A hybrid performance – part documentary, part conjuring, part performance art – MIND ON HEAVEN explores the boundaries of memory and embodiment. Using live audio and video mixes, original animation, archival texts, storytelling, and dance, two performers tune in to the vibrations of the late Dennis Palmer, a self-taught, avant-garde musician and painter of the American South.
created and performed by Ben Williams and Brian Cagle
technical supervision by Max Bernstein
lobby installation by Christopher Myers and Sahana Ramakrishnan
MIND ON HEAVEN is an anti-consumerist enterprise.
In the generous spirit of Dennis Palmer, all performances are FREE and open to the public.
MIND ON HEAVEN is supported by Axis Theater, Abrons Arts Center, The Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry at the University of Chicago, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and individual donations.
special thanks to Randy Sharp and Brian Barnhart, Robin Blue, Eric Bayless-Hall, and Judith Elster.
performance history:
Axis Theatre, 1 Sheridan Square, NYC. September 2017
Wayne White's Wayne-o-Rama, Chattanooga, TN. April 2017
a secret loft theater in Soho. January 2017
work-in-progress showings at The Gershwin Live Series at Dixon Place Lounge and the CATCH series at The Invisible Dog.
We are looking for opportunities to tour this production through partnerships with producers, institutions, universities, and organizations. We are also interested in presenting this production along with workshops and open community dialogues.
for more information, please contact Ben Williams: benswilliams@gmail.com
Ben Williams - is an actor, sound designer, and director. He is a longtime member of Elevator Repair Service and a founding member of Minor Theater with Julia Jarcho. He produces and curates category : other, an award-winning platform for experimental audio. Other collaborators include Lily Whitsitt, Christina Masciotti, Katie Brook, Sibyl Kempson, Suzanne Bocanegra, The Wooster Group, New York City Players, Big Dance Theater, Kate Benson, and Lee Sunday Evans. He has toured extensively across 5 continents, to venues including the Noël Coward Theater on the West End, the Sydney Opera House, the Prague Quadrennial, and the American Repertory Theater. Awards: 2012 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, 2012 Obie Award, and 2012 Lucille Lortel Award, and (with Jillian Walker) the Third Coast International Audio Festival’s inaugural Audio Unbound Award. www.benwilliamsdotcom.com
Brian Cagle - is a filmmaker - writer, director, executive producer - currently living in Chicago but originally hailing from the hills of East Tennessee. His films have been screened at a number of museums and film festivals around the US and particularly in the Southeast, such as Downstream International Film Festival, IndieGrits, and IndieMemphis. His 2003 documentary No Incident, No Service, based on the 1960 sit-in demonstrations led by Chattanooga high school students, is now part of the permanent collection of the Chattanooga Regional History Museum. In 2006, his short film Bikes + Bridges = Chicago won the top prize in Nokia’s “My Chicago, My Neighborhood” film competition. Commercially, he has shot on various projects including performances by Snoop Dogg and Animal Collective, and in 2012 created a music video for the band Volcano! which was featured on Pitchfork and Spin.com. Currently he is finishing his first feature film, Green Corn. He served as a board member for the non-profit Shaking Ray Levis Society, and has also worked in experimental theater in Tennessee and New York, including Richard Foreman’s Hotel Fuck. Cagle received his MFA in Film from Northwestern University. He has taught at Northwestern U, Northwestern’s satellite university in Doha, Qatar, and at Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy in Chicago, Illinois.
Sahana Ramakrishnan - was born in Mumbai, India and raised in Singapore. She travelled to the United States to complete her BFA in Painting at RISD and has since been living and working in Brooklyn. Her work is a web of cultural interface. Mesmerizing mixtures of Hindu, Buddhist, and Greek visual mythologies weave together into a tapestry of pop cultural references that are upended by her exploration of identity, sexuality, and gender perspectives. Sahana’s work has been exhibited in The Rubin Museum, the NARS Foundation, Field Projects, Gateway Project Spaces, Elizabeth Foundation of the Arts, A.I.R. Gallery, Front Art Space, and more. She is currently a resident at Yaddo. She has been the recipient of the SIP fellowship at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking workshop, the Feminist-in-Residence program at Gateway Project Spaces, the Yale/Norfolk Summer program, and the Florence Lief grant from RISD.