ARTIST STATEMENT
In early 2022, I began a series of site-specific performances with personas I had created over the years. Each month, a different persona visited a national park and performed actions/activities in nature. Taking the personas out of their familiar dark, enclosed spaces and introducing them to the great outdoors was an exciting challenge. Among other things, I had to become my own documenter, and the submitted photos are some of the results of those performances and the skills developed using an iPhone, a lightweight tripod, and a tiny remote. The personas are formed from aspects of myself. As I become aware of them, they each develop their own particular characteristics, preferences, attitudes, and desires. They tell me how they want to present themselves and what they want to do. Each has a name, an outfit, a pair of sunglasses, a vocation, a backstory, and a mind of his/her/their own. When planning the 12 parks to visit, the need to find some sites close to home led to the discovery of exquisite parklands within a day’s drive. The photographs submitted are examples from three Midwest trips.
- Frankie wandered the dunes of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park, along the lakeshore of northern Michigan.
- Annesthesia waded through the tall grasses of Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, just south of Joliet, Illinois.
- Frances wound her way through the forests of Cuyahoga Valley National Park, outside of Cleveland, Ohio.
To see videos from my 2022 national parks project, go to: https://vimeo.com/showcase/10923716.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Anna is a Chicago-based performance artist and poet who has created work in Chicago for more than four decades. Her early experience was as one third of the cabaret art trio Somebody’s Daughters for much of the 80s. Later she made solo pieces as part of the TranceSisters Collective, and wrote and performed with the Chicago Poetry Ensemble.
Over the course of her performance history, Anna has developed personas for three distinct configurations: theater-style shows with seated audiences; durational installations, in which she interacts with viewers one-on-one; and her current work, site-specific actions in public spaces, mostly outdoors. As her more recent work requires her to create her own documentation, she is now also producing photo and video works.
Anna holds an MFA in performance and an MA in art history, theory, and criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as an EdD in education. She has a broad professional background in advising, teaching, and coaching. To see examples from Anna’s performance history, go to: www.annafbrown.com
© Anna F Brown