momentum in the moment

This upload documents my activities over the past few weeks, settling back into work after some adventures in the outback. The spaces are contrastingly man-made and stark in comparison to the silence, beauty and rarity of the landscapes that I managed to capture in the last post. But to notice and record this diversity of my geographical and physical movements is pretty awesome too. I did miss the tactile and vast nature of the spaces from outback, getting down and dirty in the red sand for example and rolling on the incredibly smooth stones, was juxtaposed in my mind with the cleanliness and rigidity of the constructed spaces that I tend to explore here.

With these performances, I consciously chose to take my camera with me on more work, leisure and errand activities to find something interesting within unlikely and unconventional times and spaces. I found that when I made this choice I consciously made the effort to perform somewhere on that outing and they proved to be quite unique, which was fun... particularly enjoyed performing the table at a restaurant (subtle though it was).

I also realised that I love playing with light, finding spaces that use strong pools or strips of light from a window, door, car lights which seem to naturally create a double frame almost and a focus for the movement in the space.

Editing this film I noticed strong patterns of movement, repeated from day to day, and a nervous and continuous energy that I found hard to shake. Perhaps with the momentum of life speeding up again my brain and body have become a little consumed by this. Similarly I noticed I began to choose similar angles of shots, like a default mode, so I am looking to break these habits for the next post. Shifting the framing and proximity of body to the camera.

 So here is excerpt 13. Woah!!! Its getting closer to the end (October).... but I secretly don't want it to end!!!

All around the place

So I started this excerpt of video in the midst of creative devlopment project in Canberra and have since been involved in two others, which has been incredible, lucky me!! One was in Bathurst an amazing group of performers and the other 70ks from Alice Springs, in the outback.
Experimenting in the different places and contexts has been a real artistic wake up for me over the past month, looking forward to making decisions about where would be the most interesting space to perform/film as each day unfolded. the more foreign the better. I loved immersing myself in a space that seems to have, from my perspective, undetermined potential or unchartered territory, the unknown is exciting!!!

Being out in the bush, amidst a diversity of different natural landscapes was particularly revitalising, from river stones, to the muddy river bed, to thick grass land, a red sand hill...etc and words cannot describe how awesome it was to be in these spaces, the silence and peacefulness of the environment is striking. And as we noted on our trip, it just is. It is when we are there in it, and it is when we are not.

Something I considered quite a bit when on my bush theatre adventures was who was the audience? Was I performing for nature or for myself? I tried to play between these and realised that for me I find it much easier with an audience, ie. people, so it did become a little challenging when it literally was just me moving in vast space. But ultimately, at least for this project, each filming experiment is an exploration of space, and my relationship to it, and that was what kept my interest.

Favourite moments during this post include performing in 'No Place' showing, at the airport, the red sand hill, and up the tree. The sense of play for me is a big part of it, and in spaces I felt free to go with that instinct..fun..fun.

ok well here it is...