Category: Performance

Continued search for Equilibrium…

Continuing to look at balance between mind, body and soul in order to achieve harmony / equilibrium. Considering how this can be portrayed through performance. I looked at the work of Kate Gilmore, a performance artist based in the US. Interested in the way she addresses endurance and how how she documents her work ( a beautiful, often chaotic mess!). I developed some prototypes for a potential performance.

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The final structure/s would be made of wood (carefully measured) with a ball in the centre. At each of the 3 corners would be a bucket/cup. I envisage a performance where I would tip paint into each bucket until the structure became balanced. This would involve endurance, patience and mess ! Main risk is that it could go too well! (boring!). Not long until the end of year show! Keep experimenting !!

 

 

 

 

The recurring dream.

Dreams are the unconscious parts of us. Freud viewed dreams as wish fulfillment, in contrast to Jung who looked at them as a form of self-actualisation. Of good and bad. Dreams are windows to our souls. I made a sound and performance piece centered around a recurring theme of trains.

While the sound piece was playing I sat behind a plinth and painted images from my dreams onto glass and perspex sheets. Trains represent ‘power’. In my dreams I am lost, chasing trains, being pulled in different directions. Life is out of control and I am ‘powerless’. When the sound piece finished I awoke from my dream, switched on the light and displayed my painted glass sheets in front of the plinth. I completed my performance by taking a print from one of the sheets of glass.

Points of view.

Continuing to explore the concept of restriction and restraint. I had big, but rather physical plans in mind for my work. Unfortunately, as a result of recent surgery I had to re-think my final outcome.I decided to show a performance piece based on the restrictions placed upon my ability to make work following my operation and the frustration, mental and physical disorientation that accompanies it. When you are unable to to the things that you normally would you have to learn a new way. You see things from another perspective.

‘Half a cup of water and a kettle full of tea’. (stills)

 

Following my operation I had been told to lift nothing heavier than half a kettle full of water, light dusting only, plenty of rest and to maintain my pelvic floor exercises! As you can see from the title of my performance I was somewhat confused by these restrictions!

Restriction.

Considered instability/restriction and restraints. Looked at work of Matthew Barney ‘Drawing restraints’. I stood on a drawing board which was balanced on a small spinning turntable. Standing carefully on the stool to try and maintain my balance I then held a long piece of dowelling in each hand, onto which paintbrushes were taped to each end. With these restrictions in place I painted images from my unconscious onto the wall and the floor. I further experimented by laying across a spinning chair and from within the restrictive space of a wooden box.

Disorientation.

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In her essay on perspective, Hito Steryl looked at ‘Slave ship’, painted by Turner in 1840. This led me to look at the way in which Turner had depicted instability / disorientation with the loss of the horizon line. The painting challenges our view. Working with loss of control and disorientation I experimented by filming myself rolling on the floor and spinning. I was able to create a short simple film before collapsing! I tried projecting the spinning film onto the wall and performing in front of it.

 

Identity/Print Performance -‘Mummy loves you’

I wanted to incorporate print and performance. I rolled ink onto a large polythene sheet. This sheet was to be my ‘stage’. I used my body to express insecurities and emotions that I have carried from the womb and into the present. Laying out different pieces of paper and fabric on the ink I made movements on them which left traces/prints of the performance. I used myself as a doormat, I rolled into a cocoon, I sung of childhood memories, I drew and stamped my hands and feet. I find the video of the performance hard to watch, yet when performing I felt very little anxiety. It was easier than speaking.I was aware of my audience but focused on myself and let my unconscious take over.

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A still from the video – singing ‘mummy loves you’