Title: Sidney Nolan’s Frames
Medium: Performance
Size: Variable
Duration: 10 min
Date: 2017
Description
During a recent residency at the Sidney Nolan Trust I worked with a series of frames to develop a performance that explored edges, divisions and borders. I placed the frames in an asymmetrical pattern on the floor so that some of them overlapped and some. During the performance I move along the edges of the frames, my feet touching the wooden rectangles. My body uses them differently, instead of containing a picture within; it questioned the sharpness and smoothness of their limits. I move along the pattern straddling, moving in between, following the rectangular shapes, and stepping across from one entity to another. The performance ends as I awkwardly step into a very small frame trying to hold my balance.
Reflection
This work is using a series of old frames destined to explore ideas of edges, divisions, and borders. In this piece of work my performativity is an act of memory that questions hard edges and institutional frames. As I move along the limits of the frames my body blur the clear divisions. In this piece of work I explore how it is possible to make a performative gesture that bridge two entitles. As I am making this straddling gesture I am reflecting on how I embody a metaphorical division. I embody neither and both; my body is anchoring into multiple embodied cultural customs. As I move along the edges of frames my body is question their limits.