Headlands Center for the Arts

Artist Statement

I make collaborative, ensemble-driven movement projects and sculpture. Lately I’m increasingly focused on how power is implemented in time. Bodies in my performances hurry up (productivity quotas), wait (stop and frisk, “time out”), or persist doggedly at a steady rate (repetitive labor, the execution of code), or they challenge capitalist isolation and “optimization” by creating interlocking architectures with their bodies and intermittently resting. Sculptural bodies cope with their “objectification” by deploying their imaginary powers to charm, threaten, disgust, deceive, or give a guilt trip. Bravery in the face of vulnerability is central to my work: that people are impacted by violence and exploitation, and yet invent ingenious psychological responses to cope with, protect, or heal from the damage. My art marvels at the everyday heroism of human beings who speak back to systems of power and strive to become fully alive and conscious.

While at Headlands

At Headlands, I will have the rare opportunity to work on choreography and sculpture at the same time. I plan to make a performance installation that highlights tactile and acoustic aspects of dance in relation to a huge, subtly animated sculpture. Despite its scale this object will be difficult to perceive, visually, because its surface pattern will contradict its volume. Dancing nearby will happen out of view, leaving spectators to feel and hear the dancers’ breath, heat, air currents, and percussive contact with surfaces. The performance will activate the senses of touch and hearing, while destabilizing vision. It will blur distinctions between human and the inanimate through its extended duration and exploration of subtlety and degrees of opacity in live presence. The project aims to probe relationships between the apparent timelessness of beliefs and mythologies, the prolonged time span of objects, and the relentlessly passing time of live beings. 

Artist portrait by Hummingbird Studios.

Selected Work

Ginger Krebs, excerpt from “Escapes & Reversals,” 2019; performance; 60 min. Concept, choreography, and costumes by Ginger Krebs; sound by Joseph Kramer; performers Maddie Kodat, Ginger Krebs, Naoki Nakatani, Zach Nicol, and Harlan Rosen; videography by Phillip Bootsma, Anthony Fins, and Parker Foreman. Performed at The Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography at Florida State University.

Ginger Krebs, excerpt from “Soft Parade,” 2014; performance; 55 min. Concept, direction, choreography, sound composition and costumes by Ginger Krebs; performers James Falzone, Charlie Malave, Dani Martinez, John Niekrasz, April Noga, Adam Paul, Jon Poindexter, Kevin Stanton, Aurora Tabar and Ginger Krebs; videography by Kitty Huffman. Performed at The Auditorium Theater, Chicago.

https://vimeo.com/776171477

Ginger Krebs, excerpts from “All We Can See from Here,” 2022; performance; 50 min. Concept, choreography and direction by Ginger Krebs; dancers Kennedy Alexandria, Andy Slavin, Lauren Kunath, and Ginger Krebs; sound by Joseph Kramer; costumes by Sky Cubacub; drone videography by Justin Lynk; video documentation by Ji Yang. Performed at Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago.