Five Dances and Nine Wall Carpets by Noa Eshkol

Directed by Sharon Lockhart

The project’s primary film installation features five of Eshkol’s dances, each of which is staged among different groupings of Eshkol’s wall carpets and projected onto a rectangular volume. Together with dancers from Eshkol’s group, Lockhart chose carpets based on shapes that complement each dance, mounted them to rectangular volumes similar to those onto which the five channels of the film are to be projected, and arranged the volumes within each performance. The variations of composition in each frame highlight the relationship between the dance and the textile work, drawing connections between the two that Eshkol herself perhaps never made. The dancers perform only to the sound of the metronome, with the speed varying slightly between each dance. Together, the five metronome beats create a new composition of music for the exhibition space. To create this unique score, Lockhart worked with composer and long-time collaborator Becky Allen.