Visiting Artists: sister sylvester "The Eagle and The Tortoise"

 

“Genuinely subversive”  – Time Out NY

The Eagle and the Tortoise invites the audience into a live sound and video installation where they collectively read a hand-made book. The book tells the story of a young student from Turkey who became an icon of leftist resistance, an armed militant, a political prisoner, and finally, a proxy soldier in an American war. This visual essay traces the history of the aerial view—in art, mythology, journalism, and warfare—to make the case for other ways of looking.

“A complex, deeply reflective work that weaves together strands of the personal, political, and mythological with deft subtlety.”
— Culturebot

“This always intriguing company continues to create unexpected, challenging work that approaches story and ideas from multiple angles and generates a thrill with unusual juxtapositions.”
— AMERICAN THEATER

The piece stands as a more somber companion to lighthearted experiments by the likes of Forced Entertainment and Gob Squad […] This is a work that succeeds as it fails, speaking most eloquently when it admits that it can’t tell the story it wanted to tell, that its maps can’t plot the shape of a human life.
— New York Times (about an earlier iteration of this piece, then called ‘Maps for a War Tourist).

Please note that viewers of the performance may be photographed or video-recorded by the artist. The artist may use the images for marketing purposes. If you do not want to be recorded, please email Randal Fippinger for the performance that will not be recorded.

Tickets: $10/$3 (students)

Credits:

Writer, Director & Book Co-Designer: sister sylvester
Composer and Performer: Ozan Aksoy
Immersive Sound Design: Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste
Cinematographer: Civan Özkanoğlu based on a design by Onur Karaoğlu Video Design: Robin A. Ediger-Seto
Dramaturgy: Andrew Kircher
Illustrator & Book Co-Designer: efrîn nowar
Lighting Design & Technical Direction: Bruce Steinberg Audio Technician: Daniel Dominguez
Production Manager: Marin Day
Book Design Consultation and Printing: Gabe Greenberg

Photo Credit: Jill Steinberg