"Merce My Way"

“Every photograph, I remember the days. What’s happened before, what’s happened after. Somehow it’s a kind of therapy from early Alzheimer’s or something. Which I probably have, I’m afraid.” (Misha)

Here are a few photographs from Mikhail Baryshnikov's new exhibition at 401 Projects and Weinstein Gallery, "Merce My Way". As the title suggests, his subject is another dance artist, Merce Cunningham.

At its center, Andrea Weber holds a characteristic Cunningham balance on one leg: her torso leans forward, her eyes are focused down, and her other leg is raised behind her as the highest point of her dance shape. Spaced around her, four dancers are in different kinds of slight blur, each a separate shape. The eye feasts on them, the orange and white blocks of Lancaster's costumes, all against a backdrop of the richest sky blue. (Alastair Macaulay)

Mikhail Baryshnikov's technique with his digital camera, and the way he processes his photographs, give the final images a surreal, and - as one critic said - "phantasmagorical" feel.

Digital cameras have allowed Mikhail Baryshnikov to explore new ways to convey a sense of motion. He says he's trying to make the viewer think not just about one moment in time, but what came before and what follows after.

Several visitors to the opening of Mikhail Baryshnikov's photography exhibition in Minneapolis commented on the angelic nature of his subjects. The motion of their arms, and the blurriness of the photograph, appear to give them wings.


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