I am grateful for the longstanding collaboration and friendship with the Berlin-based visual artist Baerbel Rothhaar who always wanted us to do more than just improvise. I am especially proud to have had the opportunity with her to share our performance experiences with dozens of young people thoughout Germany.
The following projects are noteworthy examples of our work. More information about Baerbel you will find under: baerbel-rothhaar.com
The title "Blind Date" is an allusion to the fact that the two artists agreed to work together at the invitation of their mutual friend, the photographer Gerald Wesolowski, without knowing each other beforehand. A dialog between music and visual art had to be created. The dialog resulted in three 10-minute performances and an installation.
Performed in February and in November, 2000 at the Federal Environmental Agency in Berlin and at GEDOK Hannover.
The project is dedicated to the scientist and artist Elke Niegengerd, who died in 1996, and bears the title of one of her poems "beloved k.".
A barren installation with blocks of ice into which fish and shoes are frozen forms the action framework for the performance. Bärbel Rothhaar's live painting on an overhead projector creates a constantly changing stage set that reacts to the musical and theatrical elements. Sonya Martin interprets the poems in a variety of ways - speaking, dancing and translating them into movement. As a further element, Béla Bartók's violin duos intonate the existential content of folk music: celebrating seasonal festivals, wooing a partner, mourning.
The suspended ice blocks melt during the performance and the sound of the dripping water becomes a motif of transient time. It is a soft sound which disappears only to be revealed again in quiet moments, serving as a relentless main motif.
Sketches of Glass was a performance project consisting of 5 „passages“ and took place at Theaterdock / Kulturfabrik, Berlin in 1995. Collaborators alongside Kathy Nierenz (violin) and Baerbel Rothhaar (visual art, installation) were Ottmar Köhler, Christian Wasdaris, Frank Barucha (percussion), Antje Rose (dance), Cheryl Joscher (installation) and Eva Paul (painting).