Performative Fragments

This week's workshop was all about starting to develop short performative fragments to represent the progress of our project so far.

I decided the split my performance time up into three one-minute performances -

The first fragment (seen above) is a piece consisting of me watching myself interacting with a reflected version of myself in the mirror. I am wearing the same clothes as in the video, which gives it multi-verse structure, and delves into the depth of the level of self-reflection and self-judgement that I want my project to explore.

It is performed to the song 'A Sky Full of Song' By Florence and the machine. This artist uses ethereal poetry and lyrics as a mechanism for exploring and empowering the female voice, and as a creator has been very influential in the components of my project.

The second fragment (seen above) is an original piece of spoken word that I perform here. I wanted the audience to question to origin of these words; whether they were mine or I was simply reciting them. The theme of the 'author' and who's words get to be heard is a concept I want to explore in my project deeply.

The piece you hear can be read below -

"When it comes down to it, I’m here out of fear. 
The fear that no one else will try and reclaim these voices, 
when everyone acts like it’s a life full of choices, we stop seeing that we lost the right to choose the day we decided to be ourselves. 
Just because there’s not a physical gag on your mouth doesn’t mean that everything is not being dictated, decided for you, placing you in a world you once hated. 
I’m not saying that I can change everything, 
turn everyone from right to left wing, 
all I can do is make jokes and sing, 
but if I can make even one man think a bit harder, 
put him in the shoes of all the women I am proud to have standing beside me, 
it will all be worth the journeying"

The third fragment (seen above) is a visual, written timeline of all the women in my younger teen years up to present day that have inspired and influenced me. This applies in a creative context, in admiration, and regarding the discovery of my sexuality.

After performing these fragments, we proceeded to receive and give feedback around these pieces to our mentor groups. Examples of feedback I received can be seen below -