THEATRE // URBAN LANDSCAPE // MUSEUM
Last week I met the American performance artist Sara Wookey, who specialises in dance and theatre work. A group of us spent a day working with her at Porthmeor Studios in St. Ives and getting to grips with how to look at moving through a space differently. We began by learning about ‘Trio A’, a piece of work by artist Yvonne Rayner. Sara is a “certified transmitter” of this piece of dance, one of only a handful permitted to teach it to others. Through this we discussed the meaning of performance and levels of translation that can take place between dance and other performance pieces; replication, and the act of carrying this material within the body, rather than physically outside it. Process 1: Standing in a circle, shoulders touching. Saying your name and turning to the person to the right. Continuing until instructed that you can look either way after saying your name. Continuation until instructed to continue but without speaking, just looking. It was odd how during the activity you had to concentrate so hard, I found it difficult to remember my own name! The constant flow of names going round the circle lulled you into a state of strange routine, but at the same time I was confused and having to focus on speaking and moving at the right time. Process 2: Walking within a space, no specific route, finding paths through the space. Finding areas of empty, negative space, tracing paths through gaps. Following patterns, interacting with one another. Choosing to stop, remaining still until moving again. Sitting out and viewing the movement from a distance. This activity although simple in its instructions allowed for a lot of thinking and ideas generation; it made me thing about space and travelling through a space differently. The elements of a space usually neglected became obvious to me and called out to be explored! I found myself trying to not just dissolve into walking in a circle, but constantly finding new and interesting paths to make. I would love to have filmed this from above and trace the paths that we all took during the activity, similarly to the activity put on at the Young@Tate event where we used making tape to map our gallery experience. During Sara’s talk we also learned about her interactions with galleries and museums; “A Museum is much more than the artwork on the wall”. Her work explores inserting performance in public spaces, and interruption of the normality of moving/acting in a space. Essentially, the body is a material; language is used as a prompt to get the body to move; a tool kit responding to instructions.
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AuthorThird Year BA Hons Fine Art student studying at Falmouth University Archives
April 2017
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