John Chiaromonte (United States), “Anima Loci-Spirit of Place”

John Chiaromonte’s performative/spiritual practice is rooted in silence, stillness and solitude walked out through rituals/actions within the landscape. In the early morning, he stands at the entrance to a 100’ diameter stone labyrinth he built on his property. He bows, rings the bell and slowly walks to the center of the labyrinth, sits in zazen, then walks out. This “spiritual” practice allows him to address our individual and collective wounds and create through his performance’s “thin places” (Anima Loci-the soul place). In his words: “Our actions enshrine the anima loci, bringing the unseen into physical presence.”, “Celtic Sacred Landscapes”, Niegel Pennick, pg. 13 His process for developing new work is straight forward. To him “During those moments that are not “art” related such wading streams reading the water for prime lies holding trout or bombing mountain roads on my longboard this is when ideas for a piece come to me. From those brief moments of clarity studio time involves creating drawing for movements and the placement objects within the performance environment. Shaping movement into liturgical (the work of the people) actions. Hopefully drawing the audience/viewer/participant into themselves… exposing our common wounds.”

INVERSE PERFORMANCE ART FESTIVAL 2017

"Saint Brendan Walking Through Dandi Satyagraha"
INVERSE PERFORMANCE ART FESTIVAL 2017
University of Arkansas Art & Design District - S. Hill St. Fayetteville, AR Saturday, April 1, 10am - 4pm 
"Saint Brendan walking through Dandi Satyagraha" is a six hour durational piece in 3 movements.

Inverse Performance Art Festival Proposal 2016

“Anima Loci-Spirit of Place”

 "Like Buddha beneath the Bodhi-tree, the audience sat in the midst of Chiaromonte’s "The Enlightenment Cell", and hopefully came away with knowledge, and with a desire to make a difference instead of a sameness."

Marrian McLellan Work, Art Papers 

“Anima Loci-Spirit of Place” is approximately 2-3 hour long durational ritual/action/processional  piece that is a stand-alone performance but is also part of a longer durational installation/performance work “Saint Brendan walking though Dandi Satyagraha" performed at the INVERSE PERFORMANCE ART FESTIVAL-2017.

CURRACH

WALKERS

A walker or walking frame is a tool for disabled or elderly people who need additional support to maintain balance or stability while walking.

Saint Eustace and the Stag

 Saint Eustace, also known as Eustachius or Eustathius in Latin^[1] or St. Esthak in India, is revered as a Christian martyr and soldier saint. Legend places him in the 2nd century AD. A martyr of that name is venerated as a saint in the Anglican Church.^[2] He is commemorated by the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church on September 20.

According to legend,^[3] prior to his conversion to Christianity, Eustace was a Roman general named Placidus, who served the emperor Trajan. While hunting a stag in Tivoli near Rome, Placidus saw a vision of a crucifix lodged between the stag's antlers.^[4] He was immediately converted, had himself and his family baptized, and changed his name to Eustace (Greek: Ευστάθιος (Eustáthios), "well stable", or Ευστάχιος (Eustáchios), "fruitful/rich grain").
A series of calamities followed to test his faith: his wealth was stolen; his servants died of a plague; when the family took a sea-voyage, the ship's captain kidnapped Eustace's wife Theopista; and as Eustace crossed a river with his two sons Agapius and Theopistus, the children were taken away by a wolf and a lion. Like Job, Eustace lamented but did not lose his faith.
He was then quickly restored to his former prestige and reunited with his family. There is a tradition that when he demonstrated his new faith by refusing to make a pagan sacrifice, the emperor Hadrian condemned Eustace, his wife, and his sons to be roasted to death inside a bronze statue of a bull or an ox,^[5] in the year AD 118. However, the Catholic Church rejects this story as "completely false" ^[6]

Thin places-Anima Loci

 The Shrine to the Thin Places at Doonamoe in County Mayo, Ireland, designed and built by Travis Price, AIA, with his students at Catholic University.
 
“Natural places are the most basic sacred places: stones, springs, mountains, islands and trees are locations where the anima loci may be best approached. Sacred places come into being when humans recognize and acknowledge them. They are ensouled locations where we can experience elevated consciousness, receive religious inspiration and accept healing. They allow fully developed human beings to become at one with nature. There, we are no longer separated from nature by reflection. As time passes, through repetition and development, the innate qualities of sacred placed are intensified on physical and other subtler levels. The latent spirit of place is manifested on the material level.”

Celtic Sacred Landscape, Nigel Penick pg. 14

 
"A bar can be a thin place, too. A while ago, I stumbled across a very thin bar, tucked away in the Shinjuku neighborhood of Tokyo. Like many such establishments, this one was tiny — with only four seats and about as big as a large bathroom — but it inspired cathedral awe. The polished wood was dark and smooth; the row of single malts were illuminated in such a way that they glowed. Using a chisel, the bartender manifested — there is no other word for it — ice cubes that rose to the level of art. The place was so comfortable in its own skin, so at home with its own nature — its “suchness,” the Buddhists would put it — that I couldn’t help but feel the same way."

ERIC WEINER is author, most recently, of “Man Seeks God: My Flirtations With the Divine.”