within the metamorphosis

within the metamorphosis is a performance meditation directed by visual artist Afruz Amighi and conceived in the wake of the death of Jina Mahsa Amini in Iran. It is an evocation of death as the ultimate conjurer of life and a summoning of possible new worlds. Through poetry, dance, and sound, the audience is invited to step inside a place of transformation where hope, despair, heaven, and hell live side by side.

within the metamorphosis is presented in conjunction with Spirit Canopy, an installation piece by Afruz Amighi in Comparative Hell: Arts of Asian Underworlds, on view at Asia Society Museum. Inspired by Zoroastrian ritual, Amighi's landscape of suspended chain sculptures and shadows represent the spirits of those we have lost.  Each sculpture hangs precariously from hooks amidst chains dangling with skeleton keys, imagery evocative of the brutality of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Amighi invites us to sit with and honor those who have passed.

This performance has been supported by the Asia Society Performing Arts Fund and Helen and Will Little. Additional funding has been provided by the Mohammed Afkhami Foundation.

Performer Biographies

Afruz Amighi
Director

Afruz Amighi is a visual artist known for her large-scale sculptural installations, based on the interplay of light and shadow. With light as her primary medium, Amighi's work has been exhibited in museums and sculpture parks throughout United States, Europe and the Middle East. Amighi was the inaugural recipient of the Jameel Prize for Contemporary Islamic Art, a New York Foundation for the Arts fellow in sculpture, and a resident at the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art. Her work was commissioned in 2013 for the 53rd Venice Biennale.  Amighi's work is included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Houston Museum of Fine Art and The Morgan Museum and Library, among others. Currently you can see her work at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the Birmingham Museum of Art and the Asia Society Museum here in New York City.

Leah Fournier and Amelia Koper Heintzelman
Choreographer/ Dancers

Leah Fournier and Amelia Koper Heintzelman are collaborators of nearly a decade. Through the shared authorship of their work, they hold a commitment towards restructuring traditional hierarchies in dance and choreographic practices. Their collaborative work has been supported through creative residencies at The School for Contemporary Dance & Thought, The Floor, and The Croft, and presented at Center for Performance Research Spring Movement Festival, Lubov Gallery, Essex Flowers Gallery, David Owsley Museum of Art, and at Fresh Festival in San Francisco. They have created site-specific commissions for Trieber Farms in North Fork, Long Island and for Pioneer Valley Ballet’s production of “A Midsummer Nights’ Dream '' in Northampton, MA. They have taught master classes in collaborative choreography at Mount Holyoke College, Landfalls Artist Residency, and through the online platform freeskewl. Currently, they are Artists in Residence at MOtiVE Brooklyn working towards a premiere at Pageant in Summer 2023.

Outside of their collaboration, Leah has performed with artists Juli Brandano, Barbie Diewald, Angie Hauser, Chris Aiken, Nancy Stark Smith, Sara Shelton Mann, and Vanessa Anspaugh. She currently works for Contact Quarterly and Movement Research. Amelia has been an AIR at Chez Bushwick, a Performance Project Fellow at University Settlement, and an Associate Artist studying under Deborah Hay at Atlantic Center for the Arts. Her work has been presented at the Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati, Center for Performance Research, and Junior High Gallery. She performs in the work of Phoebe Berglund, Juli Brandano, Ayano Elson, and Alexa West, among others. 

Darius Jamal VanSluytman
Composer

Darius VanSluytman is an electronic musician, performer, and composer who gained his start in the 2000s with electronic and alt-rap groups No Surrender and Mike Ladd’s Majesticons, & Infesticons groups.

He’s graced coveted stages from Afropunk to SONAR (Barcelona); and recorded with a range of iconic artists including Tunde Adebimpe (TV on the Radio) and electronic composer Raz Mesinai (Badawi). He’s performed live alongside leading jazz and experimental musicians including Vijay Iyer and Jessika Kenney. His work has been released on labels ranging from Big Dada to Oxtail Recordings, and covered internationally in Pitchfork, SPIN, Rolling Stone, and Vogue. 

This body of work represents his third collaboration with Afruz Amighi. He is also a graduate of NYU Steinhardt’s Music Technology Masters program.

Jen Pyron
Vocalist

Jennifer Pyron is a vocalist, improvisational performer and writer based in Brooklyn, NY. She is known for her art song cycles that dive deep into the psyche through her voice, synthesizer, layered processing, loop station and keyboard. Pyron collaborates with other musicians, dancers, filmmakers, and improvisational artists to create multi-dimensional and emotionally rendering designs in visual art, movement and sound. Her most recent work, The Universe of Her (2023), documents the investigation of her own philosophical beliefs. The i:memo recordings she catalogs alternate lightness and darkness, inward and outward, in hopes of transcending herself.