I mentioned in my last post that I attended an art workshop last week. It was something else ( my dad uses that phrase a lot, so I like it). I have only been to a few art workshops in my lifetime but not one based on performance art. The whole workshop theme was kind of secretive so no one had any idea what to expect.
When I got there I saw yoga mats all laid out across the floor, I was pretty excited because I do love yoga but this was not what I was expecting. We were told to lay on the mat and relax ( I can’t do that, due to my back and hip problems it is SO uncomfortable to lay on my back) so this was a struggle for me. While we laid there, a woman had some loops of noises playing in the background and a few instrumental sounds while she led a meditation.
She repeAted ” you are here” many times throughout and after attending a seperate meditation class last week, that seems to be a common theme of meditation. To relate your body and the self to where you are now, how you feel now, and knowing that everything else besides the self is temporary.
Afterwards, we used earbies to record what we remembered from the spoken meditation, and we played the recordings back while sitting in a small huddled circle. This was really too close for comfort.
Focusing on the theme of sounds and nature, we proceeded outside to try to capture all that we heard and felt.
Here is the artist of this earbie performance art:
And here’s me, a little disconnected..
There’s my boots! ^^^^
Okay the last exercise we did was SO cool. So we split up into groups and recorded a scenario into the earbies. Another group would sit with their eyes closed on the floor while the group played the scenario for them. While my group sat on the ground, another group had a slow progression of the jungle into the night. So that means there were monkeys and jaguars and danger. All noises made by mouth or organic things and I was honestly squirming, I felt like a jaguar was right next to my ear about to bite!
Overall, it really opened my eyes to the idea of performance art. So often I have been at the contemporary arts museum in Houston and seen videos of performance art and not understood it or appreciated it, but this workshop really changed my view.
I don’t have a lot else going on this week, but Friday we set out for New Orleans!! And we cannot wait!
—Jacqueline
republic downthirtyfive 