'Let me be Your Mother' is a performance piece which explores the relationship between mother and child in a very open and public context. The performance consists of the performer feeding their audience...
This idea was initially inspired by an image that was presented at my Italian Language class. It was part of an exercise that looked at the traditional and very much stereotypical role of the 'Mama'. This also questioned the role of the 'woman' and how they are depicted in current Italian society.
The idea for the Performance piece was to explore this intimate relationship between mother and child but within a more open context. It was when thinking of a simple way to question this emotional dependancy that made me think about the simple action of 'feeding the public'. The action of feeding is a very personal and maternal one; it is something that represents us at a time in our life when we were still incapable of feeding ourselves, so in a sense it depicts us as vulnerable beings...
In the performance piece, I envision myself kneeling on the floor and having a big pot of soup beside me. I will sit there welcoming my audience to come forward, almost like calling my children. In the room I will be positioned at a point or at the end of it, enabling my audience to face me and always approach me from the front. I feel that the positioning is importnat because it stages the roles in a very clear way and puts more of an exaggeration on the dualities of Mother/Child. I think that this piece could also relate slightly to the Catholic church at the point when the Preist feeds the people the body and blood of christ, which is also a very importnat role within Italian culture.
I think this could be a very interesting piece because it involves engaging with the audience, and therefore leaves a massive space in which to improvise with. The performance is also a response to my understanding of the culture here, and questions the role of the 'female'. This idea reveals a very much new viewpoint for me and in a sense the performance is an open dialogue, in which I will question this relationship.
-"The Invisible Market" ( Sound Installation)
Whilst I have been here in Milan, I have visited a lot of different markets. As well as all the weird and wonderful things you can find at them, I am very interested in the spaces that they are installed in...
So far most of them have taken place in old car parks and large urban spaces, that for most of their time are completely abandoned. So in a sense these spaces are brought to life through the presence of the market.
It was when thinking about this concept and looking at the relation to spaces and the events that take place within them, that made me want to look at this more as part of a project idea. I thought it could be interesting to record the market, bringing in a team of people to spread out and record different areas and spaces. This would then mean that when using the material there would be a diverse mixture of ambiences to work with.
The idea would be to go back to the market space with the recordings once it was empty and to set up a number of speakers and re-project the sounds of the market into the space. The market would now be invisible, it would just be the sounds of movement and interaction, but would the fact that the sounds were being re-projected into the same space make it feel more real, or would it be disorientating?
This sound installation piece is interesting because it is very much site specific, yet it could be re-projected into loads of different spaces, as a way to present a 3D virtual sound environment. I really like the idea of taking sounds from one space and re-projecting them into another, then creating a new space.
-"Coriandoli" (Spacial Installation)
Everywhere you go in Milan there is Coriandoli. Coriandoli is little pieces of colourful paper (a bit like confetti) that have been spread and thrown about through out the city. It's presence completely takes over the space, leaving trails of carnivals, parties and other festive celebrations. I think it is really spectacular how the Cariandoli has manifested itself right through out the whole city, it's shear mass is extraordinary. What I feel Coriandoli has done through out Milan, is helped all the streets and neighbourhoods connect into one big space. If you go anywhere you will find it, so it is a pretty powerful manifestation, yet very subtle and playful.
I am interested in the Coriandoli from a Public Intervention point of view. I think it could be very interesting to present it in a gallery space, or maybe as part of a massive spacial installation that is covered with it. It is such a fundamental part of the Milan landscape, so it is definitely something I want to experiment with...
This Cariandoli project is an idea that I definitely need to explore and work out how I want it to transcend back into my work. I still don't know exactly how I want to use it, but maybe it could even be a project that I take back with me to Dundee and try to create a public intervention there?...
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