We met with Leentje today
who discussed with us her experience of creating her own solo performances .Leentje discussed the first solo performance she had ever made which was
entitled 'Knitting to worry about'. In this piece Leentje portrayed a character
called Anika who knits an entire family, environment for herself. Leentje
described this piece to us as being a metaphorical performance that illustrated
her own journey of having to start a new life from nothing.
Leentje described another
of her pieces "Horse' which was again another metaphorical piece of
performance. The performance illustrated Leentje's own difficulty with her own
identity in a a new country and her own difficulty with engaging with others
when they were only interested in what surrounded her. It was genuinely so
useful and helpful to listen because she has the experience and knowledge about
the negatives and positives that come with the process of creating a solo
project. Leentje's process interested me because she has scripted some of her
solo work and with other pieces of work she has a skeletal plan for the
performance. It has made me consider that it depends on what kind of piece I am
trying to create and that if I am writing a particular monologue I may need to
specifically script that work before I begin fully rehearsing it. However I
have considered if I did a work that relied on audience participation I perhaps
could not specifically script my performance because it would depend on the
audience reaction.
Leentje introduced us to
the work of Ying -Mei- Duan a Chinese performance artist whose piece 'sleepwalk' involved audience interaction where the performer encountered members of the audience in a trance like state and she went up to one of them and slapped them across the face. The piece 'Sleepwalk' was based upon the abuse that Duan received from her parents as a child which they claimed was due to their sleepwalking problems.
Leentje also introduced us to Franko B's work which is based upon his own ritualistic and bloody violation of his own body. We were shown footage of his live performance 'I miss you'. We watched a short video in which Marina Abramovich gave advice to young artists. Abramovich's advice was to still explore the ideas that you have rejected and try to find the potential within them. She also suggested to use the medium or tool which you can use the best to express your ideas.
I thoroughly agree with the advice that Abramovich suggested about exploiting the medium you are comfortable in I am beginning to consider using some element of my own poetry or piece of text within my solo performance. I feel my ideas for my solo project have shifted massively over these last two weeks I was considering doing a piece around my difficulty with dyscalculia and how it effects me emotionally and mentally. As the week has gone on I have been introduced to more and more styles of performance art.The highly symbolic pieces that Abramovich creates like 'the lovers' and the metaphors behind Leentje's work has inspired me to want to create a piece of work that is a metaphor or is symbolic itself. The subject for my solo is about me being able to meet my grandmother for an hour who died before I was born. I feel this subject I want to examine in my solo is symbolic of my own grief and sense of loss at not having her in my life. I feel this subject could also be a metaphor for me trying to construct an illusion or a reality out of something I have lost.
Leentje also introduced us to Franko B's work which is based upon his own ritualistic and bloody violation of his own body. We were shown footage of his live performance 'I miss you'. We watched a short video in which Marina Abramovich gave advice to young artists. Abramovich's advice was to still explore the ideas that you have rejected and try to find the potential within them. She also suggested to use the medium or tool which you can use the best to express your ideas.
I thoroughly agree with the advice that Abramovich suggested about exploiting the medium you are comfortable in I am beginning to consider using some element of my own poetry or piece of text within my solo performance. I feel my ideas for my solo project have shifted massively over these last two weeks I was considering doing a piece around my difficulty with dyscalculia and how it effects me emotionally and mentally. As the week has gone on I have been introduced to more and more styles of performance art.The highly symbolic pieces that Abramovich creates like 'the lovers' and the metaphors behind Leentje's work has inspired me to want to create a piece of work that is a metaphor or is symbolic itself. The subject for my solo is about me being able to meet my grandmother for an hour who died before I was born. I feel this subject I want to examine in my solo is symbolic of my own grief and sense of loss at not having her in my life. I feel this subject could also be a metaphor for me trying to construct an illusion or a reality out of something I have lost.
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