CINNAMON SPHERE VIDEOS produced by Sarah Peebles "If You Catch a Bird: Receive o Hover o Go" (1999 / 9:16) "Kaladar Kodex" (1999 / 10:40) "Slow Life" (1997 / 5:38) Cinnamon Sphere trio Cinematic, Ritual Performance for the eyes and ears Sarah Peebles - computer-assisted performance and shô� (Japanese mouth-organ) Nilan Perera - altered electric guitar and effects Chung Gong Ha - calligraphy performance Tape Descriptions This trilogy depicts three performing artists whose unusual and highly innovative approaches to sound and visual art create "cinematic, ritual performance for the eyes and ears". Juxtaposing real-time with the non-linear, color with black and white, and indoors with the outdoors, the three distinct settings presented here provide a layered psychological perspective of the act of spontaneous creation. Calligraphy performance, altered electric guitar, shô (mouth organ), and sampled insects, fire and birds create an evocative, hypnotic mixture of aural textures, light, and motion. Featuring the Toronto-based mixed media trio, Cinnamon Sphere (Sarah Peebles, Nilan Perera and Chung Gong Ha), this is Peebles' debut in the realm of video creation. "If You Catch a Bird: Receive o Hover o Go" (1999 / 9:16) Unorthodox music and calligraphy come together to create a highly charged and at times explosive performance. Cinnamon Sphere mixed media trio and komungo virtuoso Jin Hi Kim create cutting edge, improvised music for Korean traditional and modified instruments and Western instruments alongside calligraphy performance inspired by Asian culture and the Zen tradition. Electroacoustic music and shô� (Japanese mouth-organ) performance by Sarah Peebles, altered electric guitar and effects by Nilan Perera, and traditional and electric komungo and changgo performance by Jin Hi Kim (Korean 4th-century fretted board zither and hour-glass shaped drum) inspire calligrapher Chung Gong Ha to create large-scale abstract ink works in the moment, drawing from an inner meditative space and the interactive sonic dialogue of the group, who in turn interpret a kind of musical a score based on Gong's visual images and his act of creation. Peebles distills this studio performance into three distinct vignettes which capture the intense exchanges of the group, up-close textures of ink and brush in motion and their transformation into three completed art works. Sarah Peebles, production; Greg Hopen, videography; Andrew Kines, editing; John D.S. Adams audio recording. Recorded at The Music Gallery, December 16, 1997. Supported in part through Canada Council for the Arts Music Section: Career Development Program and New Music Special Projects funding. "Kaladar Kodex" (1999 / 10:40) Two musicians and a calligrapher come together in a rural field where they explore their musical, artistic, physical and spiritual connection to the elements and to the historical farm surrounding them. Peebles reconstructs their performance and the myriad of views recorded by herself and Perera, with an eye towards the textures of plants, creatures and ink, musical gesture, and non-linear, experimental form. This is a tableau of improvisation in the moment - an autumn afternoon as the storm approaches beyond the barn. Featuring (in order of appearance) Chung Gong Ha-calligraphy, Nilan Perera-prepared electric guitar and effects and Sarah Peebles-computer-assisted performance, collectively known as "Cinnamon Sphere". Sarah Peebles, production; Nilan Perera and Sarah Peebles videography; Andrew Kines, editing. Recorded at The Farm at Kaladar, Ontario, September 1998. Supported in part through Canada Council for the Arts Music Section: Career Development Program and Media Arts: Interdisciplinary Work and Performance Art Program. "Slow Life" (1997 / 5:38) This short black and white video spans the creation of a single painting to an evocative, dream-like soundscape. Focusing on the brush work of calligrapher Gong, alongside musical responses from Perera (guitar) and Peebles (computer), this elegant meditation slowly reveals a visual landscape of mountains and waterfalls, an aural landscape inhabited by birds, fire, water and ethereal tones - a "cinematic, ritual performance for eyes and ears". Created by Rogers Television, Toronto for "Daytime", December 10, 1997. Generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts: Music Section-Career Development Program and Media Arts-Interdisciplinary Work and Performance Art Program Other details @ Cinnamon Sphere/Publications Home Page | Artist Biography | Recordings & Publications | Online Audio/Video Projects & Performances | Reviews | Archives 2001-2011 | The Audible Woman Contact the artist at sarahpeebles @ gmail.com