Lethe-wards
Lethe-wards
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Artist
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Production Date
2010
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Medium
35mm film transferred to video and digital video, two-channels, standard definition (SD), 16:9, black and white/colour, silent/stereo sound
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Size
3min 52sec
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Credit
Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, purchased 2010
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Accession Number
C2010/1/23.1-2
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Accession Date
18 Aug 2010
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Department
New Zealand Art
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Classification
Audiovisual
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Collection
Chartwell
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Chartwell Notes
Dance is a recurring subject in Sriwana Spong’s practice, and Lethe-wards emerges from a series of films that reimagine George Balanchine’s ballet Le Chant du Rossignol, based on a story by Hans Christian Andersen with music by Igor Stravinsky. Presented as a dual projection, the work features two dancers embodying the Emperor and the Nightingale. As the original choreography is only partially preserved, Spong’s work foregrounds this absence: in a black void, the two figures appear and disappear.
Developed in collaboration with choreographer Timothy Gordon, the work draws on Andersen’s narrative, archival traces such as costume designs by Henri Matisse, and Stravinsky’s score. Spong films the Nightingale (Izumi Griffiths) on 35mm film, while the Emperor (Benny Ord) is captured in digital video, creating a dialogue between the historical conditions of the ballet’s production and the contemporary moment of its reimagining.
