iguana cOLLABORATIVE STATEMENT / BIO / HISTORY / CV
STATEMENT
IGUANA Collaborative creates hybrid [analog/digital] interdisciplinary works utilizing lens-based media, performance, installation and sound art. Our work investigates experimental approaches to portraiture and the psychological interconnectedness of self, people, climate and the environment.
With photography, video and performance, we examine personal 'psychological frontiers’' through encounters with fabric or costume at chosen liminal sites. Embodiment and improvisation are central to our working process. Inspiration and symbolic content develop best during ‘active imagination’ exercises which include movement and playful experimentation. Our exhibition concepts involve installation of layered self-portraiture exploring human interaction, apparent time displacement, the fundamental aspects of sound, and the symbolic function of spaces and landscapes. Original sound tracks, incidental performance, and extended photographic series further enrich the multi-layered, temporal quality of our work. We aim to actively engage our audience in viewing photography and video. By juxtaposing fragments of images or creating theatrical spaces that allude to myths of self, journey or transformation, we invite the viewer to consider dream states at multiple levels – the personal or collective.
BIOs
Bonnie Sue Stein is Executive Director of GOH Productions, a life-long performing arts organizer, Lower East Side community gardener, writer and artist. Sherry Erskine is an educator and artist working with portraiture through digital and lens based media, myth-making and poetics. John K Erskine is an educator and artist working with sound ranging from traditionally acoustic to avant-garde modern composition, free jazz and post-rock. All three founding members currently live and work in New York City.
HISTORY
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 - camouflage, introspection 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 (1975-79).
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 including Marika Blossfeldt’s performance projects KALEVA (El Bohio–1988, La Mama–1989) and WALKING TO AMERICA (Cleveland Performance Festival–1991). Sherry and John established teaching careers in Michigan in 1993 while remaining involved with GOH Productions.
From 2015 to 2021, IGUANA Collaborative received numerous generous subsidies from the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) Preservation Program (granted by the Mellon Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts) to digitize nearly fifty tapes from their 1970-1990 video archive. BAVC digital transfers resulted in a host of corresponding new works exploring place, memory, human interaction and time displacement. These photographs, videos and installations were initially premiered at Burren College of Art, County Clare, Ireland and VI PER Gallery, Prague, CZ in 2015 and 2017.
Since 2015, screenings and exhibitions of archival and new works include Every Woman Biennial, La MaMa Experimental Theater Club, New Plaza Cinema, Mooncalf Gallery, LUNGS Harvest Art Festival, LES Film Festival at Theater for a New City, The Village Trip, Art in Odd Places Festival NYC, Sustainable Stories Film Festival at University Houston Clear Lake, Toronto International Film Festival, Prague Biennale, Seoul Dance Film Festival, Aesthetica Magazine’s Short Film Festival, Art Prize Long List & Future Now Anthology, The Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival, Dance Films Association at Lincoln Center, ArtPrize Grand Rapids, Containall Prague, and Galerie VI PER, Prague.
CV
2026 Pen + Brush Gallery, Every Woman Biennial, VIRIDIS VERITAS, video, Official Selection, March 8 - April 11, NY, NY.
2026 New Plaza Cinema, NYC Short Film, Showcase, VIRIDIS VERITAS, video and Q&A, March 27, Macaulay Honors College, NY, NY.
2025 LaMaMa Experimental Theater Club, Family Show, VIRIDIS VERITAS, video, Dec. 17, 2025 - Jan. 11, 2026, NY, NY.
2025 New Plaza Cinema, NYC Short Film, Showcase, CLIME, video and Q&A, Nov. 21, Macaulay Honors College, NY, NY.
2025 Mooncalf Gallery, Three Short Films, 1970s archival video screening, Oct. 31, NY, NY.
2025 University Houston Clear Lake, Sustainable Stories Film Festival, VIRIDIS VERITAS, video, Oct. 15 - Dec 15, Houston, TX.
2025 LUNGS Harvest Arts Festival, Short Film Night in the Garden, CLIME, Pancho’s Community Park and Garden, NY, NY.
2025 The Village Trip, Framing the Village: Freedomland! Revelation Gallery, CLIME, video, NY, NY.
2025 Lower East Side Film Festival, CLIME, video, Theater for the New City, NY, NY.
2024 Toronto International Women Film Festival, CLIME, video, best short finalist, Toronto, ON, CA.
2024 Sustainable Stories Film Festival, CLIME, video, University Houston Clear Lake, Houston, TX.
2024 LUNGS Harvest Arts Festival, Short Film Night in the Garden, RELAY–DELAY, Pancho’s Community Park and Garden, NY, NY.
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
2024 Toronto Film Magazine, CLIME, video, https://www.torontofilmmagazine.com/post/clime.
2024 Film Makers’ Cooperative, catalog, RELAY-DELAY, video, https://film-makerscoop.com/catalogue/collaborative-iguana-relay-delay.
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 Norwegian Dance and Cultural Center, Bonnie Sue Stein artist talk, performance to camera with NORA Dans, Skien, Norway.
2023 Curryfikace, on-line in 2023 and 2022, live-streamed performances, Curry and IGUANA Collaboratives, NY, MI, Prague, CZ.
2017 Burren College of Art, two week collaborative residencies each year 2015-17, Sherry Erskine’s MFA program, Newtown, Co. Clare, IE.
2016 Galerie VI PER, Begauze, artist installation, talk and video screening with IGUANA Collaborative, Prague, CZ.
Links: Instagram: @iguana_at_gohproductions
2023 Art in Odd Places Profile
2022 Aesthetica Art Prize Profile
2021 Art in Odd Places Festival