This is the first post for our new website and, most likely, the last post of 2018…
Over the last 18 months I was fortunate enough to be one of Metal’s Changemaker Artists and as part of this I had the opportunity to collaborate with fellow Changemaker Artist Hamish MacPherson and dance artist Andrew Graham.
This piece was written in response to my research enquiry into themes of ‘Holding’ after periods of working with both Andrew and Hamish. It was included in a zine produced by Metal as part of ‘Spaces Between’ (September 2018).
Holding
Between parameters.
Parameters
For two different partnerships;
Asking different questions.
The male and the female; disabled and non-disabled;
Juxtaposition, together;
What's obvious and what’s assumed?
Builds aside, different physicalities -
Allowing us to question,
What do we expect to see and why?
Care
Unspoken, yet interlaced;
Or made obvious?
Questioning ourselves,
Myself - what it feels like when...
Is there control, vulnerability?
Can we see beyond that and does it matter?
What do we want you to see?
Vulnerability, can be beautiful, no?
Does that still apply in this context?
Inbuilt and perhaps, previously unconscious associations that we are asking you to bat away...
Eyes, eyes
Skin
Eyes closed.
Heads meet
In conversation. One finishes the other’s sentence versus a ‘response’.
Looking for eyes;
Between
And during holds.
Testing
How far
To fall.
Hold tight!
Following instincts, desires;
Dangling legs,
Tipping over
A table;
Tipping the balance.
Provocation, provocateur...
And with which partnership?
Which role?
Seeing what our imagination makes us look like;
Imagination meets anatomy;
Bizarre personification
Muscles of lipstick
Eyeliner for the nerves
And red glitter for..? A sparkly kind of blood?
Wait.
Laughter, push, wrap, lift
Underneath, grip, place, pull and shift along;
Echo, landing weight,
Wait.
Who is it?
Framed;
Held there.