Historical November 1991 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
“Rim to River/The Bright Angel,” a collaborative work of painting, poetry, music, and dance, will be presented at Edison Theater on December 4th at 7:30 PM.
The program also includes another popular repeat performance, “Pilgrimage to the Virgin of Rocio,” and a premiere composition by Rich O’Donnell entitled “Intimate Vistas.” Repeated backpack trips to the bottom of the Grand Canyon have inspired a group of large paintings by Bill Kohn, 61XX Kingsbury, Professor of Fine Arts at Washington University and a series of poems by Janet B. Eigner, psychologist and writer.
When the two were combined and performed at the Randall Gallery in September of 1990, St. Louis Post Dispatch dance reviewer Regina Popper described the event as “impressive…a deep look at the majesty and mystery of the Grand Canyon (finding) in every hue and shade a human equivalent.” Popper described the program as making her “…feel as though I were hovering, like Bright Angel Point at sunrise, above the darkness.” The West End Word’s Cynthia Simpson Kahn wrote “It’s difficult to imagine enhancing anything that is as brilliant and inspired as Kohn’s pictures, but this performance did just that!” Cohan/Suzeau Duet Company, based at the University of Kansas, choreographed dance especially for the paintings and poems, and Rich O’Donnell, cave and canyon explorer in his time away from the St. Louis Symphony and the Washington University School of Music, composed electronic music based on the canyon images. Projected slides are incorporated in the 50 minute work titled “Rim to River/The Bright Angel.” The performance takes place in front of a thirty foot long painting of the canyon’s north rim and the Bright Angel fault. Light sculptor Dale Dufer is stage manager and lighting designer. Two additional works by Kohn and O’Donnell are on the program: “Intimate Vistas” and “Pilgrimage to the Virgin of Rocio.” The latter documents with multiple projectors Kohn’s three day, 45 mile walk with pilgrims to the shrine of the Virgin of Rocio in southern Spain. Electronic music composed by Rich O’Donnell for that piece incorporates “Rocio” music actually sung on the road. “Intimate Vistas,” a new work by O’Donnell inspired by his exploration of slot canyons in Utah and Arizona will feature slides by the composer. “Rim to River/The Bright Angel” will be presented on the Washington University Assembly Series at Edison Theatre at 11 AM, free and open to the public. (The assembly program will present only the Grand Canyon work.) Tickets for the expanded 7:30 PM program (which includes “Rim to River,” “Rocio.” and “Intimate Vistas”) will be available at the door. Prices are $7 for adults, $5 for seniors, students and faculty of Washington University. Skinker DeBaliviere resident Bill Kohn is best known for his paintings of streets and buildings of St. Louis; Guadalajara, Mexico; Andalusia, Spain; and Chicago seen one thousand feet up from the top of the Sears Tower.
Following a hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon in 1986, he turned from urban to natural canyons.
These are Kohn’s two most recent multimedia collaborations. Another, “Sundial,” with electronic music and computer generated slides, received a Silver Medal from the Association of Multi-Image in 1985. Kohn has been a professor of fine arts at Washington University for 28 years.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, November 1991.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Archival transcription note: Evening show7:30 in the article but calendar7:00; source conflict retained.
Original source: SD_Times1991_11.pdf, printed page(s) 6; PDF page(s) 6.
