HAPPY 2016!
This Newsletter serves as a personal catch-up session with my friends & family - rather than my more formal Cilla Vee Life Arts letter to my whole mailing list ......
I am about to begin my final semester as an MFA candidate with the TRANSART INSTITUTE.
During this time, I must not only complete & present my artistic project to the public - but also to write a project thesis defending its validity in the world!
My project addresses the concept of the Self as a "raw material" with which to create.
The performer uses the Self as medium / Self as instrument for the art of performance.
Therefore - my project is appropriately entitled "RAW-(Material)".
I have been creating it in the form of a journal - with text, video, image & sound pieces documenting my artistic practice-as-research into explorations of the raw materials of the Self .... as well as interactions with the raw materials in the environment around me.
This involves various forays into nature ... falling around in wheatfields, picking apples in ancient orchards, perching precariously on the sides of mountains etc ... !
As well as creating a video piece with my nature material interactions, I then take the gestures that evolve from those interactions back into the studio & develop them as choreographic motifs that can be used in live performance.
Here are some examples:
WHEAT - https://youtu.be/rHq88uMD3nU
BODY FALLING - https://youtu.be/-rAa85A_EaQ
AUTUMN LEAVES - https://youtu.be/Qviw13ZWTM0
https://www.flickr.com/photos/114531261@N02/albums/72157658358090543
BODY SPINNING - https://youtu.be/H89kpmj-cOI
In the wheatfield, my instinct was to fall into it ... it seemed to be inviting me!
Once in the studio, I took these same falling actions & then developed them further - until it became an almost violent act of throwing myself onto the floor!
With the autumn leaves, I saw them spinning as they fell off the trees & onto the ground. I wanted to imitate this action with the camera & it became a dance - spinning & swirling with the camera to capture the dance of the leaves.
On taking this into the studio I applied these motions to my whole body.
Here's another pair ...
HAY BALE - https://youtu.be/6x2tudb7rJ8
BODY HAYBALE GESTURES - https://youtu.be/QilHt5RaG1c
I am spending time in different places during each season.
Summer in Berlin, Nottinghamshire UK at harvest time, Southern Appalachia USA in the autumn ....
Next I go to the Chesapeake's Deal Island for the dead of winter!
Here I have a month-long residency/retreat at the John Cage Memorial Park in Chance MD ... it's quiet & remote. I'm looking forward to wintery sunsets overlooking the bay.
I am currently running a fundraising campaign entitled "BOOKS GEAR & TRAVEL" - which is quite self-explanatory!
THANK YOU so much to those who have already contributed ..... this letter serves to inform you a bit as to what your donations are going towards.
If you would like to know more - HERE IS THE LINK:
https://www.gofundme.com/booksgeartravel
Thank you for spending the time to read this & catch up with me.
Please do get in touch & keep me posted on YOU!
Look forward to hearing from you.
Warmest wishes for cold winter days (unless you're near the equator or "down under"- in which case - Happy sunshine!)
Claire*
