Yr.2 MA Contemporary Arts Practice 2023-24

FRAMING STATEMENT This year has been fantastic experience. Initially I felt that it has whizzed by but when I

consider the work I have made I am surprised by my achievements. I have experimented

with drawing, sound, walking performances and a collaboration, devising performances

which culminated the year.

I find it interesting to see how each work has informed other pieces of work. The writing

tasks and seminars have been very inspirational and have certainly broadened my areas

of research.

The first part of the year was spent exploring ways of mark making and drawing with

Martin Brooks and I produced several drawings. I found that I enjoyed working with

graphite and charcoal making drawings that had a physicality and durational quality.

Repetition and simple lines was a strategy to create visual palimpsest drawings that

invoked a sense of movement and a visual ambiguity.

Early on in the year I had an idea for a performance ‘A Dystopian Walk’ that involved

performers moving round in a circle. I struggled with how to resolve the location and

realisation of this. Until, I decided to move the idea on from the note book to something

more real. I set about making walks with purpose. The first was the Circle Walk on

Bigbury beach, drawing a circle with my footprints on the sand. Others followed; in

Woodford, Paris, Aveton Gifford and Plymouth. It was the spur I needed to get going with

performances. I continued with these collecting images and sound as I made them,

notably the Electro Magnetic Sounds from in and around Plymouth City Centre with a

microphone lent to me by Robin from the Hub.

Collecting images and sound, minute films and sound clips has been an interest for some

time. I have developed this, recording sounds from some of my walking actions when it

seemed appropriate. I have experimented with mixing these sounds together colliding

recordings from different times made with a variety of recording devises and played back

on various devices. I would like to explore this more, composing soundscapes that could

accompany physical performances.

I attended a very enjoyable workshop with Edens Cave which explored means of

developing movement through playful exercises facilitated by the company members. It

was great. I was introduced to DY a PhD student. We subsequently decided to make

some work together. I invited a number of people to come along to a session to start

working on realising ‘A Dystopian Walk’. DY was the only person who came along so we

started working on a performance. I was keen to devise a performance through an equal

partnership as I outlined in my ‘performance manifesto’. We met 11 times for devising

sessions over nearly 3 months. We were invited to enter the performance into MAYFEST

2024. So we worked towards that. It was a fantastic experience, each contributing. We

choreographed ‘no beginning no end’ as a multi media performance. The opportunity to

work with the organisers of this festival and the technicians was inspiring and enabled us

to work on the performance with greater ambition. We were able to xperiment with

lighting and projection video. I learnt a lot and would like to do more of this. We were

very happy with the outcome and the feedback from everyone has been very positive.

I think that I have achieved some meaningful work this year and I certainly feel that I have

expanded and deepened my practice.

I am currently working with Adiana Bannari on her new work ‘Entanglements’. She will

be presenting this later this month in Dartington Woods. She is working towards a piece

of work that is situated between performance art and theatre.

I will continue with opportunities to collaborate during the next year and I have been

invited to show at the October SOAK event in Plymouth.

I have recently met with Matt Ward from Plymouth City Council who showed me some

available empty spaces in the city centre. I am considering site specific performances,

possibly making some work in empty shop or office spaces. He has indicated that The

Civic Centre could be available after this summer, which could be an interesting site.