Ochen K will present his commissioned work, "Community," at 7 pm
Thursday, June 21 as part of Free Thursday next week at the Walker Art
Center, Minneapolis, USA.

http://community.walkerart.org
http://www.walkerart.org/gallery9/community/

"Community" is about, in general, community, and our individual roles
within that community. Specifically, this piece is presented within
three particular ideas.

First, the idea our society perpetuates that any bond outside of the
construct of either the first family we are born into, or the second
family that we create through marriage and childbirth must, and will,
always supersede those bonds of friendship and community. The
segregation of the 'nuclear family' from the extended kin and community
forced women to become more dependent on the individual man, and
children to become more dependent on the individual woman. This
dependency created the much used opportunity for the abuse of that
power.

The second idea is the contemporary agreement by the 'social
capitalists' like Putnam and de Souza Briggs, that the notion of
'community,' and its relevance to daily life has been waning over the
last half century. It is generally noted, but often downplayed, that
while the traditional models of community such as the church,
recreational clubs, the PTA, political parties, etc. have shown a
steadily declining membership count, new models of community, such as
self-help groups, social movements, and especially the Net, have
flourished in membership ratios as well as group counts.

The third idea, is that of a deeper understanding of the difference
between loneliness and solitude. It is a distinction we all know to
exist, but find difficulty in seeing it practiced in our own lives.
Without that understanding, community is nothing but a home for
codependency.

Ochen K. is an artist, composer, choreographer, and performer living and
working in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His musical credits include complete
scores for Bondi Dance (Los Angeles, California) and The Gandini
Juggling Project (London, England), soundtracks for Peapot Productions
(Helsinki, Finland), new musical theater works for Nautilus Music
Theater (St. Paul, Minnesota), and numerous soundscapes for various
theater and dance performances. He has served as the lead choreographer
for a number of shows in the U.S. and Europe, specializing in 'post
modern juggling,' mixing dance and theater with object manipulation.
Ochen has won a number of design awards for his commercial work, and has
recently received a grant from the Jerome Foundation for a commission by
the Walker Art Center.