On 6th June 2008 we showcased the following work at Yorkshire Dance, Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK.
Increasingly, we have become interested in structure and place - both interior and exterior. We explore the impact a place can have upon form and movement and how one can use and respond to space and structure, both physically and emotionally. As artists we bring our own narrative to spaces but it is important to us that we enable the spaces speak to us.
LANE
An installation piece created at Wooda Farm 2008 http://www.blogger.com/www.woodafarm.co.uk
When in the countryside, walking is often part of a visitor’s itinerary – following footpaths in search of places of natural beauty. We wanted to use the idea of walking through the countryside as our creative starting point, but felt it necessary to take a structured approach to exploring the area in and around Wooda Farm and so decided on a route along the lanes from
the studio to the sea at Crackington Haven. We completed this walk twice, each on a separate day and starting at a different time of day. For each walk we kept to a predetermined agenda – on the first we walked for ten minutes and stopped for two minutes and on the second we walked for five minutes and stopped for two minutes. By keeping to these time frames we felt more strongly linked to time and place. Each time we stopped at a particular place we recorded in notebooks our observations, thoughts and feelings. We wrote descriptions of sounds, colour, texture, light and objects in an attempt to record what can often be overlooked. We took a fresh look at what could be found along a Cornish lane in February. We chose this particular route because it is normally driven along and by walking it we felt a sense of reclaiming what has become the domain of the motor vehicle. We paid attention to the manmade structures in this rural environment – the traffic signs, drainage covers, roadside hydrants, markers and telegraph poles and wires. On our return journeys we noted down all the text we found along the route and took photographs of the structures we passed. We became increasingly aware of the impact human activity has on what at first sight one assumes to be a natural environment.
We chose to use what we had gathered to create an installation for the stable studio at Wooda. The glass walls of the studio allow the ever-changing light from outside to impact on the interior space making it feel as if the space breathes with its surroundings. It is almost like its walls are semi – permeable, allowing the interior of the studio to feel part of the land and sky, giving a sensation of being inside and outside simultaneously. Inspired by all of this we chose to print the notes we had made onto transparent window film, which we then placed on the glass. We cut and pasted the text turning it into two parallel strips of poetry that led the reader around the circumference of the studio. The text became part of the exterior landscape, linking our words, the structure of the studio and the landscape beyond.
We employed within the installation two containers that we found on the farm, the first being an old trunk and the second a metal container (which remains at the farm). The dimensions of the trunk corresponded to the dimensions of the studio. It is weathered and partially eaten by the horse! (It was once used hold hay, now it contains dead leaves). The initials
printed on its side indicate it once belonged to somebody – but to whom did it belong and where did it come from? The trunk seems to hold the past and by reclaiming it we have given it a new place and focus in the present.
To further highlight the connection between the structure, ratio and form of the studio, the trunk and the metal container, we created a series of small boxes covered in the images of the manmade objects we came across along our walks. These boxes give reference to the geometric structures placed along this country lane and draws attention to the relationship between these structures and the flora that surround them.
The chairs and the stool were found on the farm. The taut strings attached to the furniture hold together objects that were collected on walks. The stencilled text indicates where Trish, Riccardo and Debbi were at specific times when Simon was alone at Wooda prior to their arrival. The furniture provides resting places for these different elements. It was as though time, discarded objects and different locations and events have been anchored to one stop.
COVER
We hung garments that were once worn close to the skin in outside spaces. They were subjected to the wind, which made them appear to have a life of there own, almost as though they had been set free. Through their movement they seem tell their own stories and suggest that there maybe secrets caught within their fibres.
The red dress shifts and flows in the breeze; the jacket hangs still against the cold brick; the white shirts glow in the evening light among the trees…
THE INTERIOR
The interior is a trilogy of short films that portray past, present and future and is symbolic or a rite of passage.
We investigated the idea of internal space, the rooms we escape to within our imagination, the rooms within us that we keep locked to contain memories or emotion. The first film looks to our past and draws upon footage from a work we created in 1999 called Territory 2. The second film depicts us separately visiting a room and scrawling messages on the walls that are left for each other. The third film is symbolic of a journey, an optimistic statement of moving on - blue sky and fleeting clouds, trees and reflected images of buildings stream past.
RESIDUE
Residue is a film about fear, loneliness, anger and loss. We created it an empty room in Sheffield in collaboration with dance artists, Caroline Reece and Gavin Coward over a period of three days.
The four of us experimented with ways to use movement and film as a means of exploring the themes and expressing our resulting feelings and thoughts. We spent most of our time together in the room, which metaphorically became a repository for the ‘residue’ of grieving and sadness. The confines of the room informed the movement and how it was filmed – with camera in hand, moving with the dancers, we stayed close to them in order to capture footage that would allow the viewer to share intimately the series of events.
The dancers worked simultaneously in the room and the split screen format reflects how over time each became a haunting presence to the other. The cyclic nature of the movement gives a mounting sense of a need to escape the room, escape one’s situation and move on.
MY BODY, OUR LAND
It’s strange how time can become compressed
An aspect of oneself that has always been there, constant but unconscious
I drive along the tree lined track and enter a new place, a new phase
Silence is pierced by needle-sharp birdsong
And the sound of wood being chopped punctuates time
A lunar day is 24 hours, 50 minutes and 28 seconds long
My Body Our Land is a dance work that was created in response to being at Wooda Farm in Cornwall as winter was drawing to a close and spring was about to start. Inspiration was draw from the experiences of being outside in all weathers - in the pouring rain in a deep wooded valley, at the coast in bright sunshine, on top of the hill high above the farm. There is a geography to the work as movement was generated in response to points of the compass, maps and diagrams of the night sky. This work not only makes reference to place but also to time, we may occupy the same moments in time but have independence and often find ourselves in different places to one another both emotionally and physically. Whilst at Wooda, Max Burrows (the owner) could be heard periodically practicing his piano playing and this created a beautiful juxtaposition to the landscape and the farm noises and gave inspiration to add another layer to the existing film soundtrack, by having live music. This is a work about interlocking places and points in time.
In the making of this work we collaborated with: Dancers: Caroline Reece, Gavin Coward, Debbi Purtill, Riccardo Meneghini; Musicians: Max Burrows, Bill Laurance
Thank you to Yorkshire Dance for hosting this evening, Max Burrows, Gary Whitread, Elspeth Owen, Paul Innott CVC event services, NSCD, St. Edmunds Church,
