One is the question of how sustainable
can my practice be given I have a studio full to the brim with stuff and yet I
keep producing more things (see website and dailymades) while also bringing in
fresh supplies of materials to work with from regular foraging excursions? I own up to it, I have a big problem on
my hands: I accumulate stuff at an alarming rate without being able to throw
anything away.
Working with Dancers last week,
I’ve realised one thing I love about dance is its economy; the body is the
material and steps, routine, choreographic sequences need only be stored in
one’s head. In this lies the
answer to my problem I reckon.
One of the participants made a
record of what she had made by dancing her object as means of sketching
it. How could these movements
describe accurately anything about the making of her object I thought, the
physicality of its materials, its outer appearance? How could the same thing be made again from a simple set of
movements?
Myriam said her movements were
instructions on how to work with the materials. Her interest when making was to have the materials balance
and the shape of the final outcome was of secondary importance to her. The way she moved described this
task. As for the exact object
being made again from her ‘danced’ instructions, she was not worried about
that. Why do anything twice
anyway, what would be the point of this she told me.
So here is the answer to my
problem: rather than keep all that I make, I should record what I produce as a
set of instructions. These could
be rehearsed and memorised, or written down as task cards, or both. Each time an object is made, it will be
like making it for the first time.
It’ll be an exercise in improvisation rather than repetition. Performing
the instructions might be a good substitute for the object of course, but that
is a whole other question…
Object probably don’t matter in
the end, ideas do, and ideas are meaningless without actions. Content and meaning for me reveals
itself through process, and this means moving as well as making. All going
well, my next blog (written from a newly spacious studio, of course) will be
titled ‘confessions of a dancer’.
 |
spinning up and down
ending with a leap |
