MEET THE FELLOWS: LITAL DOTAN & KENDELL PINKEY
LITAL DOTAN
LABA PROJECT:
One of the major projects I am currently working on is a translation of a performance piece into a full length play. Designed as a tragic comedy, the play is based on a performance I did during a residency at the Marina Abramovic Institute in San Francisco in 2010, which went tremendously wrong, causing me severe injuries by a participant. In the play I am focusing not on the personal traumatic aspect of the piece but rather on its social aspects. So far I have translated this performance into a draft for a play, and I hope to be able to develop and discuss it during the fellowship this year.
KENDELL PINKEY
What drew you to apply to LABA?
LABA’s premise of studying classical Jewish texts and using them as an impetus for creation is unique among arts fellowships. As someone who straddles the worlds of theatre and Jewish life/education, it is nice to be part of a program that encourages me to bring all of my interests to the table.
Why do you want to study beauty?
Beauty interests me because of its relation to aesthetic correctness, perfection, and virtue. Beauty terrifies me for all the same reasons, because each of the above attributes implies its opposite: aesthetic incorrectness, imperfection, and vice. This, in turn, raises the more troubling issues of who gets to decide what is beautiful and what is ugly, and why should someone/some group have that power? To me, these questions carry a good deal of heft, because beautiful things affect how we relate the world, and the consequences of being beautiful, or possessing beauty, are tangible in how the world relates to us.
Thoughts + Happenings 