This work came about as a direct result of the lockdown.I was originally going to be opening my solo exhibition in the Heart of the Tribe gallery on the 1st of Feb till the 23rd Feb and the title of the show is Where do we go from here?
Because of lockdown the exhibition was postponed but I still wanted to be present through those 23 days in some way. In preparation for my exhibition I had already started to try and answer my title question with an initial response, that through the ‘act of empathy’, we could move forward together. So I decided I would make that a concrete act and create 20 live events / performances each day at midday about trying to put myself in other people’s shoes. I then sent out invitations to the public to send me their favourite or most important shoes with a short explanation and a relevant sound track. I was amazed when over 20 people responded some I knew but many I did not. There was no choosing process, I excepted everyone.
I have worked with other peoples shoes before as a physical actress to help create characters. And I have spent my career learning many different dance forms and developing material through responding to text and music. With this project I started with the idea of being a conduit for the shoes, almost as if I was a vessel that allowed them to speak.
Creating work for a live feed was something I have never done before. Working for 3 camera’s and not a live audience was fascinating. Each dance had to make sense for all camera’s particularly the film camera, and all my focus and attention had to be in that filmed space and not on a live audience as I was used to. Visit heartofthetribe.com for more information.
