THE CREATIVE PROCESS

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THE PERFORMANCE PROCESS

As an artist, it is vital I have no preconception or expectation around what might emerge in response to the essential question (or quest) of the piece. We are interested in listening closely to the intelligence of grief itself as a natural force in order to understand it better, rather than looking for any kind of familiar human interpretation. Curiosity is key, along with working from a starting place of humility and not knowing. The performance process respects the natural world's incredible intelligence, and must travel through sustained contact with the land and all natural forces of that time to see what reflections arise. In time, choreography is drawn directly through and out of the sensate dialogue between human and earth, and over time, a story, unique unto itself, will form. This is the entire point of this work. It is an act of translation. During this phase poetics are written, the spoken word becomes another form of translation.  It is a long, patient process.

FILMING 

As the attention of the performer has to be complete and unwavering for hours at a time, the most effective way to film is on a single camera, through a still frame and solo. Camera crew are brought in for detail at a later stage. In this way, the entire creation of A PECULIAR SHADE OF BLUE was designed to be Covid-proof, as lockdowns did not affect progress and production continued - come what may. 

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DEEP TIME + SLOW CINEMA

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DEEP TIME

If we are to truly observe, in fine detail, the nuanced relationship between human and earth, and within that - how the passage of grief unfolds in an unobstructed way - it is necessary to find a way to travel our audience into those worlds. Deep time is the passage of time that lives outside of ordinary human awareness. We come away from the frenetic tempo of daily life, to immerse ourselves in the long, slow rhythms of geological time, and in doing so, open out an entirely unique perspective. Allowing ourselves to enter deep time, allows us to step inside and experience this world, and yet - it is still our world. Here we bear witness to the human form in this context, and in turn - it evokes the question - who and what are we really? What reflections might we see?

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SLOW CINEMA

As we travel into deep time, we, as humans, must adapt to follow its rhythms. Watching through the lens of SLOW CINEMA gives to this process. To stay close, we need to drop out of fast moving cinema - and simply watch through the steady and patient gaze of a still frame. Slow cinema sees in a different way. Simple and uncluttered, it heightens detail inside natural dialogue which we might ordinarily miss, speaking to us through us a language that is innate.