Gualala Arts LocalEyes Presents: Divining Triptychs: Printmaking, Dance, and Poetry Across Millennia

PACES: dance and poetry fit to the space is the collaborative performance company of Dancer & Choreographer Lucinda Weaver and Poet and Storyteller Alan Bern. Bern and artist Robert Woods have worked together under the imprint of Lines & Faces for over forty years. All three come together in this one-of-a-kind performance “Divining Triptychs: Printmaking, Dance, and Poetry across Millennia.”

PACES collaborations begin from an idea of either Weaver’s dance or Bern’s words which then precipitate a creative dialogue. Recently they have begun working along parallel lines and then weaving these strands together to complete the arc of the piece. Their pieces are created together to fit the space they inhabit for their performance, be it a bookstore, library, park, stage, or — in the case of this performance at Gualala Arts Center — the floor of Coleman Hall which they will share with their audience. For 15 years PACES has performed all over California and in Italy and Switzerland.  Also featured in the Divining Triptychs performance is original music composed and recorded by local coast artists: saxophonist, Harrison Goldberg, and electric bassist, Dave Jordan, aka the duo “Pacific Woods,” from their newly released recording, “Pool of Mirrors.”

Just as Bern’s work evolves and intersects with Weaver’s dance through PACES, so it transforms with artist Robert Woods. The poet and artist have worked together under the imprint Lines & Faces for more than forty years. They are fine printers and artists who grew up in the 1960s together in Berkeley, and they collaborate to create works of art that allow the combining of word and image to express more than either artist can without the other.  Sometimes the work of one leads the other to create other works that coalesce to make a more powerful combination; other times they work simultaneously in parallel to create works together. They create broadsides which they plan, design, and print together on a Vandercook, an 80-year-old letterpress printing press used originally as a proving machine for the newspaper industry. They have also begun to use digital printing to produce their broadsides.

Gabriel Griffin, Poet and Director of Poetry on the Lake in Northern Italy, described a PACES performance: “At dusk…as the last light faded from the lake, Alan Bern and Lucinda Weaver gave a performance of dance and poetry in Piazza Motta: Alan read his poetry in both English and Italian.  In the soft lamplight and the shadows cast by the old arches and columns, Lucinda appeared ethereal in her white flowing garments. Verses echoed in the quiet square. Passers-by stopped to watch and listen, enchanted.”

A triptych is a piece of work divided into three panels. In this performance and exhibit, all three artists bring their work together, filling the space with dance, words, and art – Divining Triptychs.