Amore New Performing Art

Amore is an avant-garde production created to elevate the artistry of performing, conceptual, kinetic, digital, video, and abstract art. Paintings by Paul Chiang are 3D animated and catalyzed to life. The metamorphic moving art intertwines and interacts in a marriage with its soul mate, music. Though the focus is love, it also unites human emotions (Joy, Anger, Sorrow, Fear, Love, Hate, Affection) alongside eastern elements (Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth) to create a dramatically diverse western classical music performing art. All in, to achieve a mutual interdependence Yin-Yang balance.

Amore is a brew of my worldly experience, emotional ups and down, and multicultural upbringing. It was created after uncontrollable circumstances that resulted in my unfortunate miscarriages. I felt a big part of me was gone. I was devastated and needed a way out badly. I threw myself into this production to forget the pain and sorrow. Love has always been the biggest drive and inspiration of my life. But it also caused me a great deal of suffering. To me, love is heaven and hell. Amore is the amalgamation of my personal emotional roller coaster.

Paul Chiang was one of my favorite painters whose wife is a musician. His artistry is nurtured by music and many of his works are named after music titles. The series of paintings are chosen instinctually. Though music and painting are different professions, both hold a commonality as an art form. The process of selecting the paintings, the arrangements, and the timing of the transitions from one painting to another, entails a deep knowledge of the artwork and a creative feel for the flow. The paintings are rearranged, decomposed, reunited and transformed. The commonalities are established and the differentials are highlighted and expanded upon.

In the program of classical music, there are connections, imitations, mutations, variations, oppositions and expansions between the themes, developments, bridges, sections and keys. We explored hand drawn illustrations, photo simulations, the romantics, the surreal, the contemporary, and varying mediums. The emotional and compositional evolutions are combined, reflected and echoed in the artistic animation to enable a harmonious flow.

I wanted to achieve the perfect marriage of the music and the animated artwork in a very artistic way that would complement a live piano performance and not steal the spotlight of the pianist. Pairing and synching appealing multimedia to the music and then to debut it all in a live performance adds enormous complexity. Each live performance is unique in its speed and dynamics. The challenge is to make sure the animated film merges with the live piano performance smoothly in real time. It took many rehearsals between the engineer and the performer to get to a level of satisfaction. That’s the hard part of performance art.

Performing Art is momentary in action. Each live performance is never the same and that is the beauty of it. Through post-production work, my cross art performances are edited, documented, and preserved via fine art archive films. The animated art film can exist by itself and be played in a theater or museum. I am a firm believer in innovative works and believe in pushing the envelope of artistry to elevate the overall level of performing art.

Music to me is like a faith or a religion. Music and art purify your body, mind, and soul. Music and art also inspire, triggering your inner voice of creativity. Through creations, musicians and artists can leave a cultural legacy to inspire future generations.

A flower blossoms and withers. life, fate, and love each have a beginning and an end. Eastern stories like the “Butterfly Lover” and Western stories like “Romeo and Juliet”, both share insurmountable obstacles in their pursuit of love. Some stories end happily and some tragically. With Amore, I wish all the believers in love, a happy life and may all your dreams come true.

Amore today, are in many forms and have many faces and versions. I am determinedto perfect it and I will continue to perform Amore. Amore can also solely exist as different types of art form without the live performance.