Working with Lucy Suggate for two sessions has conjured an
interest in the manipulation of space and the relationship between dance and
arguably unlikely performative spaces such as galleries and museums.
After reading about the new collaboration between these two art
genres for ‘Dancing Museums’ I was motivated to question the relationship
between audiences and those contrasting forms.
I see a still painting or sculpture for example in its stillness
and at face value the art will always represent itself in the same way
(although may provide new meanings or concepts at each glance). I do not need
much more than what the artist has created on that blank canvas or with those
materials in order to create that captured moment. Additionally when we watch
dance works we are seeing the development of decisions in the space
for time frames that vary between minutes and hours.
As an audience member I feel dance provides itself with a
longevity from the moment you arrive. The beginning to the end. A work unravels
to become itself throughout its existence. There is not much you can claim
at face value without taking into account the substance, that when compared to
a painting would be the strokes on the canvas. This then encourages me to
consider the idea of maintenance with choreography.
Do we attempt to create a time frame of produce that will grip
the audience from start to finish? Can we envisage that our tools are not
far from the paint and the paint brush? Therefore can audiences arrive in
our work like looking at a still form? With or without stillness?
The art forms are arguably very different therefor incomparable
in this audience/artist exchange and there are many elements to consider that I
have quickly skimmed over, although I feel at this starting point the
relationship between the two particularly in ‘Dancing Museums’ fuels
an interest.
Within both forms of art I enjoy committing to works and
unravelling the hidden messages that surface to my individual eye. I am aware
that I may explore possibilities deeper inside the simplest of creations, when
my mind is left to roam with just enough but by all means not masses of
information. These similarities and contrasts spark an invitation to
consider the different ways one digests the two Art forms/as well as how as an
artist we can channel these thoughts into our creating.
Suggesting that your offering of work is your exhibition,
gallery or museum to me encourages a shift in focus. I hope to catch some of
the works performed in such locations this summer and explore these concepts in
the studio.
