AiR Artists
2011
Mona Oren, Ellis Hutch ,and Helen Michaelsen
v.o.i.d project #2 (2011)
January 2011... one year later... still challenged by the essence of the outside 'what does it mean to act, to act out or to perform a series of actions with actions being deliberate and of individual significance, relevance, and urgency'?
Hence v.o.i.d #02 continues to explore this essence at Mae Kuang Dam (เขื่อนแม่กวง), this time focusing on the fluid element of the water with 3 individual approaches.
Breathe by Ellis Hutch, a floating net on the water surface... becoming one with the rhythm of the water... protruding and receding. Like a trap the net becomes heavier and gradually starts to sink, with the vital signs of breathing subside swallowed by the density of the water.
ดอกรัก/love flower by Mona Oren starts at the roundhouse, 10.000 flowers are being needled to become a web of fragile existence. It is there where for the first time the love flower web evokes the illusion of existence, “reflecting” the circular roof structure of the roundhouse, imaginary and real. Transformation... the existence of the love flower web altered forever once released into the water of the dam, choosing to become this strong physical form of white light and noise. Refusing to be subdued by the power of the water, the love flowers discover their strength in dense unity and free floating form. Using the water as a mirrored stage, they totally immerse with their own reflection, traversing between reality and illusion.
กลับบ้าน/homecoming by Helen Michaelsen is Shiva's return journey home, her final journey. A tribute to the epitome of free spirit... ชีวิตชีวา, the metaphor of life and energy. White soft hair is felt, touched and caressed. A gentle intimate gesture, repeated again and again, prolonging the inevitable. The touch activates memories of softness, of smell inscribed forever in my senses and into the skin of my palms, my hands, my fingertips. Her hair parts from my hands, releasing it to the air from where it continues its journey to the water. Floating past for a final salute, letting go by setting free... her hair regroups in bundles, weightlessly traveling the surface like clouds sailing the sky. Departing.. once more displaying her silent power through fragile reflections in the water until slowly drifting away into the open space of the dam... becoming one with the fluid flow of the water.
* Text by Helen Michaelsen, February 2011
* Photos by the v.o.i.d team
2010
v.o.i.d project #01 (2010)
Dreamt up as voluntary, ongoing, internal, displacement or v.o.i.d, the dictionary definition of the word void refers to emptiness, space, the cancellation of something and of emptying out. But what does it mean to approach the void, to enter it, to embrace it, to make it?
Void and as such the v.o.i.d project #01 becomes a space of possibilities. Stepping into the void, into the unknown, decisions are made to push personal boundaries and to step outside familiar comfort zones. Exposed to a vast external space, layers of internal spaces unfold with directions, both new and previously explored.
The chosen site, Mae Kuang Dam (เขื่อนแม่กวง), is a manmade environment evoking to be pristine. The 3 performance locations at the dam - an irrigation canal, a hillside wall reinforced with concrete, and a maintenance road on top of the dam - initially intrigue and challenge us. Then they intuitively guide us in mapping out our performances in response and as continuous interaction to those spaces and their dominant site-specific elements of water, height (air), and ground (earth). As a result they are temporarily transformed into v.o.i.d spaces each with a quiet, steady pulse following their own rhythm.
Fluid, vertical, horizontal, rough, rugged, uneven surfaces that initially resist demand endurance and reward us with powerful force once embraced in the process. Through our mental and physical interaction with the site, we, the performers, become the interface accessing "our" spaces. As a way of becoming at home we are engaging mentally, emotionally, and physically with our individual bodies in continuous movement. Not only do we situate ourselves in the space but form a contingent connection to the space, embodying the v.o.i.d.
What might seem to be ordinary actions, lifting and letting go, moving through pre-determined forms, and writing, traversing a surface back and forwards, are in fact highly charged, personalized actions visible in moments of tension, instability, imperfection and translated into temporary yet continuous movements. A flower garland grows until it disappears into the distance, Tai Chi forms flow over the rough uneven surface of a little used road in a vast landscape, the transcription of a dictionary definition becomes a physically grueling process.
The essence of the v.o.i.d project#01 yet remains what does it mean to act, to act out or to perform a series of actions with actions being deliberate and of individual significance, relevance, and urgency?