Margaret Fisher, choreographer, videographer, and independent scholar, is artistic director of the experimental performance and production company MAFISHCO. She publishes on Futurism, Modernism, radio, film, and performance art. With composer Robert Hughes she founded the Second Evening Art imprimatur for books and CDs.

Fisher is a recipient of the Rome Prize from the American Academy, a Fulbright Research Award, and Japan-U.S. Exchange Fellowship. She lives and works at the Emeryville Artists Cooperative.

Statement:

As a choreographer and interdisciplinary artist, I re-evaluate my career options every ten years or so to align my goals with my age; i.e., my physical skills as well as intellectual interests. The current re-alignment involves a change of media and venue. I am shifting production from live performance, practiced since the 1970s, to the animation of objects.

Previously, I designed objects and projections on a scale that would amplify and contrast the performer’s gestures and rhythms. They were not intended to stand alone as works of art. The interest in kinetic objects for exhibition (or installation) may yet include snippets of film, video, live and/or acoustic events.

To facilitate this transition to object-oriented movement, I brought forward the vintage film and slide projectors of earlier work. An interest in rhythm and an approach to gesture as a visual medium provide continuity and also discontinuity for straddling the various disciplines.