Artist Rashaad Newsome’s work is based on the method of recontextualising contemporary cultural elements into traditional frameworks. Using the equalising force of sampling, he creates compositions that frequently surprise in their associative potential and walk the tightrope between identity and abstraction, between visual art and pop culture, citing the early days of the New York performance scene, for example collaborations between John Cage and Merce Cunningham.
For steirischer herbst, Newsome has created a work of motion with an unusual choir that develops a special perspective of the city. The performance “Shade Graz, 2014” condenses forms of human expression into a polyrhythmic choreography. The original communicative significance of body gestures – tongue clicking, murmured sounds that express affection or aversion – is lost in a new arrangement. The performers repeat clichés of body language to excess, the repertoire of expressions of the local performers is incorporated into the choreography – and subsequently looped, remixed and transformed. No longer is the focus on decoding body language codes correctly or incorrectly, the associative potential of symbolic actions becomes transparent. Newsome fragments body language, staging an intense piece which allows the audience to experience what it means in terms of the construction of gender and – also queer – identity.