Catscan, 1988

color, sound
12:46 min.

Catscan is a group performance within a chaotic density of projected images and office furniture, motivated by Egyptian funerary rituals of mourning, grief and spirits of the dead. It sustains aspects of Schneemann's previous works built with dream instruction, positing the interchange of intimacy and physicality, the erotic and the obscene, the incubation of dream enactment. Catscan centers on the death of a beloved cat as a means to ritualize more universal mourning and to bring forward ghosts of the past. As a ritual consecration, Schneemann, blindfolded, dances out of 20 yards of red fabric wound around her body.

The performance, which had a duration of approximately 90 minutes and variously featured 5 to 8 performers, included a slide projection system, 15 video monitors, ladders, furniture, suitcases, and debris.

Performances took place at:
Beyond Baroque, Venice CA (1987)
Performing Language, State University of New York Binghamton (1988)
Medicine Show Theatre, New York (1988)
Edge 88, performance festival London (1988)

The video stills are from footage by Victoria Vesna of the 1988 NY performance.