Still from "The Grey Ones," WIFE
WIFE is a trio of L.A.-based dancers, choreographers and video artists named Jasmine Albuquerque, Kristen Leahy and Nina McNeely. Although they officially disbanded — their last performance was in 2016 — each continues the work that they began with WIFE. I spoke with Leahy from her home in Mexico about the video piece "The Grey Ones," which is a recording of the trio's 2011 performance, and is one of the centerpieces of the Scene-sponsored art exhibit Nerve: The Female Body in Women's Art, which is on view now at Wilder.
One of the things I love about “The Grey Ones” is how it incorporates your physical bodies as a sort of surface for these images. And the images are so witchy and crony and beautiful. What’s that title, “The Grey Ones,” a reference to?
The Grey Ones is a reference to the three sisters of Graeae in Greek mythology. It's three sisters who are gray-haired, and they share one eye. They're like old wise women — and of course they’re called witches — and they're basically prophets. They can tell the future and they have magical powers, but they have to share this one eye that they pass between the three of them. By the end of the piece, what happens is the three creatures or three characters, they become this creature with one eye. The idea is that they’re sharing consciousness, sharing their body, sharing a brain.
It's almost shocking when you all crawl onto that same pedestal and spread your arms around and angle them. Was the inspiration wanting to pay homage to these women, or to talk about the ways that you three are similar to The Grey Ones?
There were a lot of things that we talked about when we made this piece, because each [projected] vignette has its own story. But some of the major themes were aging, the cycles of life and death, transcending human form. So the very beginning are these gods not even of the earth ... They eventually start to break down, and it gets really creepy. And it's quite obvious what it's about — it’s about aging and the deterioration and decay of the human body and, specifically as women, all of the implications we have to deal with, and how powerful it can be to just face it in the ugliest form instead of denying it or skirting around it or pretending like it's not going to happen. You know how powerful it can be to face the ugliest thing that you're the most afraid of?
And the old crone ladies are projected directly onto your body. Which is a really great way of telling that story, I think, because you sort of become that person.
I think the theme that we always go back to in all of our work is the feminine female archetypes that transcend all cultures, and one of them is obviously the crone — the crone is the wise woman and she’s also the witch. In our culture especially, there's so much fear and negativity and ostracism associated with that archetype. It's like all those fairytale stories about the witch who’s going to eat your children. We're very interested in where the power is in all of the darkness of the female archetype or the feminine archetype. Because of all the darkness and all the fear around it is actually where there's so much power. That's feminine.
Nerve is up through Feb. 20 at Wilder, 701 Taylor St.
