On Monday we had our second meeting to discuss the rules we have been given. As we talked about the rule ‘You also are here’, Seth mentioned that in relation to me this rule had been intended to be about being present in my body, about perhaps being a bit less cerebral, about letting my ‘mammalian self’ lead. This has been on my mind (I know, the irony…) a lot since. I usually begin a project with a concept, making a piece of work knowing what it will be about. It doesn’t follow a linear narrative necessarily, but I have a topic or theme that material is generated in response to and, to some extent, refers back to. My first solo show was a piece about fear, for example, and the piece I am currently developing (outside of this residency) is about ageing.
So how does one begin making a performance in a way that is less cerebral? Or more specifically, how do I (over-thinker, conceptual-worker)?
I do make work that is visual, but usually always start with writing exercises and generating text. So I set myself a challenge to work primarily to generate images and physical material. I improvise and I film myself. I play a sort of free association with images and gestures I am making in the space.
I decide to use available sources (the book I am reading, the essay I downloaded before we left London, the objects I have to hand) as stimuli and tools and let them feed into the work. There is a pleasing immediacy to this. Attack!
I play a sort of free association with images on paper, when I cannot find images in the space. I spend an hour listening to music and sketching in response to the music, in response to yesterday’s ideas, in response to the images that are already gathering themselves together like a pack.
I try not to worry about meaning or ‘about’. This is hard for me. I get ‘about-anxiety’. Often in a process I will at some point get rid of material because it doesn’t have enough relevance to the theme of the show, or doesn’t say the right thing. I think this is necessary, of course, but I like the idea of this process now being about making space for those things. Allowing them to be for their own sake, at least for now.
Ira Brand
