Performance video: “Wedding Music Box”, from the performance piece “Iron Wedding”, 2018.
        This is a clip from the multi-disciplinary, collaborative performance piece "Iron Wedding", presented at the Eighth International Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art in Scranton, PA.  This short excerpt from the performance features "Wedding Music Box", a kinetic sculpture by Allen Peterson.  The sculpture plays "Music Box Theme in C Major", by Nicole Bovasso.  Cynthia Handel is featured as the music box dancer, and Matt Toole assists in the operation of the machine.  Jenny Hager was the organizer of the overall "Iron Wedding" performance, of which this is a brief excerpt.
Performance video: Crosspollination Fields, 2016.
        Performance art led by Allen Peterson on 08 May 2016 at the opening reception for Sculpture Fields at Montague Park, Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Gallery of performance art and interactive work
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Crosspollination
Performance still from 2003.
During this performance, generations of bird-sized bees were created by pouring iron into reusable molds. Workers in protective gear attached cold handles to the glowing castings to "fly" them like puppets through the night.
Crosspollination, 2016.
A delayed exposure image of the paths of the glowing iron bees as they were piloted like puppets in the night air. This image is from 2016, when the piece was presented at the grand opening of Sculpture Fields, in Chattanooga, TN. Versions of this performance piece have been presented seven times in five states.
Image by Samuel E. Burns.
Crosspollination, 2016
Expert foundry artists manipulate the molds to produce a series of cast iron bee forms in quick succession. The metal sculptures are released from the mold just after the iron has solidified, but while it is still glowing brightly. This image is from 2016, when the piece was presented at the grand opening of Sculpture Fields, in Chattanooga, TN. Image by Samuel E. Burns.
Paying Your Dues/ Fame Stage
Lee Anne Hamrick and Glenn DeMerritt take turns riding and playing music.
A bicycle cart as a tiny stage for musical performance, rolling on the Atlanta BeltLine bicycle trails! It takes two musicians to operate, alternating between pedaling the bike and playing onstage – equal time is the deal. This project was ongoing from August - November 2014.
Paying Your Dues/ Fame Stage
Here Brandon Peyton-Carillo plays while his bicycle partner rests.
A bicycle cart as a tiny stage for musical performance, rolling on the Atlanta BeltLine bicycle trails! It takes two musicians to operate, alternating between pedaling the bike and playing onstage – equal time is the deal. This project was ongoing from August - November 2014.
Paying Your Dues/ Fame Stage
Aaron Paszec plays blues guitar while rolling along the Atlanta BeltLine bicycle trails.
It takes two musicians to operate, alternating between pedaling the bike and playing onstage – equal time is the deal. This project was ongoing from August - November 2014.
Plectracycle RS-1
Steel, wood, music wire, picks, tuner, found objects. 28x28x18 inches, 2003.
This kinetic sculpture is a playable instrument, which has been used in performance art pieces such as Crosspollination.
Plectracycle at the Hambidge benefit
A volunteer performance using the Plectracycle through the grounds of the Goat Farm art center in midtown Atlanta during the 2012 benefit for the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences.
Pendulum
Steel, wood, music wire, picks, tuner, found objects. 11x5x4 feet, 2003.
This kinetic sculpture is a metronome-like instrument, which has been used in performance art pieces such as Crosspollination.
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Video from the Paying Your Dues/ Fame Stage project, 2014.
[Two musical performers, bicycle, wood, steel, wheels, sound.]
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A bicycle cart as a tiny stage for musical performance, rolling on the Atlanta BeltLine bicycle trails!  It takes two musicians to operate, alternating between pedaling the bike and playing onstage – equal time is the deal.  This project was ongoing from August - November 2014.
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Videos feature participants in the project.  From top to bottom:
•Val Koons playing improvisatory dobro
•Sean Moran playing his original song "Scapegoat"
•Brandon Peyton-Carillo playing his original song "Fireflies And Warm Summer Nights". (The acoustics under this viaduct, along with a spectacular BeltLine mural as a background, were so good that we had to stop the bike for this moment.)
Performance video: Interlink, 2007.
Presented at the Southern Conference on Cast Iron Art, Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark, Birmingham, Alabama.  Giant cast iron chain links were cast in quick succession, each being removed from the mold while still hot and reinserted into the mold for the next link to be formed.  While on a technical level this was a moldmaking feat, the imagery of a giant chain suggests the capability of any technology, old or new, to do helpful work or to bind and control.  The manufacture of a cast iron chain becomes a metaphor for working together and community, while the laborious action involved with manipulating molds and metal also brings up the contentious and charged role of the laborer throughout history.

© 2016, AP Fine Arts

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Crosspollination, 2016.

A delayed exposure image of the paths of the glowing iron bees as they were piloted like puppets in the night air. This image is from 2016, when the piece was presented at the grand opening of Sculpture Fields, in Chattanooga, TN. Versions of this performance piece have been presented seven times in five states. Image by Samuel E. Burns.