THE ART WORLD OF COCOROSIE

SINGERS, ARTISTS AND PERFORMERS: THE DUO COCOROSIE, WITH AMERICAN SISTERS SIERRA AND BIANCA CASADY, ARE ONCE AGAIN ATTRACTING A LOT OF ATTENTION WITH THE RECENT RELEASE OF THEIR SECOND SINGLE “GRAVEDIGRESS”, WHICH, TOGETHER WITH “WE ARE ON FIRE”, PRECEDES THE RELEASE OF THEIR NEW ALBUM, “TALES OF A GRASS WIDOW”, DUE OUT ON THE 27TH OF MAY.

However, it is now generally known that the world of CocoRosie is not limited to the musical sphere. In fact, the two sisters are deeply involved in other projects, too.

In the last few days (but there will be other dates in May and July) the new theatrical production of Peter Pan premiered at the Berliner Ensemble. The work is by the American playwright Robert Wilson, who asked to work with CocoRosie. This is a dark, cruel story, utterly different to the one recounted by Disney, and much closer to the atmosphere of the original version created by James Mathew Barrie in 1902.

Initially, the director had asked Antony Hegarty – with whom he had collaborated on the extraordinary work, “The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic” – to write the music for this new work. Following Hegarty’s refusal, he chose CocoRosie, attracted not only by their outstanding ability to make music but also, and above all, by their strong visual sense. It seems self-evident that Wilson – who had worked with people like Rufus Wainwright and Lou Reed – did not choose them by chance. Bianca Casady, in fact, is not new to the world of art. A few months ago she was involved in choreographing and staging the ballet “Nightshift”, the fruit of her collaboration with the choreographer Biño Sauitzvy and the dancer Leiomy Maldonado fromNew York. In this work, for the first time, Bianca explored narrative in the form of dance, incarnating it into a sort of dark Cinderella fairy tale, in order to discover the humanity in the untouchable and to explore the world of life on the margins of society.

Also a few months ago, Bianca’s solo exhibition, “Daisy Chain”, was held at the Cheim & Reid Gallery, New York, and included drawings, collages, photographs, audio and video works, in which the artist explored the portrayal of male prisoners playing feminine roles. Then, later this year there will be the launch, with artist Anne Sherwood, of a literary and arts publication: “Girls Against God”. Linked to this project, is the movement, “Future Feminists”, with Antony Hegarty, of Antonyand the Johnsons, and the performers Kembra Pfahler and Johanna Constantine.

The aim of the group is, as they put it, to “free society and protect the planet from the corrosive effects of patriarchal belief systems”. It seems that all the songs from “Tales of a Grass Widow” will be in line with the group’s mission. And it doesn’t end there. If you want to hear them live, CocoRosie will be back in Italy in June with their unmistakeable mix of folk, electronics, hip hop and opera, stopping off at the Magazzini Generali in Milan on the 14^th of June; in Rome, at Villa Ada, on the 15^th and on the following day; and at the Soliera Festival of Visual Arts in the province of Modena.

http://redmilkmagazine.com/2013/04/24/the-art-world-of-cocorosie/