Inspiration

I have always really wanted to incorporate movement/dance and collaborate it with fine art in a mark making way. I have always pictured covering my body in various mediums and stretching across huge canvas’s and walls. Here are some artists that use their entire body to create shapes. 

Simon Beck:

 

Heather Hanson:

 

 

Heather Hanson’s work correlates to what i have been imagining as my ‘dream work’ for quite a few years now. I would like to see how i could use movement and mark making in this project. Perhaps painting with light on a very slow shutter speed in the photography studio? These are ideas where I could further this project after the first completed stage of videos.

Sequence 1: Black text on nude

Link: https://vimeo.com/85437252

Responsive: Re-think of projected text

After thinking hard about whether or not I should use the Dancer’s answers to my questions , I decided not to. The answers projected onto the dancers whilst the film runs would have been very personal to them, however I wanted the theme of injury, disappointment and dedication of dance to be relayed through texts documented by established international dancer’s. I chose to do this so to speak to a larger audience, to assemble the many voices explaining this hardship… and uniting them as one text to high-light the similar trends. The text’s I have selected have been plucked from many different sources (online biographies/ interviews/ documentaries), however all the dancer’s I have chosen have played a huge part in my own inspiration as a dancer. I assembled the text together to create one long narrative. I then want to re-create the credits one sees at the end of a film, so that the text rolls over the dancer’s bodies to introduce the notions of a concluded show. I made two different films with opposite colours for room to experiment when I film the dancers.

Draft questions to dancer’s

Question 1: Where does the main focus of pressure originate from in your need to succeed as a dancer? Elaborate on this.

 

Question 2:I know that being a dancer means you have to give it your all because of the intense competition. Your peers who do not dance must have a very different life to you. Do you find the social pressures induced by the media promoting a life of decadence and partying hard to deal with? These polar nuances must put huge pressure on you to deliver, explain your personal experience of this.

 

Question 3: A rather harsh way to describe a dancer’s career is by it having a short shelf life- meaning dancers will not perform for the most part of their life. Love for dance obviously plays a huge factor in all of this but the very foreseeable end could be a huge pressure. Does this effect your motivation to dance? Elaborate on this.

 

Question 4: It is a well-known fact that dancer’s have a lot of pressure to have the perfect bodily form. Give a few examples of when and how this has personally affected you.

 

Question 5: Write a short story of how you have accomplished coming this far.

 

Question 6: Write a short story of where you intend to go with your dancing (doesn’t matter if you do not know!). 

Responsive: Email to dancers

Hi guys,

 

I have selected the both of you thanks to your fast reply and enthusiasm (also a little Facebook stalk). I hope you are as excited as I am about this! As it is assessment week for the next two weeks at my college there is a lot of space to book out the photography studio meaning more flexibility for you guys! To make sure I don’t take up too much of any of your time I am hoping to get all the filming/photography done in one/two sessions next week. Starting at say 3-then going on late into the evening if needs be!

 

As I will be projecting the answers of the questionnaire on to you (I will be sending you that shortly) I need you to be wearing something vary pale in colour. Non-descript- something that is not loud and does not pre-conceive too many associations if you get me?

 

If all of you are happy to improvise it means we have a lot more flexibility with movement and mood and i can choreograph some of the movements to tie them in with the theme. If possible mimicking your emotions you felt during answering the questions i’m going give you. What do you guys suggest we do about music? I was thinking I just put on a tech/house mix during the filming.. would that be ok with you guys?

 

I will then compile the videos and images for your viewing to make sure you are happy with them. My hand-in for this part of my project if on the 3rd of Feb, after that I will then be working towards the exhibition date (not yet set). Here is what I have in mind for that: projected videos of you guys onto raw brick walls (The venue hopefully being a dishevelled barn/loft I found in Headingely) some professionally printed images of you guys. Then maybe some of my drawings. There will be DJ’s playing music along the lines of techno and house but nothing to invasive.. I could also potentially get a few of you to hold some interesting poses and slow movement placed around the space. We will make an event and can all come up with a name together- the ins and outs etc but the main focus showcasing the cross between the arts and the celebration of our youth and creation.

 

I’m so excited about all of this.

 

Lily xx

 

Responsive: Developing my idea

When researching dance/movement artists I found an African Perfomance Artist named Mlu Zondi. He looks at the social in-enquality and tension in South Africa and expresses it through many different manners. My favourite is his sequence performed on a large chess board:

However one really stood out for me for my project. I didn’t know how i was going to tackle incorporating each dancers personal experience of their pressures. Until i saw his video, here is a still from the video:

He projects political discussions over his twisted body contorting from the pain of the eventual outcome of these high-up decisions. When i have given the dancers their questionnaire, i want to project their answers onto their bodies and together we will choreograph an emotion filled response to their answers.

I then went on to look at an artist called Mona Hatoum and the piece called ‘Measures of Distance’. She projects text of written letter from her mother onto images of her mother in the shower. Then records her own voice and plays it for the duration of the video. Here is a link to her video: http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=mona+hatoum+measures+of+distance+1988+video&FORM=VIRE3#view=detail&mid=F02496BFE956406B1318F02496BFE956406B1318

This has inspired me to record the dancers voice where she narrates some of the hardships she has dealt with as a dancer. The depth of context may come across pretty shallow I guess but I am using this project as a method of exploring the areas within film and chorepgraphy… also photography.