What happens to an “American Gothic” under the weight of a curtain that never falls? What is at stake if we decide to play the wrong role? What is your cue to enter the scene?

STAGED is a short film by vAL featuring Roderick George and Corey Scott-Gilbert in an endless loop of false starts where two nihilistic characters rally through self-reflection to interrogate their roles inside of a theatrical conundrum. In this virtual commission from Baryshnikov Arts, STAGED employs the theater itself as a reflective pool, mirroring life’s absurdities in search of a glint of horizon. Accompanied by the voice of Gus Solomons, Jr., STAGED unpacks a world of exuberant exile where rules are meant to be broken and caricatures confronted.

Perhaps hope is only elsewhere; perhaps elsewhere is already here…

(Video, 2024)

Reality has become so absurd that it’s hard to distinguish fact from fiction and we, simultaneously the viewers and the subjects, are left numb. Seeking some sort of interlude from this horror show, I went into the studio one year ago in the hope of making a solo work based on my archive of dreams. I soon realized that I had unknowingly omitted the space I once held for retaining and tending to my dreams, bringing me face to face with a void and a question: If my authentic self is being clouded by the ravages of social ills, what do I have that can break through this psychic interference and be shared? I theorized that the answer to this question could fill the void where my dreams ought to be and started to ask other people about their dreams. I quickly understood most of the conscious minds around me are over-saturated and altogether overwhelmed; I heard a familiar experience described again and again. They, too, are staring into the same dreamless abyss. 

INTERMISSION is a solo in which I attempt to restore my dream archive by puzzling together fragmented thoughts, sounds and movements to take the audience on an elusive and uncharted journey. Inspired by interpersonal dialogues around lost dreams within my community, and ushered along by the uncertainty of static sound, I seek to replenish missing dream files. Stories, confessions and memories are communicated through a scanning of spoken words and a mash-up of embodied images. Voices and texts heard in the work make it clear that this new dream archive is imposed and does not belong exclusively to me, yet is brought to life by my own performative doubt, variability and curated interruption. Gathered in a round, the audience experiences my transformations as I mine for clarity in a dense fog of disrupted dreams. The room shifts into a cathartic space of collective tuning, reliant on my will to stay present with my own bemusement and unpredictability.

What may eventually erupt when we sit together in our puzzlement? INTERMISSION does not pretend to know or give any answer. This project is not meant to be a solution, but an instigation to a moment of breathing together in perplexity, an offering of a space for the nebulous to gather. This moment of static is ours, just as the dreams that came before it.

(Performance, 2024)

REF (2024) is a live performative solo from vAL that tackles the redundant urgency of activity. Contained in a public garden, REF uses the physical language of popular sports to derail a body trapped in the plays of a game that cannot be won. Looming under the melodic rambles of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land,” REF confronts the thought of land being made for anyone at all. In days that seem done, the pursuit of change is the only goal that remains.

we’re up zer0 | none

+ the ball is dribbling home with no one.

taking countless swing after swing

running at the wind, uneasy

…what are we playing at?

what is there left to gain,

when life = game?

waving bodies multiplying,

match points + mates checked

what’s the score when we’re,

sliding into nothing but net?

….what are we playing at?

flags down.

hands bound.

we need a whistle.

call it ref.

(Performance, 2024)

Where can we go from here when today is identical to yesterday and no future is near?

DRIFT’s questioning wanderer, equally justified in their detachment and overwhelm as in their wonder and clarity, understands that the world they inhabit holds nothing for them. The rover sifts through inner dialogues on nihilism, determined to uncover something greater than their own history.

Shot through a voyeuristic lens and shown in three transposable parts, DRIFT follows a nomad cruising down beaten paths in search of a community ready to seek a different kind of wild; a wilderness free from the perpetual squalor of a hopeless nation. DRIFT’s virtuosic, intensely musical spoken word and hauntingly rich visual poetry give form to the powerful urgency of present-day human migration through the conception, direction and writings of vAL.

(Video, 2023)

„Created in an unforgiving year, “Work” became a refuge, a place to find solace from the outside world. The inescapable thump of Modeselektor’s “Extended” left me embodying mundane tasks so intensely that not only did these tasks become important but their original purpose was forgotten, the “doing” more significant than any result.  I rediscovered the intention of simple tasks to create my reality without regard to any past. I structured “Work” in a way that asks the performer not to “perform”, but to drench themselves in a state of process. By fully embodying each task I find myself in a minefield of emotion. "Work" is an exorcism of boredom in both its creation and in its practice. One will undoubtedly reflect and feel different from before it all began.... again + again... from a lonely pew.“ 

Berlin-based duo Modeselektor's fifth album Extended was released in April 2021 on their label Monkeytown Records. The German duo are accompanying this release with a ‘visual album’ in film: 'Work’ stars American dancer Corey Scott-Gilbert who transposes the energy of Modeselektor’s music into a radical performance. "Work" is a film from vAL, Krsn Brasko and Tobias Staab. 

(Video, 2021)