Artist
Steven Morrison

Project Title
Air (An opera for breath)

Discipline
Animated Film

Grant Amount
$919

Website
http://stevemorrisonart.com/

Project Description
Air (an opera for breath) will be a short experimental animated opera film. There is no libretto
in the opera, only breath rushing in and out of the mouth in a variety of rhythmic pulses and expressions. Air (the English translation of the operatic aria) is the substance of this breath, which informs a rich spiritual history across many cultures and practices. The opera will be animated and performed by the rising and falling of loaves of bread dough. The loaves expand and deflate like lungs. Tiny civilizations of yeast performers rise and fall as this movement is enacted. Their process of fermentation becomes a form of collective transformation. The fleshy dough encounters a series of obstacles to its progress and finds various ways to overcome these restraints as it reaches beyond itself. Inspired by Baroque opera staging, Victorian monodrama, and contemporary design, Air (an opera for breath) will explore the corporeal body through the air that passes through it.