After doing the freewrite, I got completely stuck- BECAUSE the concept that emerged for the assignment was one that I could not technically execute as a study.
So here I wrote out the scenario I start from. This round, I guess is more a request for brainstorming than feedback :)
Scenario 1
Background: Sruti box
After some time:
voice over: English translation of a PADAM- it should be
obvious from the narration that it is a translation (i.e. searching for words)-
I am still looking for one. Have been playing with “Don’t you know my house”
for now. But its not ideal.
In the middle of the stage there is a wall of bricks
(loosely) stacked on top of each other – about 4 feet wide and 5 feet tall
As the voice over can be heard, a hand, from behind the
“wall” is carefully pushing at one of the bricks, until it falls down to the
front, leaving a whole in the wall.
The whole thing happens very gradually.
A second brick is gently gradually pushed out in a similar
way.
It falls, leaving a gap.
The hands reach through, bending up, exploring the wall
where a face would be.
They gradually start including hastas in their exploration
of the wall, which start coinciding with the recited Padam.
As the hands keep exploring the wall, interjected with
hastas they start manipulating the bricks, until one can be lifted off the top
of the wall.
The focus of the hands shifts away from exploring the wall,
now trying to dismantle it. This has to be done with great care. The difficulty
should be visible.
For now I see the end of this during the dismantling.
THIS IS JUST AN IMAGE that came to me.
Feedback questions:
11) What does this image suggest to you? What are
your associations?
22) Do you have suggestions on how to transform this
idea into a video/performance score that actually “doable” at this experimental
stage?
a.
If this were a video, do you have suggestions on
approaches to shoot it/angles to pursue it?
b.
If this were live, playing with props, do you
have suggestions on approaches to pursue it?
33) Any other thoughts?
-What does this image suggest to you? What are your associations?
ReplyDeleteBeing boxed in, exploration, curiosity, windows of opportunity, undoing. Abhinaya without the face. I think the meaning would be really inflected by the padam text, how it was read, what accent it was in, etc. (Also, a super random association: the wall, for some reason, reminds me of the play-within-a-play by the rude mechanicals in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, and the chink within the wall.)
-Do you know anyone who teaches yoga using wooden blocks? Or you could construct something using tupperware or other containers.
a. In addition to straight on and close-ups on your hands, the texture of the bricks, it might be interesting to shoot over your shoulder/back, or from your perspective.
b. How might the rhythm of the dismantling relate to the padam?
Additional Thoughts/Questions:
What kind of padam are you looking for?
I do suspect that the wall (unless you actually use mortar) will actually be physically easier to take apart than to explore or manipulate...unless they are super big, heavy bricks.
Is it just one wall of bricks, or does it surround you on four sides. If just one side, then why wouldn't you just walk around it? (This is for live performance -- wouldn't matter for video depending on how it was shot.)
I don't know what your free-write is about, but I'm assuming that it might have something to do with being an Indian dancer in a German context...if so, do you want to make the Germanness of the context clear to the audience? Right now the Indian/S. Asian content is clear from the padam and mudras, but not the German context.
1.) What does this image suggest to you? What are your associations?
ReplyDeleteI think of the wall as representing some societal structure or construct and a subaltern pair of hands, are slowly working on the dismantling of the structure that was somehow creating an oppression on the hands.
However, rather than warring against the oppressors, the hands are caressing and carefully dismantling. It makes me feel that the dismantling is a subversive tactic. Almost as if, through the gentleness towards the oppressor itself, that the oppressors don't realize they should fight and end up complying and changing to what the needs of the subaltern are.
2) Do you have suggestions on how to transform this idea into a video/performance score that actually “doable” at this experimental stage?
a. If this were a video, do you have suggestions on approaches to shoot it/angles to pursue it?
If you know anyone that animators, or visual artists, it would be amazing to have a drawing of the wall, but real hands interacting with the drawing and changing it. I'm not really sure how to do this...probably green screen of your arms/hands, then superimpose a series of the drawings that coincide with the dismantling etc.
That could also be an interesting way to play with perceptions about reality and which one is more "real".
b. If this were live, playing with props, do you have suggestions on approaches to pursue it?
Agree with Cyn on the yoga blocks... or stack bricks into a small wall!
33) Any other thoughts?
Cyn's comment wondering how to make it clear about a potential German context makes me think of the Berlin Wall. I was in a wanna be German restaurant the other day and they had a whole wall that had graffiti on it and somehow reminded me of the Berlin wall. Is there something written or drawn on your wall which gives info (great or small) on what the wall might represent?
1. What does this image suggest to you? What are your associations?
ReplyDeleteA person is being boxed in. Not allowed to leave. Not allowed to show one's face. Trying to leave. Trying to be seen. Or choosing to not show one's face? The moving bricks evoke an unfinished home, ruins of a home, making home of the remains, perhaps even post-war. The different qualities in the relationship between hands and bricks feels important in creating meaning (struggle or ease or caressing or discovery or staccato or fluid etc). Intrigued about how the lyrics of the padam or sounds will create meaning in relationship too!
2. Do you have suggestions on how to transform this idea into a video/performance score that actually “doable” at this experimental stage?
I saw one of my cohort (Sarah Jacobs) do a study once with a cardboard box that had been opened up and set up on the vertical. So it was a vertical wall of cardboard. She then cut holes in the wall at different levels so that parts of the body could enter and exit the different holes. Something about your scene made me remember that. Cardboard boxes turned into a wall? Maybe even filming the hands with scissors or an exactoknife cutting holes?
I would love to see this with bricks! Performance art!
Or a bookshelf that doesn't have a back so that one could manipulate the objects on the shelf itself?
3. Any other thoughts?
I agree with Cyn and Shy regarding the German context. Is this one of your intentions? How is this represented and communicated?