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Hail the New Puritan / Merce by Merce by Paik Part One: Blue Studio: Five Segments / Merce by Merce by Paik Part Two: Merce and Marcel

Hail the New Puritan

British dance celebrity Michael Clark features in Atlas’ simulated “docufantasy” Hail the New Puritan. Atlas’ fictive portrait of the charismatic choreographer serves as a vivid invocation of 1980s post-punk London subculture and its connections to fashion, music, and art. The hyper-stylized fiction serves as a narrative for Clark’s extraordinary dance performances, focusing on his flamboyantly postured eroticism and the artifice of his provocative balletic performances. From the surreal opening dream sequence to the final solo dance, Clark’s milieu of fashion, clubs and music signifies for Atlas “a time capsule of a certain period and context in London that’s now gone.”

Charles Atlas, 1985-86, 85 min

Merce by Merce by Paik Part One: Blue Studio: Five Segments

Charles Atlas; Nam June Paik, 1975-76, 16 mins

Merce by Merce by Paik Part Two: Merce and Marcel

Merce by Merce by Paik is a two-part tribute to groundbreaking choreographer Merce Cunningham and avant-garde artist Marcel Duchamp. Blue Studio: Five Segments is a stunning work of videodance by Merce Cunningham and his then filmmaker-in-residence, Charles Atlas. In Merce and Marcel, Nam June Paik and Japanese performer Shigeko Kubota create a densely textured video collage that links the two visionary artists.

Shigeko Kubota; Nam June Paik, 1978, 13 mins