Performance #8

Girl in Suitcase

20 June 2014

At Hampstead School of Art, London.

For this show at Hampstead School of Art, I was accompanied by The Next Room ensemble, playing live on violin, viola, cello and percussion. I was also joined in some scenes by fellow model, performance poet and artist, Ursula Troche.

The performance explored the relationship between artist and model, and the model’s transition from object to subject. What do you want to say when you find your voice? What is the story that needs to be told?

Women’s relationships with themselves and their bodies were foregrounded, as well as the way we look at them and ourselves.

I sought to use the life drawing scenario as a means of challenging the way women are objectified; the model takes over, imaginatively swapping roles with the tutor, so finally she directs both her own poses and the artists (the audience) too.

Members of the audience were invited to draw some scenes, whether or not they had previous experience. Many of us are taught we ‘cannot draw’, but this myth is debunked. The audience was encouraged to discard such inhibiting conditioning; not just drawing a body, but listening to the characters’ stories at the same time.

Culturally we are bombarded with images of nude or semi-nude younger women. The older female body and voice have been hidden from view, made invisible. This show celebrates that figure and her powerful story.