In Sept/Oct 2013 I curated a project at Blickling Hall, a National Trust property near Aylsham in Norfolk. The participating artists, including myself, researched the proper and made new work for the gallery at Blickling in response to it’s history, architecture, grounds and gardens etc. I focused on the lives and routines of the servants, prompted by a photograph of the punishment room, an 8ft square room entered from the roof of the house and used to imprison those who had committed some misdemeanour. Large estates became small worlds apart, responsible for the welfare, often education, moral development and meting out justice to their employees.
I panelled part of the gallery with appropriate wallpaper and installed elastic so that during the exhibition I ‘lived’ within this constraining environment. The first Tea Break film was shown on a min-ipad.
One day was spent with Darren, working on different ideas for Tea Break and filming.
Over the summer, 2013, we were able to get together in the studio several times, installing more elastic and trying out different ideas for movement and scenarios for everyday tasks.
We also tested different times of day for filming, the use of artificial and natural lighting.
In May 2013 Darren and I started to explore the potential for working in the elastic web, installed in my new studio space. It took a while for Darren to get used to what is possible within the constraints of the elastic and early sessions tested movement, different clothes – light and dark – and different positions for the camera, portrait and landscape.
We also tried out Darren’s idea to pursue everyday activities in the space.
It was clear that we needed a lot more elastic, particularly to come right into the foreground, to fill the space and floor.
The photograph bottom right of a naked man in a cardboard box is an image a kept years ago, from a project that this man started when he developed Parkinson’s disease.
Whenever possible I take the opportunity to show people my work in order to gauge responses and find out to what extent I am communicating what I intend. One response to Unentitled (moving in a confining box) was:
“the spotted top creates an element of the clownesque while the sandals have connotations of religion. Your self is represented as a symbol for others in society, for humanity and the human condition. It makes me think about Sartre and also the task of Sisyphus.”
Another viewer found the film very uncomfortable to watch and commented that it made her think of being in a coffin.
Talking to a group of art therapists and counsellors opened up interesting connections:
“There is a tension between the form and emotion. Sometimes you seem to be getting the measure of the space and at other times getting almost angry and trying to get out. At other times it is quite balletic.”
This person referred to the concept of ‘authentic movement’ which is believed to be therapeutic. This is defined as ‘An expressive improvisational movement practice that allows a group of participants a type of free association of the body. Started by Mary Starks Whitehouse in the 1950s as ‘movement in depth’. She trained as a psychotherapist and upon incorporating dance and movement into her sessions with psychiatric patients began pioneering expressive movement as ‘dance movement therapy’.
The movement became what Starks Whitehouse called ‘authentic’ when it could be recognised as genuine, belonging to that person, e.g. ‘when he individual is able to allow their intuitive impulses to freely express themselves without intellectual directive, as opposed to movement initiated by conscious decision making.’
Also referred to R.D. Laing and his work on mental illness. Laing argued that ‘individuals can often be put in impossible situations (by family or through society) where they are unable to conform to the conflicting expectations of their peers, leading to a lose-lose situation and immense mental distress for the individuals concerned.’
Another strand of Laing’s thinking, traceable to Marx and Sartre, condemns society for shackling humankind against it’s will, taking away individual freedom.
