From 2003 – 2021, the alchemy of living and creating together produced another hybrid altogether for Michael Evans and choreographer Susan Hefner. Developing a unique performance vocabulary of sound, movement and theater, they created subversively zany work. As two equally visible performers, Michael enlarged and abstracted the natural movements of a musician in space while Susan’s fractured dancing resulted in sound-making. Domestic objects, junk and the instruments themselves became symbols, sculpture, and objects of theater, as the refuse of our decaying environment was given new life. In structured improvisation the duo’s messy happenstance revealed an underlying preternatural communication. MESH performed their work at Roulette Intermedium, the Chocolate Factory, Experimental Intermedia, Flea Theater’s Music with a View, Dixon Place, Papacookie, Soup and Sound, Snug’s, the Klinker, and at Jack in NYC and at venues in Philadelphia, New Orleans, Birmingham, and in Europe.

MESH sampler:

Round Square and Other Works 43-minute downloadable video available here: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/mesh

Clatterscape:

Round Peg Square Hole:

Cymbalic Logicians:

Round Square and Other Works draws from some of MESH’s performance structures, but uses the architecture and contents of the artists’ kitchen, bedroom, basement and living room to move from the mundane to the realm of wild imaginings. A metal dryer back becomes a fashion statement; washing machine guts double as drum and mask; untamable spoons and forks clatter out of control; metal siding elongates wobbly arms, making thunder. The sound was recorded live in action; absurd Foley sound by Michael adorns the 3rd and final piece. Videographer Nelson Simon is also a guest performer.

See trailer here:

For a Round Square and Other Works DVD with an 8-page booklet with photos by Peter Gannushkin: tubapederecords.bandcamp.com/merch/mesh-round-square