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Mark Russell

@mrussell395

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Founder and Artistic Director of the Under the Radar Festival. Associate Artistic Director at the Public Theater.

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This is the room. This is the space. Performance Space 122 circa 1989. Looking South at the 9th street windows as the afternoon sun streams in. In the middle of the space stands P.S. 122’s first resident lighting designer/technical Director, David Ferri, suspended in light. In the far right corner just peeking in are the platforms that were unstacked and set up for every show after the classes and rehearsals finished. Sleeping against the wall are the folding flats used as wings. You can see - if you look very closely, the ballet bars built into the walls under the windows - left by the movie “Fame”. Above David’s head is the grid, installed with a lot of sweat and pro bono labor. Shifting the room’s center are the soffits, originally built to hold moveable walls that once broke the room into temporary classrooms, they were also perfect for hanging clip lamps and extension cords. And the columns, the bain of many a choreographer but secretly their friend.

It was hard to lie in this room. Everything was site-specific at P.S. 122. If an artist or designer tried to fight the space, it would always win. In this room it was all about performance, what could you bring to these simple boards.
Dona wrangled David into posing for this photograph - there to give scale for a photo meant to orient visiting artists. This is a rare shot of Ferri, like many photographers, he knew how to avoid the business end of a camera. Dona captured him in his native environment.

David’s light is present in many of Dona’s pictures. He was a photographer himself, and his feel for light marked the work at P.S. 122. David knew the power of darkness. He knew how to bounce the light off of our blond floor. In his designs performers would find their light, moving into and out of it, dimming it with a gesture or a turn. David’s light was architecture.

David liked to work alone. He would swing around the space with our rolling ladder - focusing, switching gels, re-patching. Some of our audience would stay just to watch as he made gel changes, pulling himself across the space between dances or at intermission - his own dance on the ceiling of P.S. 122. by @mrussell395

Where is my food? by @mrussell395

Nick at home by @mrussell395

The fam and our guide marinated in Istanbul by @mrussell395

Groningen, Holland. Duck pond. by @mrussell395

Ashland. by @mrussell395

Leo scheming by @mrussell395