{"data":{"id":"7925","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":7925,"topgoose_id":2214,"tms_id":7925,"display_name":"Simone Forti","sort_name":"Forti Simone","display_date":"1935–","begin_date":"1935","end_date":"0","biography":"\u003cp\u003eSimone Forti is a dancer, choreographer,\nand artist whose pioneering work\nwith the body established her as a leading\nfigure among a group of innovators\nwho redefined the language of dance in\nthe 1960s. Following her early work\nwith the choreographers Anna Halprin,\nMartha Graham, and Merce Cunningham,\nshe became an important presence\nin the Judson Dance Theater in New York,\ninfluencing its direction through her\nDance Constructions. Forti’s pared-down\nlanguage of movement paralleled that\nof the Minimalists with whom she had a\nclose dialogue, engaging the idea of\nform in iconic performative works such as\n\u003cem\u003eHuddle \u003c/em\u003efrom 1961. She also created a series\nof Happenings with Robert Whitman and\ndeveloped a choreographic language\nbased on the fluid, instinctive movements\nof children and animals.\n\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the mid-1970s, Forti made a\nseries of cylindrical holographic sculptures\non the curved surfaces of which dance\nmovements appear, animated by viewers\nmoving around them. One of these works,\n\u003ca href=\"/collection/works/18016\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eStriding Crawling\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, balances an eighteen-\ninch-high plexiglass cylinder on top of\nthree bricks, in the center of which a small\ncandle burns. This sole source of light\nilluminates a delicate hologram of Forti,\nwhose single, fluid movement from striding\nto crawling can be seen only if the viewer\ncircumnavigates the sculpture. The low\ninstallation height of the hologram forces the\nviewer to stoop when circling the cylinder,\nechoing Forti’s own movement, which she\nderived from t’ai chi and observing\nanimals at the zoo. The light of the candle\nthrows large shadows of the sculpture\nand the viewer’s movements onto the walls\nof the darkened room, creating a magical\nenvironment of movement, light, and shadow\nin which Forti shifts the viewer’s position\nfrom that of a passive observer to an active\nparticipant in the dance.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":false,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500351723","wikidata_id":"Q3484563","created_at":"2017-08-30T17:13:29.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-13T07:00:19.412-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/7925/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/7925/exhibitions"}}}}