-A Metaphor. We, The Wanderers
A costume and a dance based on a poem, used as a metaphor about the rapid melt of our glaciers. As the dance goes on, a transformation will occur. The costume changes colour from white (symbolising snow) to a vivid blue (symbolising water) through the exposure of UV-light, to stop the exposure, the dancer must fully immerse themselves in water. This change will happen due to the fabric being coated in the photographic chemical called cyanotype. It is to be performed live by a dancer, who would also be an acting agent in how the chemical would work on the costume. Everything that happens, can only happen once. As when the chemical is developed the performance can never happen again, the costume is finished.
The dancer is a nomadic creature; the setting is a tragedy. The poem is a nomadic, dystopian story telling. Hopeful for the creatures, but not for human life.
The intent of the costume is to be part of a performance where all the actors involved has a power of their own to change and manipulate the outcome. I want it to be a collaboration, respecting their way of working. Whether it is the UV-strength of the sun, the chemical or the dancers' movements, who is impacted by the form and feel of costume itself. It is through the intra-actions of the different bodies that fully creates the performance. The dancer is forced to act and move in certain ways, from the poem and soundscape as well as the costume. The will of the chemical is manipulated by the sun that forces it to act as it responds to the UV and as well to the water. The sun would also decide the duration of the performance. The sun decides if one must dance for only two minutes or several hours. So, at the end of our journey, we all answer to the sun. Metaphorically and practically.
The costume tells a story, so simply just by being on a moving body. It has a sense of meaning, the underlying motif and metaphor becomes clear, without any words. It is just snow, drifting and reshaping. Sad but beautiful, until it all melts away.
I collaborated with the dancer and choreographer Yaniv Cohen who made the choreography and musician Eliah Lillis who composed a noise piece specifically for this performance.
Selected to perform at the Prague Quadrennial Festival in Czech Republic, Prague, Štvanice in June 2023.
Images and video from blackbox and Sognsvann Oslo by me and images from the PQ-Festival by Matyas Fritscher.
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We are Nomads, we live off the Snow.
As it melts, we lose our land.
We try to follow it, but we can’t keep up.
The Sun is getting stronger.
Warmer, burning.
It hurts our skin, stings our eyes.
The clothes melt on our skin
It’s melting underneath our feet.If we keep moving, dancing, we might escape.
But only for a while. The Sun always follows.
We, the Wanderers, no more.
I, the Wanderer. The Last One, melting.
Exhausted of the constant movement.
Soon I’ll be one with the Sea
Once more
The Water
Sun, melts Snow, Water, gone
