Robert Rauschenberg: Among Friends

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*Set and Reset*

Trisha Brown, choreography; Robert Rauschenberg, set and costumes; Laurie Anderson, score. Set and Reset. 1983

Trisha Brown, choreography; Robert Rauschenberg, set and costumes; Laurie Anderson, score. Set and Reset, 1983. Performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Howard Gilman Opera House, New York, January 29, 2016. Performed by Cecily Campbell, Marc Crousillat, Olsi Gjeci, Leah Ives, Tara Lorenzen, Jamie Scott, and Stuart Shugg. Video (color, sound). Editing and installation by Charles Atlas. 21:43 min. Courtesy the BAM Hamm Archives

Leah Dickerman: Set and Reset was another collaboration by Robert Rauschenberg and Trisha Brown. Rauschenberg worked on the set and the costumes, and the score was by the artist Lori Anderson. Rauschenberg created a sculptural object that he called Elastic Carrier, and it hung above the dancers. It was stretched with a kind of fabric so images could be projected onto it. The images were stock footage that he found along with found sound, and he edited it together in this mix.

Here's Trisha Brown speaking about Set and Reset, with the score by Lori Anderson, behind her.

Trisha Brown: In Set and Reset, the communication between him was direct, almost as if he lived inside of me, or me inside of him. There were correspondences that, that were uncanny.

Leah Dickerman: Here's David White, a longtime friend of Rauschenberg’s and senior curator at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.

David White: The costumes for the dancers was a very gossamer white fabric, almost like wedding veil, a very open weave. And so the images were silkscreened on this fabric on a great big table. And when the fabric was lifted off, there was this residue of ink that had gone through. Bob was not one to just waste something of that sort.