New Residents For The Watermill Center

The Watermill Center’s Artist Residency Program provides artists with time and space to focus on developing their practice in a communal environment that encourages experimentation. Artists share their creative process with the community through open studios, workshops, and artist talks.

For the next month, performance maker Nile Harris, composer Adam Lenz, dancer Miki Orihara, and author Helen Betya Rubinstein will live and work at The Watermill Center, creating works that push the boundaries of contemporary artistic practice.

Harris is a performer and a director of live works of art. His work has been presented at the Palais de Tokyo, Under the Radar Festival (Public Theater), The Watermill Center, Volksbühne Berlin, Prelude Festival, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Otion Front Studio, and Movement Research at Judson Church. His work has been supported by Pepatián, Foundation for Contemporary Art, Abrons Arts Center, YoungArts, and Brooklyn Arts Exchange.

During his residency, Harris will continue developing “this house is not a home.” Setting an improvised physical score inside a sound-responsive bounce castle, the unique vocal utterances of the cast create a biometrically unique musical composition that cannot be repeated. The piece is made in collaboration with performer Malcolm-x Betts and composer slowdanger.

Harris is a recipient of the 2022 Baroness Nina von Maltzahn Fellowship for the Performing Arts at The Watermill Center.

Adam Lenz is a composer and multidisciplinary artist based in Connecticut. His work has been presented at internationally recognized venues in over a dozen countries including ZKM, Teatrul National Craiova, Cankarjev Dom, Platonov Arts Festival, The Watermill Center, Abrons Arts Center, Berliner Festspiele, Print Screen Festival, Mengi Gallery, Boston University Art Galleries, NYCEMF, and SEAMUS.

Miki Orihara is best known for her work as a principal dancer in the Martha Graham Dance Company, which she joined in 1987. With the company, she performed as a principle in works by Twyla Tharp, Robert Wilson, Martha Clarke, Anne Bogard, and Martha Graham.

During their residency, Lenz & Orihara will begin to finalize the sound and choreography of “Bell Child,” based on the work of acclaimed sculptor Isamu Noguchi. The project aims to reflect on Noguchi’s lesser-known ceramic works and his personal biography and to open a discussion about the challenges of cross-cultural identity.

This residency is supported by mediaThe foundation inc. and through the Maria Bacardi Artist Scholarship, established by artist Maria Pessino, in honor of her late grandmother.

Helen Betya Rubinstein is a writer, writing coach and college professor at work on four book-length projects. She is interested in subverting conventions of narrative, staging divergent voices in conversation, and using the personal as a prism for the social/political. Her work has appeared in publications including Gulf Coast, Literary Hub, and Jewish Currents.

During her residency, Rubinstein will continue research and development of “Monochrome with Misbehavior: On Gender & the Irregular,” a collection of essays addressing questions of gender and the “irregular” using a sidelong, formally subversive approach. Drawing on personal experience, conversation, and readings in queer theory, these essays wonder about the impact of feminism’s second wave on the bodies and lives of those who grew up in its wake.

This residency is supported through the Maria Bacardi Artist Scholarship, established by artist Maria Pessino, in honor of her late grandmother.

The Watermill Center is at 39 Water Mill Towd Road, Water Mill. For details visit watermillcenter.org.