HLP Day Ten :: Bowden Creative Space

It was great to have the studio to the 3 of us today.

We debriefed for the first part of the day, talking about how each of us is feeling on the project, and airing some of the grievances and frustrations about either the process, the space, the relationship with the subject matter or the lack of direction. It was a good talk but left me with many of the questions I have always asked myself about why I want to make work: what drives me, how can I find clarity in my vision, and ultimately who cares anyway? I guess these are common questions for artists and they do need to be asked. I have always connected with the outcomes of artworks that are rich, deep, complex but that have a solid idea or feeling behind them. I think I am still making work that avoids dealing with anything real. My head-in-the-sand apprach to life makes it easy to live but maybe not meaningful enough. I am still so driven by a fear of confrontation with the things in life that can make it difficult, and I am sure that much of this comes from growing up in South Africa in the midst of Apartheid. Why is this relevant to this blog? I guess it excuses my soft approach to things. I talked to Carol and Lisa about the way I tend to work - I am an observer rather than a director (but in truth I often observe with my eyes closed). I try to find 'decisive moments' in the version of truth I see and really love that passive process. But I am also interested in what could unfold, and start to get ideas about what I'd like to see happening in the frame. At times I do want to manipulate what I am seeing to start to bring it closer to what it could be.

Working with the medium of dance is still very new to me, and that's why this development is so important to me. I am on a journey of finding how it is I want to work with the' figurative' in a way that feels comfortable and interesting. I'm not afraid of challenges like this and love to work hard, but I often find that the clarity of what I really want often comes on reflection and not necessarily in the process. In terms of this project, I am letting the process unfold relatively unmanaged. I don't want to restrict the development of ideas and Carol in particular has such a rich aesthetic it's really interesting to see what might happen. I think I will be in a better position in the editing process to start to manage where the meaning can be found and how the material can start to work. It is such a priviledge to be able to have a first stage of a project, knowing that it's development is more likely to be successful once there has been time to play, explore, and most importantly, to fail. 

Anyway, there is alot more I could say but as always there's not enough time..

Isadora Wrapped up

Onto the content of the day - we worked on the Isadora piece, looking to add some elements of surprise and complexity to this piece. I think it is starting to get more interesting - and her character is evolving directly from the human horse. I really enjoy the little links and connections we are starting to build between and from the characters. It gives something else for the audience to play with and respond to. The potential for metamorphosis is really interesting when working in this medium - it's basically animation. We stop the cameras and create a new truth, then continue shooting.

We looked at wrapping Isadora, and then moved on to other ways of playing with the material. Muybridge shot a lof of his women in various stages of drapery. Our Isadora character comes from sequences like the ones below, where the subject is moving / dancing with fabric - and also at various stages of dress / undress. Our Isadora is a blend of many of the figures we have studies in his work. Here are a few examples:

Woman with Kerchief

OK, not much time now so will just post a few images from the day - and will upload the video later..

Carol & Lisa working in the studio

Neo Isadora

The pace is too fast (I was going to work on this piece but we have already started exploring other things so I thought I'd leave Isadora V2 where it is) but here we are introducing a number of new elements at the start of the piece, and creating a link from the Human Horse to Isadora. Crazy but true. And Neo makes a brief appearance (thanks to Matthew for the idea - great!). The next stage is shooting against a black background and considering the ending..