Rachel Macmanus
I used crawling here so as to slow the movement down and so as to experience being close to the ground. The action becomes about the mark making effect, as ones ability to see is blinkered by the close to the ground positioning and by the tall grass surrounding. Through using crawling I saw spiders, bugs, flies, different grass and flowers. I felt every lump and bump and uneven area. As discussed before the motion of crawling is also democratic to the body, extending (if performed carefully) equal gravitational weight bearing pressure throughout the hands and knees. It also requires the the R and L side of the brain to work together to coordinate the movement.
An act of attendance.
An act of exploration.
An act of mark making.
An act of endurance.
An act of observation.
I love this. I love the colour and textures within the image, I love the imagined journey I experienced, as I read of your own. I’m sure I read somewhere that there was research done on the sense of smell, and the more subtle scents were more round. I find myself wondering what your sense of smell observed?
ReplyDeleteThankyou for your comment! I smelt the grass, and the peaty earth. I felt my dew saturated knees and feet, and the grass kept tickling my face and making me sneeze. The unevenness of the ground beneath me and the knee high grass around me obscuring my view meant that I was constantly disorientated. I relied on the path I had already made on my left hand side to know which direction to crawl in. As you can see from the photo I did not manage to make a perfect circle! This did not matter however, and as per usual, the action of making the performance yielded an unpredictable experience, which for me, is where the magic lies.
Deletehow wonderful! how fortunate you are to have the place to do this... I also perceive an act of gratitude
ReplyDeleteHello! Thank you for commenting. Yes, I live in a semi rural area, and indeed it was my good fortune to be able to access this space at this time in order to make the performance. It involved a lot of planning, and the work had to be made at a very specific time, just before the grass was cut. I had attempted to make the performance twice before hand and both time we we had to call it off because of the rain. And I felt comfort in the action, comfort in the grass, the sky, my ability to make this work. I definitely felt gratitude afterwards that the rain had stayed away long enough to let me finish it :)
DeleteIt is an interesting metaphysical, abstract portrait of a performance. Great creative courage and breaking the canon.
ReplyDeleteThankyou Art Museum Alexandra Fly (great name) yes, I used this photo for my entry as I deliberately made the performance around the image creation so to speak. I'd thought of those photos of crop circles you see of huge, golden fields, with these geometric patterns you see cut into them. I wanted to make my small, rural, Irish, stubborn version of this, to see what slow, laboursome crawling through the grass, unable to really see where I was going, would yield. Also slow actions mean I have to stay present, in the act of performance and experience how that feels for a period of time. Thankyou for your comment.
DeleteI think the idea of a perfomative practice that doesn't neccessarily have an audience is powerful, have you documented this in any other ways?
ReplyDeleteHi Explorist, yes I wore a headcam and filmed the experience of making the work, from ground level. Much less loft and decidedly uncinematic :) I like making outdoor site specific performances where there is no audience, or if any, it is an accidental one. I am making a film with footage of both recording angles. thanks for your comment about my work.
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