New York, NY
Born 1970, Nashville, Tennessee
My obscure spatiotemporal and aesthetic artistic pursuits exist underneath a hovering massive and terrible freedom. It is a cold time now. That is the background. I keep moving. I project heat. To stretch the unspoken moment between intent and action I attempt a neutral palette fitting to my identity. A delicate process. I fail often. What colors you will choose be they hopes, fears or indifference are yours to place upon me or hold back. You, the random pedestrian laugh, cry, smile, frown, hug, hold, spit, push and pull. I embrace you always. The stories that are told in the gestures of kindness, the fleeting moment of a laugh, the scuttle of an embarrassment, these are my treasures. On a microscale I have learned that in all contrasting and conflicting energies balance is possible in the most unexpected of ways. Humans before speaking, they moved. Body language was instinctively positioned. It is very difficult to position a body to convey a position other than what it physically is? I know this from experience. I trust it.
1996 B.F.A., School of the Art Institute of Chicago
His performance and video work have been presented nationally and internationally over the past ten years at numerous venues, festivals and events including The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Performance Space 122, NYC; The Kitchen, NYC; Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, OR; Central Park Summer Stage, NYC; Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia; Florida Dance Festival, Miami; Theater Artaud, San Francisco; DiverseWorks, Houston; Arizona State University, Tempe; The Athenaeum Theater, Chicago; The Exit Festival, Cretiel, France; Amman International Festival of Independent Theater, Amman, Jordan; The City Theater, Monterrey, Mexico; The Holland Festival, Amsterdam; Temple Bar, Dublin, Ireland; URB Festival, Helsinki, FI; Melbourne Fringe Festival and Sydney Opera House Studio Theater, Australia; among many others.
In 2002, he completed a project with Cirque du Soleil where he choreographed specific elements for their production Varekai (currently on tour).
Shannon's video installations have been presented at the Tate in Liverpool, UK (2003) and at Kiasma, Helsinki Museum of Contemporary Art in Finland (2005).
Shannon has been honored with a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (2003), a Foundation for Contemporary Performance Art Award, and a Colbert Award for Excellence: The Downtown Arts Projects Emerging Arts Award. He has received support for his work from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, Jerome Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council for the Arts, James E. Robison Foundation, Bossak-Heilbron Charitable Foundation, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, and Arts International: The Fund for U.S. Artists at International Festivals.
2000 Spatial Theory, solo premiered at Restless Gravity International Festival, Centre for Performance Research, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales.
2000 Old Rain, performed at Performance Space 122, New York; commissioned by Dance Theater Workshop's Bessie Schonberg First Light Program with funds from The Jerome Foundation and Performance Space 122 with commissioning funds by NY State Council on the Arts.
1999 The Art of Weightlessness, evening-length program performed at Performance Space 122, New York.
1998 Breakbeat Science, premiered at Seattle Mime Theater, Washington.
1992 Relax, premiered at Turmoil Room, Pittsburgh.
1991 BubbleGunLogic, premiered at Birmingham Lofts, Pittsburgh.
2000 CrumpleStiltman
1999, 1994 Regarding the Fall , Part 2, Part 1
2000 VirtualProvocateur
(www.virtualprovocateur.com)
1995 The Performance Artist's Notebook (Chicago: self-published).
2000 Colbert Award for Excellence: The Downtown Arts Projects Emerging Arts Award
1997, 1992 Pennslyvania Council on the Arts Interdisciplinary Arts Fellowship
1997 Pennsylvania Disabilities Council Fellowship
1996 James Nelson Raymond Fellowship
| Year Awarded | 2000 |
| Category | Theater/Perf |
Video Still of Combination Move "Sweeper-Kickout to Crossed-Up Heel-Hold No-Handed Rotation"
