Art

Silo Solos

Silo Solos is a series of solo performances by artists in the two silos on the Elizabeth Goldring-Otto Piene Art Farm in Groton, Massachusetts. The silos offered artists a safe space to work in isolation during the pandemic in 2020. The program was part of a virtual B3 Biennale, broadcast globally on October 9, 2020 from Frankfurt am Main. The permanent installations in the silos—the light silo with Otto Piene’s light ballet and sound silo with Paul Matisse’s bell environment—attracted additional artists, and later programs were part of the B3 Festival of the Moving Image in Germany.

The following images and descriptions are of Ellen Sebring’s video works for the Silo Solo series, created in 2020, 2021, and 2024:

8ight Circles

In “8ight Circles,” the artist performs visual sound actions in the Bell Silo designed by Paul Matisse. Produced for Silo Solos 2020. Camera by Thomas Draudt. Ellen Sebring, Silo Solos part 1, 2020, 7 minutes.

Siloed *2021

“Siloed *2021” takes place in the silo with Otto Piene’s “Star of David” Light Ballet. The artist appears as if a spaceship landed under the starry sky, and in a series of light actions, discovers artifacts of 2021, including the pandemic and political violence. Ellen Sebring, Silo Solos part 2, 2021, 10:30 minutes.

Exit /Atmosphere

The third part of Sebring’s silo trilogy moves out from the darkness and isolation of the silos to rediscover the earth as a sphere within layers of atmosphere. The camera traverses earth, wind and clouds as perspective shifts. Performers include Sebring and Elizabeth Hua Olson. Ellen Sebring, Silo Solos part 3, 2024, 8 minutes.

Aviary

Aviary, a collaboration by Ellen Sebring and Beth Galston, took two forms:

Performance version by Ellen Sebring (video and music) and Beth Galston (sculptural environment), with Sarah Skaggs (dance), MIT Media Lab Cube. (photos of Aviary performance: Beth Galston)

Broadcast version by Ellen Sebring for WGBH New Television Workshop, PBS broadcast.

Aviary was inspired by a pamphlet with a drawing of a dove and the headline: ‘Thoughts have Wings’. In the video, birds flying through the aviary represent threads of thought within a closed system. Two story arcs converge from parallel journeys—over water and under water—blending in a viscous inner life. Thoughts are buffeted within tidal waves of sentient communication, and only some make it to physical manifestation. (Ellen Sebring notes)

“Dream-like video piece that includes interspersed choreographed scenes of a single female dancer moving about a dark room filled with suspended, swinging, mirrored strips. Among the scenes, all in slow motion, are: a gymnast swinging, winter forest shots, a young woman in and around a swimming pool, a party, burning wood floating down a stream (accompanied by spoken Norwegian), and sailors sleeping in a small boat. Throughout are interspersed scenes of birds at rest and in flight in an aviary. The loose story concerns a young man and his visions (real and dreamt) of the young woman from the pool. It ends with the man meeting the woman in a city scene. Overall, it is a melancholic mood piece that deals with themes of constraint and freedom.”

— New Television Workshop Collection, Episode 513 (1989), Open Vault from WGBH