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IMPRESSIONS: Erick Montes Presents “Small:2Big; the end of theory” at Triskelion Arts

By Sarah Cecilia Bukowski
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Published on November 1, 2023
Eric Montes. Photo via Triskelion Arts

Original Idea, Direction & Choreography: Erick Montes
Sound Design: Guillermo Brown, aka Pegasus Warning
Lighting Design: Connor Sale
Thinking Partner: Jennifer Kjos
Clothing: M.O.H.
Visuals: Erick Montes
Projection and Sound Board Operator: Anna Wotring

^{Image by Erick Montes}

a small black box,
neatly arranged—
holding its breath for what’s to come

props clustered in margins
a barbie orgy
a flower bouquet
a blue tire -
holding its breath for what's to come

the voice repeats
with machine-like precision
the breath supports
in automatic cadence
a rumbling underneath
a beam of light across the eyes
eyes that speak
eyes that beam a light right back
as words become sound become nonsense
repetition becomes rhythm becomes song

a white harness in black light
limbs shift with glacial deliberation
tectonic shapeshifting
becoming
becoming
becoming

a sculpture in flesh
contortion
abjection
legs spread
face down
ass up
a state of flow
controlled and surrendered

^{Photo by Triskelion Arts with lighting design by Connor Sale}

an ominous circling and rising
images conjured from the realm of unconscious
flash with the immediacy of memory
(whose memory?)

“this is enough?”
“who do you want me to be?”
searching the desolation and decadence
of history
of love
of life
stories told in fragments
a self reduced to splinters
(re)collected in pieces
in hints and snatches—
do they make a whole?

searching dark corners
shocked by what you knew was there
(because somewhere you knew)
(you knew you knew)
(somewhere)
fugitive shadows of memory
(whose memory?)
the weight of the past
of the passed
slammed with finality
opened to eternity
“this is for tik tok”
“this is history, motherfucker”

^{Photo courtesy of Erick Montes with lighting design by Connor Sale}

she’s pretty now
(“it takes time to be pretty”)
in sequins and high heels and a chic bob
calling on queer ancestors
reaching toward queer futures
in the midst of destruction
in the midst of this chaos
this beauty
this absurdity
this rigor
this mess
this potentiality
this all
that is all of ours

good morning heartache
here we go again—
holding our breath for what’s to come

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