This week I went on a wonderful adventure, but this time I stayed in Dundee....
I have been looking forward to the workshop since the beginning of semester. It has always been a focal point to the year and as it is extremely eye opening and full of discovery. I was lucky enough to experience the process in second year, because I was going on erasmus for the following year. That time was incredibly influential to my direction as an artist, and now 2 years later, doing it again revealed how much I have changed and grown and in some ways have become much clearer about my identity as an artist. The whole week opened me to a different way of seeing and understanding my presence within the city...
Richard Layzell comes to Dundee every year to do a 3 day immersive performance workshop where we all go into the city and interact with it. It is a workshop that makes you aware of your environment and asks to create dialogues in which you can explore this relationship.This week consisted of two different workshops, one that was organised through the art college and another that was organised with D-AiR. I decided to do both and take a whole week out to explore the more ephemeral and live elements of my personal project. This has been a chance to get away from all the stress and the endless frustration and negotiation of space, and to be able to let go and breathe and see things in a completely different light...For me, this week has been all about exploring the feeling behind my piece, and the human aspects that are still very integral to the over all idea. This has been a time to play with it, test it in new ways and situations and to share it with other people, so it has grown beyond me and into a wider atmosphere and understanding.
For the week I focused on singing as a tool to connect with the environment and also with people. Through out the week I played with my voice, seeing how I could use it to create different works and how by changing the site I projected into created different atmospheres and experiences.
The first day we stayed inside, warmign up and doing activites in groups, and creating small journeys for each other- I loved this. The first day I was in a group with Morgan and Marc and our first performance together included involved us counting in different languages and coming together. Richard helps you see how simple performance works can be and more importantly how quick we can create a spectacle from nothing. The second day we ventured out into the city and started to interact with public spaces. There is something magical about using public space in different ways, even with a simple action like applauding, it stirs people and they begin to notice a change in their normal environment, all of a sudden we become very visible. That day I did a wonderful piece with Katy Meehan, another performance artist from the college, and together we sang to the Tay. It was a truly magical experience, we stood side by side, eyes and listened to each other through the body of the water. If anything it proved that you do not have to travel to find magic in places, in the past I have always travelled to different sites to have these experiences, but there I was, standing facing the Tay, a landmark I see everyday and singing to the open water. I had the same overwhelming feeling of empathy and connection with the space, like it was feeding into me, and I into it. Singing really is like an outer body experience, you completely loose sensation, yet this time I had Katy's voice beside me, and we created the dialogue and experience together. It was extremely beautiful and moving, and when I finally opened my eyes, everything was blue, my eyes had to adjust to the light, it was like awakening from a very long dream. Extremely overwhelming....
The last day I did a small performance piece where I hid inside a cupboard and welcomed one person to enter at a time. This was a 1-1 performance, the audience and performer. The audience member was blindfolded and couldn't see me. As they entered the space, I took their hands and led them into the darkness. One there, in the silence, I opened up and sang to them. It was a very touching experience for me because it was so intimate, no one could hear us or see us, only we could witness this happening, it it completely depended on the two bodies meeting. I felt very emotional and connected to the person and I was told afterwards that it was very moving and beautiful. I was an invisible body, they never saw me, but they heard and felt me.
This week has been hugely inspiring and I have overcome my fears of performing and of being spontaneous and instinctive. I think that that I need to listen much more to my silent voice, the one that is not fearful or listening to any other voices, it is a very pure voice and one that s hard to hear, but it is one that seems to know where to take you, it knows what you can do, and it finds the perfect moment in which to do it. It is with this new energy and way of listening to what is happening around me that I will overcome what arises and will continue work it now with this clarity and direction...
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