A Body Without Its Flesh is an ongoing research project that evolved from my interest in dance performances and the realization that the errors that occur during the rehearsals in a dance class are often more interesting than the eventual performance.
After the project’s initial output (the 2020 performance Copy and Paste as well as some sculptural works) my research into the non-harmonic chords and errors shifted to related themes such as discipline, power relations, hierarchy, religion, and cleansing resulting in a new performance.
Research has been shown at:
P////AKT Amsterdam
Artez Finals
Het HEM
Hotel Maria Kapel
Performance Copy and paste
Within the performance and video work “copy and paste” i invite people from the public to enter the installation and take on the role of the teacher in front of a class of four ‘students’. In front of the class the assistant of the teacher helps people from the audience to to
recite from a scripted text. The text refers to dogma’s around art and has been run through Google Translate multiple times, causing errors that needs to be negotiated while reading it out loud. During the performance, both scripted and unscripted mistakes are made. Every time someone makes a ‘mistake’, the teacher’s assistant cleans up the person who made the mistake. In this way, a process is created in which all the participants in the room: audience, performers and artists have an influence on what is labeled as ‘fault’.
recite from a scripted text. The text refers to dogma’s around art and has been run through Google Translate multiple times, causing errors that needs to be negotiated while reading it out loud. During the performance, both scripted and unscripted mistakes are made. Every time someone makes a ‘mistake’, the teacher’s assistant cleans up the person who made the mistake. In this way, a process is created in which all the participants in the room: audience, performers and artists have an influence on what is labeled as ‘fault’.
By taking inspiration from the quintessential spaces for education, control and discipline, i try to flesh out a space that is familiar yet reminds us of those situations of subjection. The heightened awareness in this space, further amplified by a large ballet class like mirrored wall in the middle of the space, all windows covered with vaseline, a steel mortuary table and a series of morphic sculptures that occupy the space as silent spectators, confronts the visitors with what is left of us after endless loops of cleaning.
In Copy and Paste I perform the role of the teacher assistant, helping the audience member perform their role “correctly” by giving instructions such as how to say lines or how to stand. In this manner, my role functions as that of a hidden authority figure. Similarly to an automatic spelling corrector installed on your computer, these authority figures are often less visible than a teacher in a classroom, but interfere a lot with our sense of right and wrong. My role in this setting is to almost become what people colloquially refer to as “the system”.
Performers:
Halla Einarsdóttir
Ewan Mcsorley
Victor Crepsley
Kleopatra Vorria
Benjamin Francis
Halla Einarsdóttir
Ewan Mcsorley
Victor Crepsley
Kleopatra Vorria
Benjamin Francis
Production:
Ewan Mcsorley
Emiel Zeno
Ewan Mcsorley
Emiel Zeno
Film:
Sasha Kulak & Ossip Blits
Sasha Kulak & Ossip Blits
Send me an email to see the video of this project
Installation: Clean window
For the installation I placed vaseline on all of the windows, which connects to the gothic style of the building and the pattern being used alongside the vaseline iIs the pattern of a clover. Which is paradoxical in nature
because of the fact that it is anomaly when we encounter it in nature. And yet it was used as a symbol for perfection in the
medieval times
because of the fact that it is anomaly when we encounter it in nature. And yet it was used as a symbol for perfection in the
medieval times
Prop:Docters Jacket
During the performance “A body without it’s flesh” this jacket is worn. The jacket is made from the mold of “deconstructed lecture table, the mold has been cut apart into patterns and made into a doctor’s coat that is worn by the best student in the class when he takes over the position of the teacher
PROP:DECONSTRUCTED LECTURE TABLE
The work “Deconstructed Lecture table” refers to the stainless steel tables used in autopsy rooms. These tables are normally used to dissect bodies verbally and physically for the purpose of sharing knowledge.
On the morgue bed there is an object that is close to the representation of a carcass as it is close to the proportions of a human, an object in which decay does not emphasize the literal process of decay, but rather the forms of recyclable ventilation shafts and old computer screens. A repetition takes place in the literal imprint of the recyclable ready-made, the idea of making molds, the ventilation shafts, as in the concept of a classroom. A space in wherin its structures are based on the external structures . “The classroom is the space where repetition, imitation and error play a major role”.
Note
During the performance of a body without it’s flesh, people from the audience are asked to stand in front of this table and recite a lesson.
During the performance of a body without it’s flesh, people from the audience are asked to stand in front of this table and recite a lesson.
Forever becoming:
The work “Forever becoming” presented in the chapel, is a pastiche based on classical art academy like statuates. In the work, we see a body of a male torso, tubes and metal pipes smeared with latex, which gives them an overgrown, bone-like or beehive-like appearance. It places the body between decay and eternal transition.
