Art professor brings shadow-based theatre project to Iceland

The travelling arts collective Cave Dogs, led by Professor of Art Suzanne Stokes, brought a wholly original visual arts event to the 2019 Reykjavik Fringe Festival with “Liquid States,” a performance combining movement, form, manipulated light and shadow to create surreal visual effects and a narrative about humanity’s relationship with the natural world.

Cave Dogs, co-founded and led by Stokes and James Fossett, presented three performances of “Liquid States” on July 1, 5 and 6 at the Tjarnarbíó Theater in the Icelandic capital.

“The show explores water as substance, metaphoric allusion, and socio-political currency,” Stokes said. “‘Liquid States’ is both abstract documentary and fictionalized realism, weaving together imagery and sounds to create a stimulating experience that documents and celebrates important cultural voices and environmental perspectives.”

Following each performance, the members of Cave Dogs invite audience members behind the screen for a first-hand look and dialogue about how they create their illusions and tell their stories.

Learn more about Cave Dogs at their website (http://cavedogs.org/) follow them on Instagram @cave.dogs, and scroll to view video of their performance of “Shadows of Metsi,” which was conceived, written and produced during a two-week workshop at the Sibikwa Arts Centre in Benoni, Gauteng, South Africa.

The Reykjavik Fringe Festival is one of hundreds of arts events worldwide, all descended from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which opened in 1947. Fringe festivals give homes to alternative and independent artists in any and all forms, including theatre, stand-up comedy, dance, poetry, burlesque, street performance, installation art, circus, opera, cabaret, and much more.
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