Where to start?
I think should start where the last project left off, Mud Circles. This project was made with the thinking that it would either act as sort of trailblazer to The Mudhead Dance, or as I now think, a dream sequence of sorts to be woven in the The Mudhead Dance film. In the months after The Booger Dance I started to think further about costumes and props being the determiniate force in new performances. I really liked how all the shamanistic costumes in The Booger Dance enforced a particular way of moving. It might seem obvious to you reading this, and now it does to me, but at the time the impact a costume has on a performers ability to move was something I didn't really consider. It wasn't until the last days of finishing off costumes that it began to dawn on me just how hard it would be walk, let alone dance in some of the Booger Costumes.
I wanted to make masks which had something monstrous yet undefined about them. I had been looking into salt dough as a cheap medium with a fairly unique flesh like sculptural quality. I wasn't exactly sure how to make masks using dough so I set about making the most rudimentary papier mache bucket heads as a starting point. After a couple of experiments with salt dough and some food dye from Asda I was fairly confident I could scale up my dough making operation and settled on a goal of 20 masks. I soon realised that Asda alone couldn't supply all the food dye I need, especially as I was using a predominate mixture of reds and pinks and getting through 10 bottles per mask. So I shopped about and bought some powdered food dye from somewhere in the Ukraine on Ebay. This all started well enough, until I found out the dye I was mixing into the salt dough with my feet had caused an alergic reaction resulting in a head to toe rash. Nice.
So, eventually I finished up my 20 masks (without eye holes, something I forgot to mention) and began planning something to do with them. What to do, I thought? Well as masks go these were pretty impractical. Heavy and impossible to see out of, apart from your feet that is. With this impaired vision in mind I planned a very simple performance for camera in which a group of people would slowly walk in circles, enacting something like a performed cave painting. Having recently made a series of very elaborate over the top costumes I wanted to go in the complete opposite direction and have my performers totally naked. I had an image in my mind of a sort of moving painting, filmed from multiple angles, constantly revolving, but never getting anywhere.
I think should start where the last project left off, Mud Circles. This project was made with the thinking that it would either act as sort of trailblazer to The Mudhead Dance, or as I now think, a dream sequence of sorts to be woven in the The Mudhead Dance film. In the months after The Booger Dance I started to think further about costumes and props being the determiniate force in new performances. I really liked how all the shamanistic costumes in The Booger Dance enforced a particular way of moving. It might seem obvious to you reading this, and now it does to me, but at the time the impact a costume has on a performers ability to move was something I didn't really consider. It wasn't until the last days of finishing off costumes that it began to dawn on me just how hard it would be walk, let alone dance in some of the Booger Costumes.
Perhaps it says something about my organisational skills that the performers didnt actually see the costumes until the day of the shoot itself. Such seems to be the nature of my arts council grants. I plan and plan and plan, dont think I'm gonna get the money so dont commit to making all the costumes apart from a few prototypes, then suddenly get the money and have to make everything in a very short space of time. The next result of this is costume fitting and dress rehearsals have thus far, been thin on the ground. Anyway, I digress. Apart from making a new work which I am kinda happy with, I finished The Booger Dance with a desire to make costumes first, not really knowing how they would be used, or who by, but just knowing there was something ritualistic woven into their fabric and I would only know what that ritual was once I had finished making them.
I wanted to make masks which had something monstrous yet undefined about them. I had been looking into salt dough as a cheap medium with a fairly unique flesh like sculptural quality. I wasn't exactly sure how to make masks using dough so I set about making the most rudimentary papier mache bucket heads as a starting point. After a couple of experiments with salt dough and some food dye from Asda I was fairly confident I could scale up my dough making operation and settled on a goal of 20 masks. I soon realised that Asda alone couldn't supply all the food dye I need, especially as I was using a predominate mixture of reds and pinks and getting through 10 bottles per mask. So I shopped about and bought some powdered food dye from somewhere in the Ukraine on Ebay. This all started well enough, until I found out the dye I was mixing into the salt dough with my feet had caused an alergic reaction resulting in a head to toe rash. Nice.
So, eventually I finished up my 20 masks (without eye holes, something I forgot to mention) and began planning something to do with them. What to do, I thought? Well as masks go these were pretty impractical. Heavy and impossible to see out of, apart from your feet that is. With this impaired vision in mind I planned a very simple performance for camera in which a group of people would slowly walk in circles, enacting something like a performed cave painting. Having recently made a series of very elaborate over the top costumes I wanted to go in the complete opposite direction and have my performers totally naked. I had an image in my mind of a sort of moving painting, filmed from multiple angles, constantly revolving, but never getting anywhere.
And so began my love affair with my naked performers. I had a feeling initially it would be difficult to find performers, especially as I wasn't able to pay anyone. I emailed everyone I knew and was pleased to get 4 or 5 with a day or so. Nice, but not the 20 I had made masks for. The days and weeks passed leading up the shoot which I had planned to take place in the exhinition hall at V22 Workspace. A good friend and life saver of mine called Steve Woods, works at the BBC as a camera technician. He kindly agreed to loan me a bunch of lights, along with a space heater I got from a friend and another (slightly shit one) from Ebay. The stage was set, albiet f'in freezing as it was Feb in a 25,000 sq ft 10 metre high brick room. It got until a week before hand and I was really shitting it by now as I only had about 6 or 7 performers, when I did a slightly cheeky thing and poached from someone else's (JocJohnJosh's) mailing list on account of them having just recently emailed me asking if I would be naked for them in a new work of theres. This turned out to be a genius move as I unwittingly tapped in the UK's nude scene.
Before I knew it I was knee deep in middle aged men desperate for another opportunity to take the clothes off in the name of art. Amazing is all I can say. What an incredible bunch of people. Commitment like nothing I have seen before. So generous, so, brave, funny and kind hearted. Working with them and the rest of my brave friends was such a privilege and something I will always hold close to my heart as a fond memory.
Before I knew it I was knee deep in middle aged men desperate for another opportunity to take the clothes off in the name of art. Amazing is all I can say. What an incredible bunch of people. Commitment like nothing I have seen before. So generous, so, brave, funny and kind hearted. Working with them and the rest of my brave friends was such a privilege and something I will always hold close to my heart as a fond memory.
I will leave it at that for the moment, but will just end by saying this turned out to the beginning of an incredible journey...
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