The following text is an excerpt from the performance score for my Aug, 23 2014 work, Five Silent Structures.
1. How do our daily rituals activate a building?
2. What is lost when a space is constrained?
3. How does a structure (a home, a shelter, a refuge) transform our bodies.
4. How do our bodies and the spaces we inhabit break silence?
The body is: building. structure. flesh. waiting. being. past. future
The building is: body. structure. canopy. awaiting. being. history. tomorrow
The body is a building. A building is a body.
We are extensions of the buildings we inhabit, the places we know through repetition and time. Through our daily lives we enact the process of being with these spaces. Through this performance we will enact the process of being with these spaces attentively. The Fort Lawton structures are restricted, vacant, and empty. They contain histories of use but are now silently observing the world, patient and overlooked by most. Create silent spaces in yourself that mirror the spaces within these buildings. Stand with them as you might stand with a dear friend experiencing deep struggle, a family member undergoing incarceration, or a loved one incarcerated: constrained by limitations that prevent them from enacting their basic humanity. Become observant, patient, perceptive, generous, and open.
HISTORY: Fort Lawton is a place of watch. To be of watch over the sea. To protect. To guide. A community which shares a single mission.
AIMS: Listen. Observe
PROMPTS:
-Move in straight lines
-Stop, slow. Turn. Always use intentional rotation
-Non-striving
-Eyes slightly downward OR on the structure
-With each turn, minimum 30 seconds still. Only head and eyes shift, slightly and intentionally
-Once a parallel begins, must move the entire duration of a structure. Keeping distance between the same at all moments
-Only look up/ at structure when facing it with your shoulders and heart
-Enter a door at an exact 90 degree angle. Be present with it, silent and non-moving for at least 30 seconds. Touch optional.
-Must leave building after approach?
-Be as a rolling video camera is: attentively and without judgement. Yet, have the investment of someone who knows each structure as a builder might, or a parent who birthed this structure and cares for it like a child.