Sarah Small

Last updated
Sarah Small
Sarah Small.jpg
Born1979
EducationB.A. in Photography from Rhode Island School of Design
Occupation(s)Composer, Vocalist, Filmmaker, Performer, Director, Photographer
Known for
  • Tableau Vivant (performance)
  • Black Sea Hotel (vocal ensemble)
  • The Delirium Constructions (photography series)
  • Butter on the Latch (film)
  • Secondary Dominance (performance, album, film)
ParentFather: Haskell Small
Website https://www.sarahsmall.com/

Sarah Small (born 1979 in Washington D.C.) is a Brooklyn-based American artist, composer, singer, filmmaker, photographer, and performer featured on Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble's GRAMMY-Winning album, Sing Me Home. [1] [2] She is known for her photographic and Tableau Vivant performance series The Delirium Constructions, singing as part of the Balkan vocal trio Black Sea Hotel, acting as the protagonist in the feature film Butter on the Latch by Josephine Decker, and directing the musical album, new music opera performance, and feature film Secondary Dominance.

Contents

Education and career

She attended high school at The Field School, in Washington, D.C. [3] and graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2001 with a bachelor's degree in photography. [4] [5]

After graduating from college, Small moved to Brooklyn and worked as a photographer for 13 years. Her work has appeared in publications including Vogue, [3] Life Magazine, [3] The New York Times, [6] The Washington Post, [7] and The Wall Street Journal, [8] has been showcased by John Schaefer on WNYC’s Soundcheck [9] and National Public Radio, and exhibited globally at venues including Galerie Caprice Horn (Berlin), Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington DC), and the Australian Centre for Photography. She was named one of the “Top 13 Emerging Photographers” working today, by American Photo Magazine. [10]

In 2002, Small began studying Bulgarian vocal production in a start-up Bulgarian women's choir, Yasna Voices. [11] In 2006, Yasna Voices traveled on grant to  Bulgaria to study with master singer Kremena Stancheva, a founding member of the Bulgarian women’s choir,  Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares. [12]

In 2007, Small co-formed Brooklyn's Balkan vocal ensemble, Black Sea Hotel. She has premiered original works with Kronos Quartet in collaboration with Black Sea Hotel at St. Ann's Warehouse. [13] [14]   and National Sawdust, and on stage with Reggie Watts and Sxip Shirey and Joe’s Pub. [9] The vocal trio  was featured in Small's Tableau Vivant of The Delirium Constructions in 2011 and headlined the Lund Choral Festival in Scandinavia in 2018. [15] [16] Black Sea Hotel has taught Balkan folk singing  internationally, with a specialization in songs from Shopluk, Bulgaria. Highlights include teaching residences at Sjöviks Folkhögskola in Sweden

In 2009, she taught Portrait Photography to seniors at the Parsons School of Design, and has taught darkroom photography to children and adults. [3] In 2011, her 120-participant Tableau Vivant performance was featured in The Washington Post and The New York Times. [17] [18]

In 2012, Small formed Hydra, another vocal trio, [19] and performed with Sean Ono Lennon and Taxiplasm at The Box. [20] [21]

In 2014, Small starred in Butter on the Latch, [19] a psychological thriller film directed by Josephine Decker, which was on The New Yorker's “10 Best Movies of 2014.” [22]

In 2016, Small was invited by Beth Morrison and HERE Arts Center’s PROTOTYPE Festival to premiere her work “Secondary Dominance” on stage, [23] [24] which has since been made into several music videos and a feature film. [25] [26]

As a photographer and performance artist, Small has exhibited and lectured internationally for The Lucie Foundation ,, [27] Apple Store Soho, and at the China International Photographic Exhibition granted by the Ministry of Culture of China. [28]

Select photography exhibitions

Select performance art

Filmography

TitleTypeYearProducerPerformerDirectorComposerSingerPhotographerRef
Docuconcoction of the Delirium ConstructionsDocumentary film2024YesYesYesYesYesNo
Secondary DominanceFeature film2023YesYesYesYesYesNo [26] [40]
Don’t Worry Darling Feature film2022NoNoNoNoYesNo [41]
The Autopsy of Jane Doe Feature film2016NoNoNoNoYesNo
Collective: UnconsciousAnthology film2016NoYesNoNoNoNo [42]
Thou Wast Mild and Lovely Feature film2014YesNoNoNoNoNo
Butter on the Latch Feature film2013NoYesNoNoYesNo [19]
Tableau Vivant of the Delirium Constructions (filmed at Skylight One Hanson, 2011)Short Film2011NoYesYesYesYesNo [43]
Team Queen Short film/Music video2007NoNoNoNoNoYes
Molotov SambaFeature film2005NoNoNoNoNoYes
NeuroticaShort film2003NoNoNoNoNoYes

Discography

YearArtistTitleType
2023Sarah SmallBoomerang of Black FluorescenceAlbum
2023Sarah SmallBehind the GymnasiumChamber Work
2019Sarah SmallSecondary DominanceAlbum
2016Silk Road EnsembleSing Me HomeSingle: “Sadila Jana” [44] [45]
2014 Jessi Colter and Lenny Kaye The PsalmsSingle: “Psalm 81” [46]
2014HydraHydraSingle: “Sonnet 81”
2014HydraHydraSingle: “Wake Up”
2013Black Sea HotelThe Forest is Shaking and SwayingAlbum
2010Ansambl MastikaSongs & Dances for Life NonstopSingle: “Iskupav Poema” [47]

Select music photography

Select photography awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joel-Peter Witkin</span> American photographer

Joel-Peter Witkin is an American photographer who lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His work often deals with themes such as death, corpses, often featuring ornately decorated photographic models, including people with dwarfism, transgender and intersex persons, as well as people living with a range of physical features. Witkin is often praised for presenting these figures in poses which celebrate and honor their physiques in an elevated, artistic manner. Witkin's complex tableaux vivants often recall religious episodes or classical paintings.

<i>Tableau vivant</i> Static scene containing one or more actors or models

A tableau vivant is a static scene containing one or more actors or models. They are stationary and silent, usually in costume, carefully posed, with props and/or scenery, and may be theatrically illuminated. It thus combines aspects of theatre and the visual arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corcoran School of the Arts and Design</span> Art school of George Washington University

The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design is the professional art school of the George Washington University, in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1878, the school is housed in the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the oldest private cultural institution in Washington, located on The Ellipse, facing the White House. The Corcoran School is part of GW's Columbian College of Arts and Sciences and was formerly an independent college, until 2014.

Janine Antoni is a Bahamian–born American artist, who creates contemporary work in performance art, sculpture, and photography. Antoni's work focuses on process and the transitions between the making and finished product, often portraying feminist ideals. She emphasizes the human body in her pieces, such as her mouth, hair, eyelashes, and, through technological scanning, her brain. Antoni uses her body as a tool of creation or as the subject of her pieces, exploring intimacy between the spectator and the artist. Her work blurs the distinction between performance art and sculpture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eve Sussman</span>

Eve Sussman is a British-born American artist of film, video, installation, sculpture, and photography. She was educated at Robert College of Istanbul, University of Canterbury, and Bennington College. She resides in Brooklyn, New York, where her company, the Rufus Corporation, is based. She visits cultural centers around the world where her exhibitions take place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Randy West (photographer)</span> American fine art photographer (born 1960)

Randy West is an American fine art photographer. West is also on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, New York, and a director of the school's Master of Fine Arts program for photography, video, and related media.

Thomas Roma is an American photographer who has worked almost exclusively since 1974 exploring the neighborhoods and institutions of his native Brooklyn, photographing scenes from churches, subways and everyday life. His work, made almost exclusively using a homemade camera, has received widespread acclaim.

Andrea Modica is an American photographer and professor of photography at Drexel University. She is known for portrait photography and for her use of platinum printing, created using an 8"x10" large format camera. Modica is the author of many monographs, including Treadwell (1996) and Barbara (2002).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norman Mauskopf</span> American documentary photographer (born 1949)

Norman Mauskopf is an American documentary photographer who has published three books. Mauskopf currently resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

<i>50 Photographs</i> 2008 photo book by Jessica Lange

50 Photographs is a photo book by American visual artist Jessica Lange, published by powerHouse Books on November 18, 2008. Featuring an introduction written by the National Book Award-winner Patti Smith, the art work distributed by Random House is the official debut of Lange as a photographer.

Jamie Baldridge is an American photographer and arts educator. He creates highly manipulated and surreal tableau vivant photographs. He is currently a professor of Photography in the Visual Arts Department at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Sarah Hobbs is an artist. Hobbs is from Lynchburg, Virginia. She lives and works in Atlanta.

Sarah Pickering is a British visual artist working with photography and related media including 3D scanning and digital rendering, performance, appropriated objects and print. Her artist statement says she is interested in "fakes, tests, hierarchy, sci-fi, explosions, photography and gunfire." She is based in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Austin Irving</span> American artist and photographer

Austin Irving is an American contemporary artist and photographer.

Susana Raab is an American fine art and documentary photographer based in Washington, D.C. She was born in Lima, Peru.

Catriona Fraser is a British photographer and art dealer. She has lived in Washington, DC since 1996.

The Fraser Gallery was either of two Washington, D.C. (1996-2011) or Bethesda, Maryland (2002-2011) art galleries founded by Catriona Fraser, an expatriate British photographer and art dealer in Washington.

Kris Graves is an American photographer who primarily works in portraiture and landscape photography. He is based in New York and London, and his work has been published and exhibited internationally. Graves's photographs evoke the sense of time, change, and memories as well as address social issues to raise awareness. Graves founded and directs Kris Graves Projects, a publisher of art books.

Melanie Einzig is an American photographer known for her street photography in and around New York City, where she has lived since 1990. Einzig was a member of the first incarnation of the In-Public street photography collective, from 2002. Her work has been published in the survey publications on street photography, Bystander: A History of Street Photography and Street Photography Now. She has shown in group exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago; Somerset House in London; the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Germany; and KunstHausWien in Vienna, Austria. The Art Institute of Chicago and Brooklyn Historical Society hold examples of her work in their collections.

The Magenta Foundation is a charitable art publishing house based in Toronto. It was established in 2004 by MaryAnn Camilleri to publish work from both domestic and international emerging artists through exhibitions and publications. In 2005 the foundation produced its first book, Carte Blanche Vol.1: Photography, with the proceeds supporting the promotion and publication of work by artists between the ages of 13 and 25. Magenta publications and exhibitions are circulated in Canada and abroad, and the foundation brings international contemporary art to Canadian audiences.

References

  1. Sing Me Home - Silkroad Ensemble, Yo-Yo Ma | Credits | AllMusic , retrieved 2022-01-09
  2. "Silk Road Ensemble". GRAMMY.com. 2020-11-23. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Kaufman, Sarah (19 June 2011). "Naked ambition: Sarah Small's 'Delirium Construction' brims with life". Washington Post.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Gallery shows off work of noted photographer Small". Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier. 2008-02-20. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  5. "Tribeca Citizen | March at 92YTribeca". Tribeca Citizen. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  6. Sulcas, Roslyn (2011-05-25). "In Brooklyn, a Boschscape of Vows, Song and Flesh". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  7. "Sarah Small's living picture". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  8. Waleson, Heidi (2017-01-17). "'Secondary Dominance' and 'Funeral Doom Spiritual' Reviews: More Than Opera". Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved 2022-01-30.
  9. 1 2 "Gig Alert: Black Sea Hotel | Soundcheck". WNYC. Retrieved 2022-01-30.
  10. "Brief overview of work to 2010". Nepotism Magazine. Archived from the original on 2010-12-29.
  11. "Yasna Voices - Female World Septet". www.harmony-sweepstakes.com. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
  12. Stankova, Maria Vassileva (2019). Globalization, Nationalism and Cultural Translation in Bulgarian Folk Singing (Thesis). ProQuest   2201117111.
  13. "Sarah Small's Provocative Secondary Dominance: Highlight of This Year's Prototype Festival". New York Music Daily. 2017-01-12.
  14. "Open House & Songs From Home". St. Ann's Warehouse. Retrieved 2022-01-30.
  15. "Åtta uruppföranden på Lunds körfestival |" (in Swedish). 2 September 2018. Retrieved 2022-01-30.
  16. "Lund Choral Festival i Lunds domkyrka 2018". Lunds domkyrka (in Swedish). 2018-10-14. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
  17. 1 2 "In Brooklyn, a Boschscape of Vows, Song and Flesh". The New York Times . 26 May 2011. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
  18. "Sarah Small's living picture". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2022-01-30.
  19. 1 2 3 "Review: BUTTER ON THE LATCH, A Fascinating And Truly Original Work Of Art". ScreenAnarchy. 2014-11-13. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  20. "OUT OF THE BOX – JUNE 7TH NYC – SEAN LENNON, HYDRA & THE CLICK CLACK BOOM TO PERFORM FOR TAXIPLASM'S FILM PROJECT". THE UNTITLED MAGAZINE. 2012-06-01. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
  21. "Sean Lennon". The Deli Magazine. 2012-06-14. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
  22. Brody, Richard (2014-12-11). "The Best Movies of 2014". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  23. "Prototype: Opera/Theatre/Now". Time Out New York. 2016-12-19. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
  24. 1 2 "Secondary Dominance – PROTOTYPE". 20 November 2018. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
  25. Cristi, A. A. "Sarah Small, Vanessa Walters, Wade McCullom's SECONDARY DOMINANCE Joins Prototype Festival". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
  26. 1 2 "Secondary Dominance". backstage.com. Retrieved 2022-01-29.
  27. "Lucie Foundation Newsletter". luciefoundation.org. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  28. "Image Makers with Sarah Small and Jason Florio - Events - APA New York". ny.apanational.org. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  29. Feaster, Felicia. "Review: Eclectic mix of photographers from across country at MOCA GA". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. ISSN   1539-7459 . Retrieved 2022-02-06.
  30. Human/Time/Space By 17 artists | Thai Art Exhibition
  31. Neubacher Shor Contemporary Launch and Inaugural Exhibition – nsc
  32. "Larissa Leclair - 100 Portraits – 100 Photographers". larissaleclair.com. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
  33. Art of Photography Show – An Evening with Sarah Small
  34. Shannon Rowland Photography
  35. 1 2 "CV from 2011" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-26. Retrieved 2011-07-21.
  36. The Exposure Project: Bova Images Festival
  37. "Sarah Small". LENSCRATCH. 2008-12-03. Retrieved 2022-02-24.
  38. "Exhibitions | Platform Centre". platformgallery.org. Retrieved 2022-02-24.
  39. 1 2 3 Sierra, Gabrielle. "TABLEAU VIVANT... Opens At Skylight One Hanson". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
  40. Cristi, A. A. "Sarah Small, Vanessa Walters, Wade McCullom's SECONDARY DOMINANCE Joins Prototype Festival". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2022-01-29.
  41. "Don't Worry Darling Score OST Cover by psycosid09 on DeviantArt". deviantart.com. 6 October 2022. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
  42. Harvey, Dennis (2016-04-05). "Film Review: 'Collective:Unconscious'". Variety. Retrieved 2022-01-29.
  43. "Tableau Vivant of the Delirium Constructions. Puede vivir toda la belleza del mundo en una sala de teatro?". 23 December 2020.
  44. Sing Me Home - Silkroad Ensemble, Yo-Yo Ma | Credits | AllMusic , retrieved 2022-01-29
  45. "Standout Performances". Our RISD. 21 February 2017. Retrieved 2022-01-29.
  46. The Psalms - Jessi Colter | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic , retrieved 2022-01-29
  47. "#3175: New Releases, February 2011". newsounds. 2011-02-01. Retrieved 2022-01-29.
  48. 1 2 3 4 "Sarah Small Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More". AllMusic. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
  49. Bring Me the Workhorse - My Brightest Diamond, allmusic.com, retrieved 2022-01-30
  50. Magenta: Flash Forward 2010 - Winners and Honourable Mentions
  51. "Sarah Small". Resource Magazine. Fall 2009. pp. 116–117. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
  52. Photography Grants and Awards: ITS International Talent Support : photo competition
  53. Farmani Gallery
  54. Living Pictures | News | About | RISD
  55. "Winners of Avant Guardian Announced". Popular Photography. 2019-01-17. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
  56. "Image Makers with Sarah Small and Jason Florio - Events - APA New York". ny.apanational.org. Retrieved 2022-02-06.