Body Pixel

Bill Shannon aka Crutchmaster is a rare fish in the whole ocean of contemporary art and performative scene today… exploring social paradigms, as he likes to call it ‘representations of a projective narrative’, Shannon gives a different perspective on human reactions and expectations…

Photo: Bill Shannon (c)

Crutchmaster simply skates through a variety of media and conceptual art, dance and performance art as well as hip hop and underground club scene mixed up with heavy weaponry of his own thoughts and approaches either to people (…and their social behavior) either to buildings (as pillar / companions while dancing-driving-observing)…

(I guess, you have noticed that I really like people who are using many forms of expressiveness… well, it’s not something special, you know… particularly from today’s perspective, coz there are so many accessible [and affordable, too!] techniques and tools in all mediums… )

Photo: Crutch Productions (c)

Bill Shannon (1970) is from Pittsburgh, he graduated at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago (yeah, the city so influential during the end of nineties with some amazing record labels: Thrill Jockey, Touch & Go, Invisible Records…) and lives now in Brooklyn. As a solo dancer he has performed world widely at prominent spaces and festivals regarding theatre and contemporary art, but he could be also seen regularly at b-boy summits and school workshops. 6 years ago he was invited to choreograph a part of the Cirque the Soleil’s performance Varekai specially designed for one of his pupil also dancing on crutches. His multimedia artworkz and installations were presented till now at the Kiasma – Helsinki Museum of Contemporary Art, Headlands Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Tate Liverpool and many galleries. Watch here a video he did for Rjd2’s single ‘Work It Out‘…

Photo: Estelle Grunberg (c)

Shannon was born with a Legg-Calve-Perthes’ disease which resulted later as a hip deformity. Orthopedists say on Perthes’ disease this: ‘It is characterized by loss of circulation to the head of the femur (the ball of the hip) in a growing child resulting in avascular necrosis (death of bone cells in the head of the femur). This is typically followed by revascularization over a period of 18 to 24 months. During the period of revascularization, the bone is soft and liable to fracture under pressure, causing collapse of the head of the femur. Over time, the head of the femur heals and remodels in the collapsed position, resulting in a nonspherical shape.’

Basically this means that his hips are not rounded and he is having pain and swelling while walking for a longer time. As a kid he had to use crouches since he was 5, then during his teenage years his condition was better and he discovered skating and break dance. In the age of 20 the pain was back and Shannon realized that the combination with skateboard and crutches works fine for him… His medical condition could be solved only with operations every 10 years which is something he apparently didn’t want to go through.

Photo: Crutch Productions (c)

Shannon invented variable dancing techniques for performers using crouches divided in many sections according to physical prerequisites of every particular body as a unique fine tuned instrument. Course, his technique gives more accents on the upper parts of the body: arms, shoulders and chest… In order to develop fully trained body, naturally, dancers who are using Shannon’s technique are working strongly with pectoral muscles.

Along with physical training and dancing, Mr. Crutch is heavily working on social theory of human behavior; more precisely he explores the empathy that has been emanated by people without disabilities during the interaction with people with disabilities. What makes the whole process interesting is that Shannon plays a role of a provocateur to see how far human empathy can go. He is ‘performing utilitarian test in public space parallel to his real life’ to show us how samaritanism can become a real obstacle in life of a disabled person. Shannon is doing it with a great sense of humor…

‘Bill Shannon dances like a new bionic man made of metal and flesh with a hip-hop heart’
Sally Sommer from Dance Magazine

This great documentary was made by Sterile Cowboys

p.s. There is a blind man in my area… and I remember an episode with him which happened to me about ten or fifteen years ago… back then, this story made me think a little a bit on how I actually perceived the world…
We were waiting for the bus at the central station which is a starting point for many buses driving to many directions… and the rain just started… a drizzle… not something heavy… and as a politically correct and a good_manner_girl I’ve asked him: ‘Would you like to stand with me under my umbrella? The rain just started, you know…’ He looked in my direction, raised his arm gently and slowly to where he supposed has to be my face and said: ‘I have a raincoat! Tnx! Besides, this station has a roof here’… and he showed me where… I just said: ’Oh, I see…’.