Into the Canyon is a 2020 film devised by RADAR organizers Adriana Chavez, Heidi Rider, Karla Lagunas, Brent Holmes, and Pierson Brown during the Covid-19 quarantine. Unsafe to continue their monthly performance event with an audience, the group adapted their work to meet the strange and precarious times.
Filmed in the ghost town formally known as the Las Vegas Strip, this series of devised performances feature hardscrabble characters adapting to new realities. Some cruising the canyon of empty buildings devoid of the usual hedonistic revelers, taking in the sights. Others, wrestling with the looming threat and inertia of denied potential, tumbling through absurd stages of loss.
Together, they play with an environment, processing their fear, grief and isolation, reinterpreting this place and time through a naive western drama.
Documentation of an improvisational performance work in collaboration with Alec Jones-Trujillo. Performed at the Goldwell Open Air Museum for the Inaugural Bullfrog Biennial. 2019.
*I do not own the rights to the music
This parade float was performed as part of the 115th Beatty Days parade, an annual celebration honoring the anniversary of the town's founding.
Our float was built with plastic garbage onto the bed of a pickup truck, which was graciously loaned to us by a local family who was born and raised in Beatty and is currently in the process of restoring the historic El Portal Motel.
This performance was a collaboration between myself, Alec Jones- Trujillo and six children. The day before the parade, the kids had a trash party where they each created costumes to wear while riding the float.
This parade float was performed as part of the 115th Beatty Days parade, an annual celebration honoring the anniversary of the town's founding.
Our float was built with plastic garbage onto the bed of a pickup truck, which was graciously loaned to us by a local family who was born and raised in Beatty and is currently in the process of restoring the historic El Portal Motel.
This performance was a collaboration between myself, Alec Jones- Trujillo and six children. The day before the parade, the kids had a trash party where they each created costumes to wear while riding the float.