Wednesday 31 July 2013

nothing can ever be the same again...

repetition is transformative

More thoughts on Sharing Making Moving, Independent Dance’s summer intensive at Siobhan Davies Studios – see also previous post.

actions can remain the same
but intention changes everything
undoing is one way of making
making is moving
movement is change
all making is improvised
through movement we are in touch with the absolute
- Colin McLean (on Buddhist prayer wheels)

Tuesday 30 July 2013

confessions of a hoarder


As I am unpacking materials and objects used during Independent Dance’s intensive workshops Sharing Making Moving at Siobhan Davies Studios last well, I have also started unpacking some of the ideas and questions prompted by the these.

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

Tuesday 16 July 2013

panoramic pathways


Here is a sneak preview of Panoramic Pathways (Nottingham City Lace), my contributing installation for Make Believe, a forthcoming exhibition opening this week at Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery.


The work was produced with the assistance of a group of volunteers based in and around Nottingham. Many thanks to them once again for all their help; the piece simply couldn’t have been made without them. Excluding material used while researching and experimenting, nearly 50 kgs of twine (15kms) was stitched between trees on the castle grounds to produce the piece. In case you were wondering, this is the reason why sisal twine has featured repeatedly in recent dailymades


I won’t give too much away with more images just yet as the show is still to open, but there might be more of these coming in the next few of posts, so keep your eyes peeled…  For more info on the exhibition, visit the Fermynwoods Contemporary Art or the Nottingham Museum & Art Gallery website.  Better still, come see the exhibition!