What is What

ABOVE: Street performer permit as a hedge to my street performance art. Chicago 1994

I scrawled "THE WORLD WILL NEVER KNOW" on my skateboard with a paint marker while living in Chicago in 1994. I put down these letters on my board as I realized, after being in the middle of a wind storm downtown on my board and being pushed around like a piece of scrap paper, that the most hauntingly beautiful or perfectly balanced moments of my street performances were simply impossible to share or recreate. I wrote these words on a day where I had become a human tumbleweed witnessed by 100's of train passengers marching to their morning destinations. I was up late, two days late, and they were up early in the morning. These moments of...

i am entering this MasterClash contest here in Pittsburgh because I really cannot justify spending 300 dollars on a chair for my daughter at this point in time.  I am looking into the Transition Movement as a guide to my future and my childrens' future here on what is left of our planet Earth. A significant mental aspect of the Transition Movement is to simplify life and reject lavish expenditures and conspicuous consumption. In my book 300$ on a chair for a two year old is lavish even if the chair is supposed to last till adulthood.

While i have written about my disability in an article here on the site i have not featured it on this front page blog. Due to the number of emails with the question... now i will. it will take you out of the blog into the site HERE

ABOVE: Bill Shannon 1980

ABOVE: My go at the Juste Debout Prelims in "Experiemental" category. For Experimental they will play randomn music to challenge the interpretation instead of house, funk or breaks.

- a slipping crutch tip can undermine your every move-

ABOVE: a worn crutch tip. sourced from an automotive supply store its a greenline brand high pressure coolant hose

Pictured below is one of my little insect like characters i make out of cutting and forming sheet metal.  This one is brass , a ruff cut template for envisioining a final version out of a more valuable and attractive metal like gold or silver. This version was started last year and recently completed in terms of the shape.  I am having fun putting him different places and making his fingers and toes grab hold. i say "him" because often, though not always, these miniature sculpture works are self portraits. Read more for images of other miniature sculptures.

"Wanderer"  pierced and formed brass 2" tall

i recently finished this six channel to single channel video composite of BENCH. BENCH was a 12 foot round six channel 360 degree video installation from the Shannon Public Works Trilogy produced and exhibited by Douz and Mille Gallery in NYC in 07. Watch the single screen for youtube remix below. If you want more info on context and execution along with some pics of the video rigging click here.

i  have plenty to write about this aspect of my practice. equipment maintenance and diversity is critical to the form. most of my crutches are custom or modified standard issue. These crutches were all a part of the work Crutches Are For Dancing.

I took this portrait of my grandmother Mildred Avery in 2006. I was looking to create a graphic for Mildreds Daughters' Urban Farm using this photo of her with a seed placed floating just above her palms. The seed would represent the future. This shoot ended up being my last set of her before she passed on. I took photos of her throughout my adult years. She was always a willing subject and would do any strange thing I requested. If you click through you will see her gamely holding a marrionette to her chest for me in a photo from the nineties.

These two projects featuring my dance work on crutches held much in common. They were both dance for camera projects involving dancing and skating through an urban environment while staying in range and in frame for a steady-cam operator who followed each movement to the best of their ability. Both projects involved collaborating with director Joey Garfield and since their completion both have received overwhelmingly positive reactions by their respective audiences.

above: Music Video: Artist: RJD2  Track "Work It Out"  Direction Joey Garfield, Choreography and Performance Bill Shannon 2007

above: Ad Campaign: Visa "Flow" Europe, Direction Joey Garfield, Choreography and Performance Bill Shannon 2009

I left NYC three years ago to take my kids away from the grit and grime, the crowded playgrounds, the noise, the smell and the claustrophobic feeling the city can take on. Leaving the big city was made easier by the existence of the urban farm my mother Randa and her partner Barb had started on a riverside hilltop in the Stanton Heights neighborhood of the city of Pittsburgh.

above: South-East view of the main field, April 2009