They say that once you name a thing, you stop really seeing it. It feels like that with deer. Everyone has a deer story, but once we’ve seen the animal once and named it for what it is, the novelty of this seemingly ubiquitous ungulate is lost. 10-pointer by Corinne Jones provides a whimsical antidote to our oversight of does, bucks, and fawns with an artistic focus on these animals that has been missing since Bambi.
The audience walks into an in-the-round gallery-turned-performance space where one fawn lies on the ground – likely asleep, but maybe dead – wearing speckled polka-dot pants that disappear her body into imagined rays of sun. As we take a seat, Jones herself comes out to speak, sporting a black nose and a textured brown jumpsuit that matches her auburn hair. We receive a rundown of the performance structure; The performance is interactive. There is violence. The audience can join the herd. The project is derived from tales of people’s experiences with deer, reveling in the life cycle of our interspecies relationship.
What follows is a collage of deer stories, both violent and tender: We circle the room as a gentle fawn wakes up, eyes embracing the novelty of her surroundings. We make a clearing, only for the 5-person ensemble of deer to be shot down. We pretend to drive across the room, deer scampering in front of our cars, as we read stories about near-misses and fatal collisions with these animals. Then, a moment of pure fun as these offed deer come alive as techno-zombies ready to attack those who sent them to their maker. Throughout, the ensemble keeps up a wide-eyed, bushy-tailed base of gestural movement. Sometimes they are the deer, sometimes they are the hunter. They wield the gun, and they careen down to the floor with deep backbends and athletic falls. Often, their hands tense into antlers that frame their face, and their eyes capture the feeling of an alert prey-animal looking for shelter.
10-pointer’s greatest artistic strength lies in audience interaction that seamlessly folds into multi-layered storytelling. The vignettes that last in my mind have audiences recreate the power humans wield over deer, deciding when the animal’s life folds over into death. Next time I see a deer, I know I’ll take another look, with my heart full of an apology they will never understand.
10-pointer, Corinne Jones, Asian Arts Initiative Storefront, September 22.
Image Description: A warm, slightly grainy, tinted photo of an in-the-round white-walled performance space. At the center of the room a performer in polka-dot pants lies on the ground. Above her, three performers gather, one wearing a shirt that says “Join the Hike.” To their left, Corinne Jones – wearing a white button-up and brown tights – gestures out to the audience with an open arm.
