Anita(s)Room(s)
Toti O'Brien - Side Street Live, Angels Gate CC - 2001
see comments below
Toti O'Brien - Side Street Live, Angels Gate CC - 2001
see comments below
Magnificent and disturbing at the same time - tremendous was I think the right word. I think you really make the language work for you at many levels. Some parts were graceful and then some upsetting. A real woman's piece. Everything from The Yellow Wallpaper to Martha Graham. (Laura Paddock, artist and writer)
I especially liked the long wads of gauze or veil material and your struggles with it, and with the many sewn together outfits. The mixed feelings of struggling and being entangled, and getting free were poignant as the universal ups and downs we all struggle with (Noel Korten, curator, artist)
The visuals and sounds were with me in the night and I awoke to them this morning. I am enamored with the concept of melding "gestures, space, temp sound, energy, emotions" (Lynn Crandall, art organizer, collector, writer)
Toti O'Brien has the most fluid body and put on an energetic and thought provoking performance. (Kim Valvieja, art student at USC)
I liked the obstruction/elision of obvious access in your piece. it's a state of otherness materialized. The piece is like an abstract painting, with varying tonality (Meiling Chen, writer, critic, professor or Theater and Performance history at USC)
The energy she emitted was enough to flood he entire room with light. Two times during the performance the artist took material from a duffel bag and began intensely grappling with it. I couldn't believe the intensity she had and the power she made the material seem to have with her. I found that to be one of the most moving part of the performance, it was like she went through a life's worth emotion with each material.
"Living Patterns in L.A.", the sub-title of the series of performances, had much to do with what Toti was trying to convey to the audience. As the patterns of life are ever-changing, saturated with different emotions and experiences, "flowing" in harmony or disharmony with each other, so was this performance (Ashley Kilfoy, art student at USC)
I especially liked the long wads of gauze or veil material and your struggles with it, and with the many sewn together outfits. The mixed feelings of struggling and being entangled, and getting free were poignant as the universal ups and downs we all struggle with (Noel Korten, curator, artist)
The visuals and sounds were with me in the night and I awoke to them this morning. I am enamored with the concept of melding "gestures, space, temp sound, energy, emotions" (Lynn Crandall, art organizer, collector, writer)
Toti O'Brien has the most fluid body and put on an energetic and thought provoking performance. (Kim Valvieja, art student at USC)
I liked the obstruction/elision of obvious access in your piece. it's a state of otherness materialized. The piece is like an abstract painting, with varying tonality (Meiling Chen, writer, critic, professor or Theater and Performance history at USC)
The energy she emitted was enough to flood he entire room with light. Two times during the performance the artist took material from a duffel bag and began intensely grappling with it. I couldn't believe the intensity she had and the power she made the material seem to have with her. I found that to be one of the most moving part of the performance, it was like she went through a life's worth emotion with each material.
"Living Patterns in L.A.", the sub-title of the series of performances, had much to do with what Toti was trying to convey to the audience. As the patterns of life are ever-changing, saturated with different emotions and experiences, "flowing" in harmony or disharmony with each other, so was this performance (Ashley Kilfoy, art student at USC)