What does a performance artist do in the studio?
I’m in week two of my current open studio show with artist Ruby Chew, The Painter and The Performance Artist. It has been made obvious working alongside each other that our studio practise, particularly the way we begin tackling a new experiment, concept or provocation is wildly different. Ruby’s process based practise gets her starting making straight away, but for me as a performance artist, I begin with a lot of thinking, musing and writing.. speckled with bursts of research to validate a line of thought or to know not to chase it.
So with this difference in mind as an interesting collaborative lesson, I thought I’d elaborate on what exactly my studio process looks like:
thinking: about the initial provocation/theme/emotional state
Writing: mostly journal style, stream of consciousness
Mind mapping: making sense of disparate thoughts, mapping to discover connections. List making.
Observing: how I am responding, others around me, the outside world, static objects, thoughts
Imagining: playing out actions in my mind, performance possibilities - imagining without budget or material restraints, thinking as big as I possibly can
sketching: the body in compositions, shapes and actions. Materials and interactions.
Testing actions: with the body, time or other materials in space
Making object and material experiments, testing them with the body
Considering the viewer and participant: what is the experience and why, what are the atmospheric and sensory aspects, what is the power dynamic, what is being asked/expected, is there room for spontaneity, is it safe, what is the location and medium affect.
Considering the body in ‘relation’ I.e in relation to: space, other bodies, objects, time, edges (finite areas that contain all or some of the prev. mentioned things)
considering the work in relation to my practise as a whole
Researching: books, online, interviews
Documenting: instax film, video, digital photos.
Speaking: to others about ideas with criticality in mind, initial emotional responses to the idea, dialogue about the social/economic time the new work could exist in and in effect, be in dialogue with
Reading. So much reading. Usually not about specific concept ideas but greater topics such as participatory practise, art-life cross over and social relations.
Conceptualising: ensuring every element has a deeply important reason to be there.
Rationalising
Practising methods of preparation: I.e endurance methods
Refining: stripping back, dialogue with others about what can be omitted, focused process that takes stock of every element to think it through again and again.
Collaborating: on so many elements! Or collaborating to play, to experiment, to shift perspective.
Drinking coffee like it’s water
And
a surprising amount of arts admin 👩💼 (day to day planning, emailing, social media, scheduling, marketing strategy, meetings, writing grants and applications, art business finance, artwork archiving and record keeping, collector and network love and nurturing of relationships, website maintenance, e-commerce and future planning.. and much more.)
I’m doing all these things at @themilladelaide for the April 2021 open-studio show: ‘The Painter and The Performance Artist’ with @rubychewart. Come on in for a visit now until April 30 - I have coffee! Monday to Friday 10-4pm - or connect with us on Instagram if you’re not in Adelaide. So happy to share my process and experience with you.
Ida X
