Redbloom

About the artists:

Amanda Sieradzki is a choreographer and dance faculty member at the University of Tampa. She is the founder and artistic director of Poetica, a company that combines contemporary dance and poetry for classes and performances in the community. Amanda is a writer for ArtsATL, DIYdancer Magazine, Creative Pinellas’ Arts Coast Journal and the Tallahassee Council on Culture & Arts. She believes in dance as a medium that can transcend language and connect cultures, and engages in interdisciplinary, collaborative processes to uncover with rich environments and new ideas.

Jaime Aelavanthara is a fine art photographer and faculty member at the University of Tampa. Her photographic work explores themes of the human condition and our interconnectedness with nature. She has exhibited nationally in venues such as the Mississippi Museum of Art, SEITES Gallery, Canada, and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. Most recently, Aelavanthara won SOHO Photo Gallery’s 2017 International Portfolio competition and was awarded a solo exhibition at SOHO Photo Gallery, NY.

Blueprint/Redbloom is a visual art and dance performance installation tied to Florida’s coastal environments and the spread of toxic algae blooms. As natives to southern coastal regions, the artists were driven to create a work that touches upon water issues and preservation. Their collaborative process engages movement, poetry and visual art together to discuss recent national headlines on rising tides, ocean pollution and the increased threat and frequency of oxygen-deprived “dead water.” The cyanotype process took place on location in Treasure Island, FL. The fabric was developed with collected ocean water, and resulting amber-colorations allude to red tide and other toxic algae blooms to provoke thought around human impact on our oceans. Our monochromatic process shifts focus from potentially colorful landscapes and figures to textures and forms as a means of capturing the bleakness of this environmental narrative. The static human form interacting with the cyanotype fabrics will then be incorporated and translated into a choreographic process with a dance performed alongside the installation emphasizing the human connection to these pressing issues.

-Amanda Sieradzki & Jaime Aelavanthara