on the lanterns are local. They are landscapes from a satellite point of view of my home and studio in Esopus (my GPS location for the past 6 months). The lanterns will hold the pandemic words of participants as they float past my neighbors. The written words wash away when the lanterns travel on the water eventually making it to the Hudson. From the Hudson the words will travel into the Atlantic and then around the World. I think of this as an offering - sending the words and light out into the world via the waterways The waterways connect us."
Linda Lauro-Lazin
The participants
People from around the world participated by writing 3-5 sentences about their experiences during this time. In an intimate ritual, Lauro-Lazin became a conduit for the experiences and words, writing, each person's offering on the base of a lantern.
Participants:
Hyun Jung Ahn, Derya Akbaba, Samanta Badra, Nicholas Battis, Crystal Benitez, Lynn Bishop, Buddy Booker, Charlotte A. Cohen, Khaled El Mays, Ursula Endlicher, Adrielle Farr, Garth Garrett, Gracelee, Hsin-Chien Huang, Zarko Ignjatovic, Lucy Kahn, Tanja Kalinin, Nancy Lauro, Luke Lazin, Marko Lazin, Jerome, Chia-Horng Lin,
Jane O'Neill, Marion Pardoe, Kejoo Park, Peter Patchen,
Rhonda Schaller, Steven Sergiovanni, Leon Tillman,
Ruyin Tsai, Gail Watson, Sherie L. Weldon, Holly Wilson
Special thanks:
Charles Lazin, Luke Lazin, The Berry family, Peter and Mary Patchen, Jaykumar Patel, Jamie Sanin and James, and Holly Adams,
The silk lanterns are available to buy
The lanterns were gathered up after the performance and offered for sale. They are intentionally accessible and affordable (Sliding scale with a suggested price $200).
If you are interested in buying a lantern, please send an email to the contact info above.
All profits from the sale of the lanterns will be donated to three organizations:
The Legal Defense Fund
The Reciprocity Foundation
Local Volunteer First Responders – EMT and Fire department
The project continues...
Many more folks have continued to send sentences expressing their experiences so Lauro-Lazin has decided to continue the project, making a new lantern and transcribing one message per week until the pandemic is over. The lanterns will continue to be for sale with all profits going to the three organizations mentioned above.
If you would like the artist to transcribe your experiences please send an email in the contact link above.
Once again, if you'd like to buy a lantern please send an email.
photo credits: Jaykumar Patel, Peter Patchen, Charles Lazin and the artist.