Judson Fragments

After her groundbreaking mixed-media solo-concert Fantastic Gardens at Judson Memorial Church --which Jonas Mekas called “by far the most successful and most ambitious attempt to use the many combinations of film and live action” that he had seen-- choreographer, filmmaker, pioneer of intermedia art and of somatic practices Elaine Summers (1925-2014) sat down to experiment with parts of films she had shot and gathered, after this particular experience. Some had been shown during Fantastic Gardens, like Fred Herko watering a garbage can. Others were of Steve Paxton and Deborah Hay performing a dance on a golf course at a Country Club. For Judson Fragments, Summers put all of these and many more fragments together, improvising and playing with the means of film as a medium: speed, negatives, overlay etc. Composers Malcolm Goldstein and John Herbert McDowell provided the experimental music. The result is a filmdance, as much a film as a dance experience.