Take a step behind the scenes and read about the Process and Journey that created one of my most recent Series' 'All Eyes on Me', 2021, revealing how I developed each component of the project and ideation behind the pieces....
Where it all began...
I began with a videos of myself moving, which I then edited with filters and mirrored effects, as they give and illusion of multiple bodies from a single one. Reasons for this is because I came into this project with the intention of working with other people to capture the fusion and reactions of multiple bodies in one space, but working within a lockdown meant that I needed to find other ways to achieve this. The use of the filters added this for me, making the bodies look as though they were merging together ,and alienating them to appear as though the growing limbs and dual heads. I liked the dynamic energy that was offered by them, how intriguing and mesmerising they where, yet so weird and almost disturbing in the same way.
If you've checked out my Instagram, you will see that I repeated this process with different body parts...
So the shapes created by the combination of the filters and the moving body, came out quite obscure.
Repeated shapes is something you often seen in movement combinations and routines and with this pattern that was created, I wanted to use to decorate walls and interiors with - Having the audacity to put myself all over the wall like I was some sort of icon.
I made wallpapers from the repeated shapes which I plastered all over the wall and filled a wardrobe with. I then took even more photos of myself in front of that wallpaper, or with it painted or projected onto my body. I came to understand the work from a place of vanity and insecurity, as the project was really self centred and everything made was made in my image. For example, the series, ‘All Eyes on Me, that shape created by the filter in the movement videos looked exactly like a cat eye (or the Eye of Saruman if any of you have watched lord of the rings.) So by surrounding myself with them or by covering my body in them… it quite literally was like 'All eyes on me’'...
By painting and projecting it onto myself, it was like I was adding another skin to the body, hiding behind the filter/projection by becoming part of it.
There's a level of closeness and confinement with the wardrobe - being limited by myself and my own insecurity but also being limited as dancer in terms of space...
As you can see, the steps I take throughout the project from the creation of one idea to another is quite clear. The next piece is like a build on from the previous, taking it that step further, or like a side-step, where I’ve used some aspects but done it slightly differently.
Let me know what you think!
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