IGUANA COLLABORATIVE BIO / CV
IGUANA Collaborative began as an experimental video festival titled IGUANA HEAT at 120 in the Shade Gallery, Lansing, MI in 1976. The four day interdisciplinary festival featured poetry readings, music, video installations, and a pet iguana warmly perched a top an oscilloscope. Working under the name IGUANA, three of the founders, Bonnie Sue Stein, John K Erskine and Sherry Erskine changed the name to IGUANA Coalition in 1990 and finally to IGUANA Collaborative in 2019. Some key associations with their iguana mascot of the 70s still apply - awareness, camouflage, curiosity, detachment, expectation, introspection, patience, thought, and watchfulness.
As CETA-trained [though largely self-taught] theatrical technicians, Erskine + Stein bonded while producing materials by modern playwrights (e.g. Becket, Shepherd, Peter Handke, Patricia Ann Jellicoe, Myrna Lamb, Ann Wilson et al). They learned video production and gleaned performance art principles while involved with Intermediary, a multi-media artists/technicians collective; creating series such as EINSTEIN: FRAMES OF REFERENCE, IGUANA HEAT, and GAUZE [1976-78]. Each title involves numerous durational, improvised performances documented on 1/2" [EIAJ] and 3/4" [Umatic] videotape. Their 1970s GAUZE SERIES explored non-traditional performance sites such as an abandoned bowling alley, a 1950s mobile home, and a pine forest. They collaborated on Intermediary's weekly cablevision program, The Electric Way [WELM-TV, East Lansing] both jointly and individually (1975-9).
Sherry and husband John K Erskine performed with [and co-wrote lyrics for] a post-punk band, Trainable (1978-82) – appearing in the Great Lakes region with Iggy Pop, The Ramones, George Clinton's Brides of Funkenstein, et al; releasing two (2) vinyl EPs [7X33 and Doubletake]. Bonnie produced a live video recording of Trainable [NOH Rocker] in 1978. Following relocation from Michigan to NYC in the late ‘70s, John collaborated in rehearsal, recordation, and touring with ‘neo-no wave’ bands Sonic Youth and Swans and worked with an experimental theatre company, The Wooster Group. He helped coordinate technical support for, mixed, and recorded curated musical series and special events at The Kitchen, 1986-88.
Sherry, John and Bonnie worked for The Asia Society Performing Arts Center in the 80s, as Technical Director, Audio Engineer and Program Associate respectively; managing productions for performing artists from across Asia/Oceania. These intercultural productions supported gallery exhibitions, providing forums for education and social action.
Bonnie founded GOH Productions, a non-profit international arts services organization based in New York City, in 1988. As board members of GOH, Sherry and Bonnie collaborated on numerous productions from Marika Blossfeldt’s performance projects KALEVA (El Bohio–1988, La Mama–1989) and WALKING TO AMERICA (Cleveland Performance Festival–1991) to their presentation of THE GAUZE SERIES at La Mama (NYC) in 2019. They were awarded generous subsidies from the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) Preservation Program by the Mellon Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts to digitize their video archive from 1970-1990. BAVC digital transfers resulted in corresponding new works exploring place and memory in terms of human interaction and time displacement. These installations were exhibited at Burren College of Art, Co. Clare Ireland and VI PER Gallery, Prague, CZ, 2015-2017.
Relevant Recent Works
2024 Every Woman Biennial, RELAY–DELAY, clip, La MaMa Galleria, NY, NY.
2023 Art in Odd Places Festival: Dress, DOLL CHAIN, performance, NY, NY.
2023 Curryfikace: Elektrická Cesta [The Electric Way], multimedia IGUANA and Curry Collaboratives, Prague, CZ.
2023 CultureHub Re–Fest, Arium Virtual Gallery, RIFT, video, NY, NY.
2022 Yiddish New York, HOPE/LESS, RELAY_DELAY Diptych, photography, Heller Museum, NY, NY.
2022 Aesthetica Short Film Festival, RELAY–DELAY, video, five venues across York, UK.
2022 Seoul Dance Film Festival, Invited, RELAY–DELAY, video, Seoul, Korea.
2022 Prague Biennale, Official Selection, RELAY–DELAY, video, three venues across Prague, CZ.
2022 Curryfikace: Vztnžná Soustava, [Frames of Reference], multimedia, IGUANA and Curry Collaboratives, Prague, CZ.
2022 Aesthetica Art Prize, Long Listed, RELAY–DELAY Banner Series, Future Now 2022 Anthology, York Gallery, UK.
2022 Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival, Invited, RIFT, video, Chilmark, MA.
2022 Dance on Camera Festival, Official Selection/Winner, RIFT, video, Lincoln Center, NY, NY.
2021 La MaMa Family Show, Fabulous Forces, photography, La MaMa Galleria, NY, NY.
2021 ArtPrize, Invitational, RELAY–DELAY Banner Series, Grand Rapids Public Museum, Grand Rapids, MI.
2021 Every Woman Biennial London, Understory, photograph, Copeland Gallery, London, UK.
2021 Every Woman Biennial NYC, RELAY–DELAY Diptych, NFT videos, Superchief NFT Gallery, NYC, NY.
2021 Art in Odd Places Festival 2021: Normal, RELAY—DELAY Banner Series, NY, NY.
2020 Pandem-mic Live Session 12, video, (Gauze in the Bowl, video, streamed July 7) Facebook @pandemmiclive, NY, NY.
2019 La Mama Family Show, MOTH–R, photograph, La MaMa Galleria, NY, NY.
2019 Art in Odd Places Festival 2019: Invisible, Adjust Your Gaze, performance, 14th Street, NY, NY.
2019 Fiber Optics, featuring Christo & Jeanne Claude, artist talk, MOTH–R, photograph, Pines of Arcadia Gallery, Arcadia, MI.
2019 “2020 Vision”, Nature’s Gift, Mother Nature, Resting Bud, photographs, Theater For The New City Art Gallery, NYC, NY.
2018 La Mama Family Exhibition, The Gauze Series: 1978-2016, photographs, La MaMa Etc, NY, NY.
2018 ArtPrize Invitational: The Michigan Connection, Clare-Voyance Diptych, video/photo, Dow Museum of Art, Midland, MI.
2017 Burren College of Art Gallery, MFA Graduate Exhibition, CO–LATERAL, Clare-Voyance Series, Newtown, Co. Clare, IE.
2016 Burren College of Art Gallery, MFA Interim Exhibition, Between Three Worlds, Psyché [Breath], Newtown, Co. Clare, IE.
2016 Burren College of Art Newtown Castle, Recurrent Too, Look At Me, video installation, Newtown, Co. Clare, IE.
2016 Burren College of Art Project Room, Fabricate, Gauze Series, video installation, Newtown, Co. Clare, IE.
2015 La Mama Family Show, video stills, Gauze Series, photographs, La MaMa Galleria, NY, NY.
Awards, Publications, Grants
2023 Emergency Index, Vol. 10, RELAY-DELAY Banner Series, Ugly Duckling Presser's, Brooklyn, NY. ISBN: 978-1-946604-10-1.
2022 Aesthetica Short Film Festival, Nominee, Best Experimental Film for RELAY-DELAY , York UK.
2022 Future Now Anthology, RELAY-DELAY Banner Series, Aesthetica Magazine LTD, 2022, ISBN: 978-1-3999-2786-4.
2021-2015 Bay Area Video Coalition, multiple Preservation Program Subsidies, Mellon Foundation and NEA, SF, CA.
2020 Emergency Index, Vol. 9, Adjust Your Gaze, Ugly Duckling Presser's, Brooklyn, NY. ISBN: 978-1-946433-84-8.
International Artist Residencies
2024 NORA (Upcoming June/July), Norwegian Dance and Cultural Center, performance to camera, Skien, Norway.
2023 & 2022 Curryfikace, on-line, live-streamed performances, Curry and IGUANA Collaboratives, NY, MI, Prague, CZ.
2015 - 2017 Burren College of Art, 2 week residencies each year, Sherry Erskine’s MFA program, Newtown, Co. Clare, IE.
2016 Galerie VI PER, Begauze, artist installation, talk and video screening with Bonnie Sue Stein, Prague, CZ.
IGUANA creates hybrid [analog/digital] interdisciplinary works utilizing lens-based media, performance, installation and sound art. Erskine + Stein aim to actively engage their audience in viewing photography and video. They are denizens of the new & unusual, itching to ‘make-a-mark’ across borders and social definitions.
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