A Situation in which the Void becomes Obsessive

Where Are You Now?

2011-12-02T19:32:00.000-08:00

Start confined and in my invisible integument

Photo by Joshua Cazoe

After I returned I continued the series started in Berlin Why Did You Go So Far?
with Where Are You Now? I performed as part of the CoCo (Contemporary Choreographers Collective) Festival at the Little Carib Theater.

This series works out of memory almost as a kind of reenactment, the decision to repeat it is to dialogue with myself and hopefully take it out of myself as a kind of burden worn like second skin. This makes memory into ritual.

The actions were minimalist to get to a very raw aspect of the memory. I start obscured by darkness, crouched and contorted on myself underneath the chair and very close to the audience off stage. As the music starts slowly I start to move, at first I am swaying back and forth, then the urgency to escape starts to rise within me and I need to break free even though I am not behind any actual bars. It is as though I am confined to an invisible barrier and I use my body in ways to make the most of my limited space. Eventually in my absurd struggle I make it on the chair and from that height it becomes easier to crawl onto the stage. Once I have made it to that distance I am not free, the more I try to rise and stand is the more I fall. But with enough practice I am now confident enough to bring that chair that somehow both confined me and set me free up with me. It is yet more struggle to drag it up on the stage and with the final pull I fall with it and we engage in a strange dance consisting of me trying to conquer the chair and make it be a chair- static for me to sit on. Only when this is achieved, when I was able to sit on it, the performance was over

After I went so far I had to sit down and ask myself Where Am I Now, Really?

End seated
Photo by Karen Johnstone

Don't Let Me Die

2011-10-24T18:50:00.000-07:00

photo by Monika Sobczak

At the P.A.S. workshop I met Savio Debernadis, from Italy, and instantly everyone in the group noticed that we mirrored each other in many ways. We had very similar hair type and color, skin color, body size and even personality traits. I enjoyed coming so far from familiarity to find someone very familiar to myself like a long lost relative.

We decided to experiment with the potential of each other's similarity for the possibility of a performance together. During the exercises of the workshop and even during our free time we were critical of each other to notice what is the quality of our interaction. Finally we admitted to ourselves that our interaction was not harmonious because we were too much the same. Together we emphasize our individual pathetic qualities making every movement very internal and psychologically tense or even absurdist.

The major difference between us is our gender but even that is debatable because of our common body type and androgyny. However, gender was included in our final performance as a secondary theme to play with like props. We both wore similar haird styles and dresses but still it was obvious that one was more authentically female and the other was almost passing. He had plenty facial hair so his passing for female was more like a parody and obviously untrue. We had another gender prop; this was the action repeated through out the night of imposing each other's gender on the other. I had lipstick in my hand as a symbol of my femaleness and he had an eyeliner pencil, used to give me the appearance of facial hair, to symbolize his maleness.

doppelgängers

photo by Matthias Pick

The main action consisted of us being binded together back to back to see how we survive as one homogenous being since we are so much the same. This was a reference to Aristophanes' speech in Plato's Symposium that says people were made so perfect that they made the gods jealous. So one day Zeus cursed them all by separating them and thereby forcing them to spend their lives in search of their other half and end the misery of being alone and separate.

photo by Monika Sobczak

It was a durational performance beginning as my solo performance ended until the end of the night; that lasted 150 minutes. He has the eyeliner in his hands, trying to draw moustaches on me. I have a lipstick, trying to put it on his lips. The only way we allowed ourselves to communicate is with the phrase “ Don’t let me die”. The time, the uncomfortable position, the impossibility of a good communication, the action to put lipstick or eyeliner on the other was a journey from the pathetic, the absurd and the humorous. The performance finished when he, gave a knife to a person in the audience, and said: “Please let me die”. The person cut the tape and the two performers run away becoming free from the other.

doppelgängers struggling

doppelgängers almost dying

photos by Monika Sobczak

The whole that Aristophanes spoke of was not us because we were exact doubles so conflict and disharmony arose. There could be no point of contact and intersection between so much of the same. The more alike we were the more impotent we became together.

More information and photos on the performance can be viewed :

http://pas.bbbjohannesdeimling.de/index.php?/2011/michelle-isava---saverio-debernardis/

Why Did You Go So Far?

2011-10-03T21:43:00.000-07:00

Camera by Christopher Hewitt

For my second time participating and performing in the Performance Art Studies program I conceived of my performance with three basic elements:

a cage- to escape from
feathers -to escape with
and a childish dress- to contextualize the escape.

The process of finding these items directed the action. The cage was more symbolic than literal so I decided to use a metal fold up bed. Since the bed is two dimensional it had to be hung for visual impact. It was hung over a window and I stood behind it waiting to start the performance. Like a caged bird at night, the front bars of my cage(-bed) were covered with a sheet. The audience met me hidden in this way. I started slowly to struggle behind the sheet making sounds hitting the bars to brake free. Eventually the sheet fell down. At that point I stood still and repeated the word ‘Emergency’ like a lullaby. I stretched the word into Emerge- en - cee to make it suggestive and haunting. When I stopped I found a simple way to gain freedom from my cage and I merely crawled out underneath. On the ground were many feathers on which I started to move but could never get away from as they moved with me; making me slip and even going into my mouth. I struggled in this way for several minutes until I slowed down and stopped. Slowly I crawled under the feathers to hide again.

Start trapped

Photo by Matthias Pick

End hidden

Photo by Monika Sobczak

Textura de Sombra

2011-09-10T06:20:00.000-07:00

"NÓMADA EL LABERINTO DEL TORO" is an urban art festival that took place every weekend from the 31st of July to the 21st of August, Maracay, Venezuela. I performed on the second weekend of the event.

Textura de Sombra translates as Texture of Shadow. It consists of three main elements; my body dressed all in black, a scissors f0r cutting and food substances: sugar and yellow corn meal; both are a powdery texture. This piece aimed to make visible something personal and corporeal. I returned to the theme of showing the marked body as I first did in Marked for Life.

However I wanted the cutting to be as far removed from the idea of pain as possible. I wanted it to be more of a symbol, a memory, a line, a way of marking. I did this by making the act itself very hidden, slow and minimalist. I used the sugar and cornmeal the way colored powders are used to make mandalas using colors, line and repetition to create a composition that ended on my body. The lines were imitations of my way of marking myself; straight parallel lines. Through all this repetition I am drawing my lines out of myself and on to other surfaces.

I started the performance on the ground in the center of a design of concentric circles; this made my actions very site specific. I sat in the middle of the hills of cornmeal and sugar. I chose these substances to represent my dual Identity. Sugar historically coming from the sugar industry in Trinidad & Tobago and Corn Meal being the main ingredient for the traditional Venezuelan daily bread, Arepas. I used both substances for their texture and poured them like sand within the lines of the circles I was sitting on. All around myself I poured them to create numerous parallel lines.

Sugar

Corn Meal

When the hills had disappeared in this way I proceeded to cut open my leggings to reveal my naked flesh which similarly shows repeated parallel lines from scars. With sets of staples concealed in my hands I caressed my legs until old wounds reopened and new wounds were made. Once more I recreated lines; in each different way that I draw it, it is a mantra. The cuts bleeding in the same pattern I made on the ground; my blood mixing with the sugar and corn meal.

Photos by Narvis Bracamonte and Morella Cuba

Below is the video footage from the performance. It starts off very shaky but nonetheless I am always grateful for the people I meet willing to help me preserve these moments.

Being Everywhere

2011-05-15T19:08:00.001-07:00

All One Breath

photo by Simone Gilliatt

Being Everywhere is a project started by Stefan Riebel based on his performative and sculptural works. He fills white balloons with his breath and sends them to people all over the world to burst and release his breath wherever they are. Anybody can take part by emailing him from this link: http://www.beingeverywhere.net/beingeverywhere/participate/participate.html

I had asked to take part in January, 2011 and in April I received a package containing the balloon with his breath still intact.

I went to the beach and had myself buried with the balloon in my mouth and then I burst it. Below is a video I made of it:

I was interested to participate in this project because of its conceptual nature using an ephemeral material like breath to form bonds between people all over the world. It reveals our common fragility; making our distance apart seem less than it is. It unites us through mail and the internet but also most importantly through one individual's breath which then becomes everybody's breath.

For more information view the following links:

My participation:

http://www.beingeverywhere.net/beingeverywhere/pictures/no_257.html

The Being Everywhere website:

http://www.beingeverywhere.net/beingeverywhere/web-content/index.html

Stefan Riebel website:

http://www.stefanriebel.de/

Taking Part in Territorio Desdibujado: Self Portrait/ Autorretrato

2011-04-23T13:43:00.000-07:00

I am the T.V. / Soy la Televisión

Stare Like a Junkie/Parado como un drogadicto
Because Tragedy Fills me/ Porque eso me llena

Tragedia, violencia y sexo

Después del original performance de 'Niña en la Caja' hecho en 2007, este autoretrato (intervenido por la tecnología) fue parte del proyecto Territorio Desdibujado por Eliseo Solís Mora para la XI Velada de Santa Lucía, 4-6 Marzo 2011.

After the original live performance of 'Girl in the Box' made in 2007, this self portrait (intervened by technology) was part of the Territorio Desdibujado (Blurred Territory) curatorial project by Eliseo Solís Mora in la Velada de Santa Lucía.

Rodell Warner and I both took part in this project with self portraits. While there Eliseo, Rodell and I decided to also perform together. Below is the video; it is called Silencio/ Silence.

This performance had to with the difficulty and tension of communication as faced with differences. The piece was repeated randomly through the night. As visitors came in the house of Eliseo's exhibition to view his work we would engage in what may seem to be an aggressive argument. But it was not an argument only a simulation. We communicated in the most basic of ways; facial expressions, gestures, different tone and pitch and only one word- Silence/Silencio - as a contradiction/ contrast to our chaotic action. Like the Tower of Babel we spoke different languages to each other but the more we spoke the more heated our interactions got as there was no message received through the communication. Instead what happened is that we became emotive and unintelligible; we shout, we repeat ourselves, and we laugh at each other to retreat/ return once more into our different worlds.

For More information view the following links:

The beginning of the 'Girl In The Box Series'/ 'Serie de la Niña en la Caja' can be found on this link and also here

The website for la Velada de Santa Lucía:

http://www.velada-santa-lucia.com/

Links for Rodell Warner:

http://www.rodellwarner.com/

http://freepaperblog.blogspot.com/

Links for Eliseo Solís Mora

http://espaciolevintanteapuntesdearte.blogspot.com/

http://territoriodesdibujado.blogspot.com/

http://eliseosolismora.tumblr.com/

Camera-Walk #3

2011-04-23T13:14:00.000-07:00

Photo by Gillian Moore
Live Camera-Walk at the Museum

Soon after returning to Trinidad & Tobago I took part in the We The Artists TALK AND PERFORMANCE NIGHT with a live Camera-Walk @ The National Museum and Art Gallery of Trinidad and Tobago.

More can be read at the following links:

http://beezandhoney.blogspot.com/2011/01/we-artists-talk-and-performance-night.html

and the local Guardian article on the event written by Gillian Moore

http://guardian.co.tt/gillian-moore/2011/01/27/artists-come-together-panel-discussion

PerfoChoroní V

2011-04-19T16:32:00.001-07:00

Photo by Alexander Escalona
Hablando Sola: la tecnología crea personalidades múltiples/Talking To Myself: Technology creates multiple personalities

Como parte de PerfoChoroní V, hablé sola. Es una performance que trata de la manera en que la tecnología ha moldeado al ser humano. Es una autotransmisión o una proyección de mi misma. Con la tecnología puedo multiplicarme y con esto también plantear las preguntas existenciales:

¿Cuál es la verdadera yo?

¿Por qué estoy aquí?/ ¿Donde estoy?

¿Cuál es la diferencia entre la vida virtual y la vida real?

Aquí está el video de la performance

Above is the video of my performance at PerfoChoroní, in Venezuela.

Hablando Sola: la tecnología crea personalidades múltiples/ Talking To Myself: Technology creates multiple personalities. It deals with the way the self can be moulded by technology when the human being is transmitted via the internet. Once we are interacting with the internet we are engaging in an act of self projection by placing of ourselves within; on the outside we are also receiving. This interaction become so casual that we are not always conscious that we are both moulding the virtual space as much as we are being moulded by it. It becomes a social experience that blurrs the lines between reality and virtuality. With this form of (social)technology I can modify myself; such as through self multiplication and thereby also pose certain existential questions:

Which one is the real me?

Why am I here?/ Where am I ?

What is the difference between the virtual and the real life?

Below is the video I used during the performance to find myself and then talk to myself. Both videos are one conversation between my three selves. Both videos are each a self and the self that I was when I performed it live is yet another.

It is called I am Too Happy To Tell You. The video is a spontaneous reaction that sometimes occurs while consuming virtuality and loosing the ability to distinguish what is real from what is not. I know I have lost my capacity when I react in very real, visceral ways like crying. I had a combustion of tears that I did not want to loose because it can be evidence to prove my suspicion that technology can manipulate us, so I hit record. Like a confrontation meant to accuse I gave it my tears. It is a gift; the product of our interactions and so I feed the machine the way it has fed me.

Arriba esta el video que use durante el performance para encontrarme a mí mismo y después hablar sola. Entonces los dos videos son una conversación con tres versiónes de mí mismo. Cada video son una versión y cuando lo hice en vivo fue otra versión.

En español, quiero decir, Soy Demasiada Feliz Que Ni Te Lo Puedo Decir. El video es una reacción espontánea que se ocurre a veces cuando consumo a lo virtual y pierdo la abilidad de diferenciar que es real con lo que no es. Yo se cuando eso pasa porque tengo reacciónes muy fuerte y visceral como llorar. Esto sucedio cuando hice este video y yo no quería perder el momento, entonces lo grabe. Yo quería preservar mis lagrimas y regresarlo al internet como un regalo para el dueño, porque desde allí se vienieron. El internet es el responsable y el culpable, y yo lo alimento como se me alimenta también.

Camera Walk #2

2011-04-19T14:32:00.001-07:00

Photo by Alexander Escalona
Camera Walk #2, Choroní- Venezuela

This is from the Camera Walk I did during PerfoChoroní V. It was a spontaneous act inspired by the chaos of the night, crowds and noise.

Esto es de cuando caminé con una cámara sobre mi ojo durante el PerfoChoroní V. Fue un acto espontáneo inspirado por todo el caos de la noche, las multitudes de gente y los ruidos.

V FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE PERFORMANCE CHORONI 2010 - 2011“enFLUX actUS”(eventos del arte que vuelve a la vida)/ 5th International Performance Festival, Choroní 2010- 2011- “enFLUX actUS” ( Art events that return to Life)

PerfoChoroní is a performance festival rooted and inspired by the Fluxus movement. Fluxus developed in the 1960's in the U.S.A. and parts of Europe as an immediacy to find elemental modes of expression. It was a time of many changes; war and revolution- and likewise the changes of the time were represented in art through Dada, Surrealism, Fluxus and more. Each of these had in common the desire and ability to free the artist as a creative being more than ever before. This was during new influences such as Sigmund Freud's writings on the subconscious, super ego, ego and id. They used the theory in ways in attempt to make it relevant and practical to everyone. And so the definition of art was greatly challenged and it became decidedly very ordinary to illustrate that art can exist in anything especially the most absurd, mundane and quotidian.

The following is information provided about Fluxus by the organizers of PerfoChoroní

De hecho vivimos en una “escultura social” y se lo debemos al FLUXUS las posibilidades de entenderlo. Las consecuencias de este descubrimiento son profundas e inevitables y nos plantean preguntas más que afirmaciones:

¿Si las sociedades humanas son esculturas qué somos los hombres que vivimos en ellas?
¿Cuerpos pasivos o activos de la transformación que está en marcha?
¿Qué papel juega el arte la performance en la revolución que tiene lugar en nuestra escultura?
¿Somos todos artistas o solo los que tienen talento?
¿Y cuál es el arte que está porvenir: profundo y elitesco o simple y elemental?

And so we live in a 'social sculpture' and we owe the possibility to interrogate this sculpture to the Fluxus. The concequences of this descovery are profound and inevitable and we form questions more than answers:

If human societies are sculpture what are the humans living within it?
Are we passive bodies or active agents of transformation that is already happening?
What role does performance art play in our social sculpture?
Are we all artists? or Only the ones with discernible talent?
And what is the art of the future? profound and elitist or simple and elemental?

For more info on Fluxus check the following links:

WWW.ARTNOTART.COM

WWW.FLUXUX.ORG

Camera Walk #1

2011-04-18T19:06:00.000-07:00

Camera Walk #3, Berlin- Germany

This was part of my process in preparation for my final performance of the Performance Art Studies (P.A.S.) workshop. Feeling completely isolated and anonymous compelled me to record every fleeting moment as I was experiencing it. I went into different shops asking people I met to help me tape the camera to my head covering one eye. This exercise was a means to submerge myself even more fully into my experience as an outsider. It is an anxious impulse that helps articulate a variety of feelings and so I have decided to continue this activity in different cities that I travel to. However I will do it only in a state of anxiety and so the camera becomes a mask or bandage over myself. It is to protect myself but also to record that which causes me discomfort. To record something is to conquer it somewhat as I trap and preserve it for future reference in a small mechanical device. Through this process I render reality less a thing of terror.

On returning to Trinidad & Tobago I started editing the footage and it was then used in the We The Artists exhibition curated by Nicollette Ramirez.

More on the exhibition can be read here:

http://rhizome.org/announce/events/56719/

Penetrative/ Berlin from Michelle Isava on Vimeo.

Since then, as of January 2011, I have conducted two more Camera Walks; one in Choroní Venezuela during PerfoChoroní and the other at the National Museum of Trinidad as another contribution to the We The Artists exhibition.

Performance Art Studies (P.A.S.)

2010-12-07T18:57:00.000-08:00

Photo by Matthias Pick

Self Projection a piece about myself performed at the Kunstfabrik am Flutgraben as the final part of the Performance Art Studies (P.A.S.) workshop that I was attending in Berlin, Germany. It was led by BBB Johannes Deimling. Your self is only visible the further it is from the space it has spent the most time. So the first time; the furthest away I went from all I knew is the closest I ever felt to it.

It is influenced by my first experience traveling outside of Venezuela and, or Trinidad & Tobago while also being about both places. It is done with very strict order, props and actions. It is a neurotic transference of ingested learnings and symbols about my identity. Being there allowed me the space to project and contrast these ideas. Ultimately in a foreign space, in the contrast of relevance and context it was allowed to become questions. I am a question with many plausible answers from the many peoples who are all grappling with similar issues. As much as each offers temporary comfort none offers truth. Truth is poor and fragmented.

Part of the final performance was the footage from my first Camera Walks exercise while in Berlin. It consists of strapping a mini video recording device to one of my eyes in order to capture what I see exactly as I see it. My performance involved interacting with the projected footage of the foreign city and also having it projected on my nude body. I imitated the way I originally looked at all that was new; with awe, abandon, lots of jerky movements of the head and slow movements of the body. I used it not only to recreate a personal moment but also to illustrate how experience is based in the body. If it remains there it can easily be lost as it is one day forgotten; the footage serves to preserve the moment. What was once in the body can now always be remembered through mechanical reproduction and also what is now on the body now makes us One-a merging of mechanical reproduction, memory, experience and Body-as One we both make and unmake each other as reality: The uncomfortable machine, machinating body...

For more information on the workshop view these links:

What is Important?

The Performance Art Studies website:

http://pas.bbbjohannesdeimling.de/

Johannes Deimling website:

http://www.bbbjohannesdeimling.de/

Matthias Pick website:

http://www.matthiaspick.de/Welcome.html

4th Red Earth

2010-08-02T19:18:00.000-07:00

For Red Earth2010: Running Water I collaborated with Jemima Charles to recreate a shared memory we had at Blanchicheuse beach Trinidad and Tobago.

Death making its journey from the river to the Sea/Everything returns to the Ocean's embrace.

We witnessed a dead leather back turtle impossibly move through the river while it was shallow and narrow to go back to the ocean. Jemima made the water element in the form of the flags placed on the perimeter of the river and I created a floating form to represent the turtle on its journey.

More images can be seen on my Flickr photostream

Low Lives #2

2010-08-02T17:17:00.001-07:00

En_Cell

The Body embodies... It is a sponge that has the potential to reveal every experience with every sub atomic particle; it is all present and willing to betray or reveal what has been buried within.

'En Cell' is a reference to my room and the basic structural unit of all organisms. The obscurity, vulnerability, and spontaneity of this piece are like the cell in terms of how little we actually know about ourselves yet the Cell is our basic fabric- our everything and our basic desire to connect and communicate.

During the performance, through regular status updates on Facebook, I asked for people to call my cell phone in order to make my performance interactive while emphasizing the message of communication and connection.

This was my contribution to Low Lives2. The performance fell on the last day of the Proximities show at Alice Yard, however during my performance they took the time to be part of it by logging on to the site to watch it, by calling my cell and by interacting on the live chat service on the ustream site

The video for En_Cell

By exploiting technology for its capacity to transmit, blur the context; the medium becomes the message. It illustrates that technology has a way of distorting humans; making us almost non-existent as it warps reality and makes humans more and more dependent on technology for social interaction.

Low Lives is an exhibition of live performance-based works by artists from different parts of the world and projected in real time at FiveMyles in Brooklyn, NY; Diaspora Vibe Gallery in Miami, FL; and labotanica, Houston, TX. Low Lives is curated by Jorge Rojas.
(From the site http://turbulence.org/blog/2009/06/24/low-lives-call-for-artists/)

More information can be seen on the Low Lives website, http://www.lowlives.net/

2do Acción en Vivo y Diferido

2010-08-02T15:58:00.000-07:00

Interceder por las Siluetas Silenciosas:
The Silent Silhouettes in the 2do Acción en Vivo y Diferido

The video from Silent Silhouettes got accepted into the second Acción en Vivo y Diferido, Colombia. It is an annual performance festival held in Colombia. In 2010 it took place from the 27th of Febuary to the 28th of March. The festival offers three ways to participate; either a link to a performance video can be sent, a performance can be live streamed or a performance can be done live where the event was based, in Usaquen.

The video is featured on https://sites.google.com/site/2doaccionenvivoydiferido/mediatizadas/michelleisava

Para esta segunda versión de Acción en Vivo y Diferido habitaremos la Localidad de Usaquén, en miras de explorar las fronteras nómadas que sus transeúntes construyen como agentes sociales de dicho territorio. Además planteamos el Encuentro en espacios públicos con el objetivo de subvertir sus dinámicas sociales, resignificar sus geografías simbólicas e imaginanarios intersubjetivos. Es por esto que las coordenadas conceptuales para esta iniciativa fronteriza, es ejercer el acto creativo desde un empoderamiento de lo ciudadano de una manera crítica, poética y efímera, trastocando las relaciones de biopoder que configuran la cotidianidad social y el habitar dicha localidad.
(from the site: https://sites.google.com/site/2doaccionenvivoydiferido/home)

Proyecto Capital

2010-08-02T13:51:00.000-07:00

Photo by Alejandro Mina

I met visiting artists Mar Molano and Alejandro Mina from Columbia here studying English. Through our interactions I got to experience Trinidad & Tobago in new ways as pseudo-host and I also got to experience my own Latin identity as pseudo-interpreter. Based on the time we spent together we decided to collaborate on a project documenting some of our experiences around finding coins on the street.

We called it Proyecto Capital and it was shared at Alice Yard. We showed a map that showed where all of the coins were found; we showed a mound of all the coins collected; and a slide show of photos of the coins when they were found.

This, http://proyectocapital09.blogspot.com/, is the blog we created to document our process and the event.

Proyecto Capital

This project is based on observation. On our daily route

through Port of Spain it is possible to find a large amount of

money in the streets. Apparently insignificant to the local eye but to the

foreign eye it suggests a comparison with the city they came from, Bogota, and other cities.

The idea is to collect the money and document the

process to later make an installation. It seeks to make one reflect on the

gesture of throwing away coins and collecting them to then re-insert them

in the society; changing its capital value for a symbolic one.

Erotic Art Week

2010-07-30T17:36:00.000-07:00

lingum- the sacred male sexuality

This painting was shown at Soft Box Studios for the first Erotic Art Week in Trinidad & Tobago. It was originally from my series called, The Temple of Local Sexuality from 2008.

More can be read about Erotic Art Week on their blog, http://eroticartweektt.blogspot.com/

Below is the interview for the show

There was also a review done in the Trinidad & Tobago Review, it can be read here.

3rd Red Earth

2010-07-30T17:33:00.001-07:00

The Heart of my Alter

For Red Earth 2009: Dream time I sought to transform the wall of shelves from the Mystic Masseur house into an altar; it is spelled Alter to signify that it is about process/change/transfiguration. I used natural objects, found objects and personal objects for the transformation of the space.

Red Earth is an Eco-Arts festival celebrated every year in Trinidad & Tobago since 2007. This is the second time I took part; last year I was in a group piece choreographed by Sonja Dumas. Her piece was about the preciousness of water.

The Mystic Masseur house (where the Mystic Masseur was filmed) was used as a site specific installation for a variety of people to work together with the intention of making mindful art pieces. Some of the participants were; Dean Arlen, Elspeth Duncan, Gerard Gittens, Members of Consciousness Raising (Natasha Mahabir, Nicole Hosein, Renelle White, Keshan Lutchman) Ian Rampersad, Samantha Rochard, John Stollmeyer and myself.

More photos from the event can be seen on my Flickr photostream

Carnival: Girl in the Box

2010-07-25T10:00:00.001-07:00

'A Camera to Capture You With'

The Carnival Celebrations in Trinidad and Tobago cause me panic, tension and discomfort. In 2009 I decided to surrender myself to those feelings. I came out on to the streets dressed in a full length tunic, a mask/ box on my head and a camcorder strapped to my chest. I was dressed prepared for a symbolic confrontation. I was completely covered, so I was invisible but I had a camera to record every threatening moment that is the 'Parade of the Bands'.

All I did was follow the follow the bands as did many others who would not pay an exorbitant amount to play Mas barely dressed and within the barrier of rope and security guards. Some people interacted with me and surprisingly it was not too threatening. As I walked between crowds some people played the top of my box-head as a drum and others, much later in the night tried to get me to take it off. Surprisingly none of this bothered me; it was expected and somehow pleasant to have this kind of interaction.

This character functioned as a vessel to see and record but not be seen itself. The sensory experience were as traumatic as could be imagined. It was hot being covered completely; it was uncomfortable having to constantly adjust the costume; it was difficult to see through the eye-holes in the box and the music from the trucks were unbearably loud. Most astonishing was that the other people's behavior was not in any was assaulting to me. Somehow all my armor made me feel safe in the chaos. I was able to view them objectively as if I was watching them on t.v. , they were all 'nobodys' who could do me nothing.

Me in Costume during the Carnival in Woodbrook

Interestingly I learned much later in the year that Box Mas is another Traditional Mas that is almost completely extinct. In 2010 Adele Todd performed another version of it. More on her portrayal can be read on her blog http://adeletodd.wordpress.com/

At the end of the year I put for sale some of the documentation of this work at the Alice Yard Shop opening. Photos from the event can be seen on the Caribbean Free Photo's Flickr Photostream

Sugar Baby Doll

2010-07-25T09:59:00.000-07:00

Photo by Arnaldo James
'Sugar Baby Doll'

In 2009 I performed versions of the Traditional Mas Character: The Baby Doll. I performed it first at Victoria Square P.O.S. and the second time at U.W.I. St. Augustine Campus for Taking Back the Night.

The character is dressed like a doll in frills and other decorations. In her arms she carries a doll which symbolizes a baby born out of marriage. The masquerader stops men in the audience accusing them of being the baby's father; and confronting them with their responsibility she asks, 'Where de Money?'

Performers can take as much license as they want with the script what remains constant is the crowd interaction; accusing males of being the irresponsible father of their child. In my piece I became a pregnant school girl who was in a relationship with a 'Sugar Daddy' but he left 'me' once I revealed I was pregnant for him.

Photos by Arnaldo James

'Pretending to be Happy!'

The Second time I played Baby Doll it was at U.W.I.'s Taking Back the Night. There was a march, vigil and rally. I did a performance called 'Pretending to be Happy!' . It was motivated by the recent abuses (many that ended in death) of women and children that were reported in the media.

Video of 'Pretending to be Happy!'

More photos from both events can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/m_isava/sets/72157624578237550/

Marked For Life

2010-07-25T09:26:00.000-07:00

‘Marked for Life’ is a literal and extreme depiction of Susan Bordo’s statement that Patriarchy damages the female body. In it I perform a ritual of marking myself by various means with self- cutting as the climax. These marks represent the different ways men are capable of marking the female body. The marks also parallel the permanent damage that women can experience in both subtle and overt ways as a result of patriarchy.

This is my second 'play' after 'The Machine', (performed in 2008). The performance is divided into three scenes and is directed by a self produced audio track. It was performed at Alice Yard.

A play in three scenes

Scene One: I begin with a confrontation of the self as a reflection; with a glass screen in between myself and a mirror. I do a pathetic back and forwards step of trying to get through the glass to get to the mirror. The cam corder feeds a projection of the back of my head creating a disorienting effect as it seems to swing back and forth right next to the actual image of me facing the crowd stepping back and forth, awkwardly hitting the glass that confines me (see Figure One). This creates three versions of myself; subject, reflection and projection. It presents the idea of a fragmented or schizophrenic identity.

Scene Two: I sit at the table where I have four different marking tools. The section of the audio includes narration that tells the story of being marked by different men. The first marking is ‘marriage’; for that I prepare the sindoor[1] and place it on my own head. It is an awkward parody of the actual act which is supposed to be loving while I enact an act abandonment and betrayal. It drips pathetically down my forehead suggesting blood and domestic violence. Then I heat a ring and burn it into my side; this represents the marking of male territory again similar to marriage. Afterwards I heat a Kalchol[2] on a candle flame and pull down my skirt to reveal a tattoo near my hip, another mark of male ownership. Once it has been heated I place it firmly on the tattoo to obscure it. Subsequently I take staples and cut into my thighs by dragging it firmly across.

Scene Three: After these re-enactments, re-inscriptions I am purified from the contamination of male touch. So doing I invoke the Virgin Mary and take her mantle and place it on my head and walk out of the room to face the audience. I experience a transfiguration and I become the kind of statue of christian pilgrimages that invokes passion. A member of the crowd spontaneously began to cry and another fainted.

[1] A red liquid used to symbolize marriage status for Hindu women and is first applied on the bride’s forehead by the groom during the marriage ritual.

[2] The indo-creole word for a large cooking spoon.

WOMANTRA

2010-04-29T20:46:00.000-07:00

A ritual performance intended to reveal that language is neither arbitrary nor innocent but that by making and encoding meanings it creates reality. It seeks to illustrates the gender implications of language, for those in the female body, through the process of making marks and chanting of the words whole/ hole.

The Hole is Whole

Video of WOMANTRA

Moving Silent Silhouettes

2010-03-18T23:59:00.000-07:00

At Brian Lara Promenade

(Port of Spain)

The Performances:

The performance happened twice, accompanying the different showings at U.W.I and at the Brian Lara Promenade. It was unscripted and unrehearsed however it has one title: Promises Broken.
A bouquet of flowers was used to embody the commercial practice of giving women flowers; symbolic of a promise of love and commitment. It also suggests the act of giving flowers to the dead at funerals or commentaries. Additionally it reflects the patriarchal view that women are fragile and pretty. When their looks and other functions fade, they can be discarded like decaying flowers. Domestic abuse; whether physical, psychological or sexual is the betrayal of the 'promises' men make to women.

At U.W.I. I walked with a vigil-march co-ordinated by the U.W.I. Consciousness Raising group. At the end of it I began my performance. I ended up calling out each number that altogether equaled the amount of victims. After which I fell to the floor and proceeded to give each Silent Silhouette a flower from a bouquet I held in memory of their death and the tragedy of an abusive relationship.

At the Brian Lara Promenade it was interactive. I had an elevated stage area and so was separated from the Silent Silhouettes below. For this reason people were invited to give a flower to each Silent Silhouette.

The Performance at Brian Lara Promenade

During the performance members of the public tied flowers on to the Silent Silhouettes

The video below shows combined footage from both performance at U.W.I. and the Brian Lara Promenade. It can also be seen ,together with some photos from the performances, in the second version of Acción en Vivo y Diferido. The video can also be seen on this link.

The Silent Silhouettes at U.W.I.

Photos by Mariamma Kambom

Making the Silent Silhouettes

2010-02-17T01:14:00.000-08:00

First a stencil was made and traced on to ply board

Then it was cut out with a jig saw

It was then painted black

and left to dry

Finally a hinge and leg was added at the back to make it free standing.

The Silhouettes were made at the Works Department (U.W.I.) which provided all the help, tools and the space needed.

The Silent Silhouettes

2009-12-27T14:02:00.000-08:00

Stephanie Leitch and I worked together on the Silent Silhouettes project . It started as a moving art installation to raise awareness about domestic violence in Trinidad and Tobago. It also includes performance art. In 2009, together with a short film documenting the experience, it was featured in the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival. In the same year it was shown in The People's Space during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (C.H.O.G.M.). In 2010 it has been featured as part of Acción en Vivo y Diferido, Colombia. The original creative team included Stephanie Leitch, Anthony Edwards (as the graphic artist who did the logo and the layouts for printing) and myself. It was produced with the support of U.W.I. Guild of Students, The Network of N.G.O's of Trinidad and Tobago for the Advancement of Women and Girls, and UNIFEM.

Stephanie Leitch is a volunteer at the Network of N.G.O.'S for the Advancement of Women. Since 2007 she co-ordinates all women's commemorative days such as International Women's Day, International Day Against Domestic Violence as well as other gender advocacy campaigns. In 2007, she attended a Media Advocacy Workshop in Jamaica, while there she was introduced to footage from the Silent Witnesses Global Campaign. It is a global campaign to enlighten people about domestic violence; it helped inspire this project.

Each life sized Silhouette represents a victim killed as a result of domestic violence for this year. A total of 18 Silhouettes were made; each with a name tag and a summary of how they were killed by their partner. The research was collected from both the Police and newspaper journalists. Portrayed in this way, the body count becomes both disturbing and relatable. It makes the information. This stimulated many people to stop read; share personal stories about domestic abuse and remember the victims.

The Silent Silhouettes was a moving exhibition as it was seen in three different locations throughout Trinidad in honor of International Day Against Domestic Violence. Within one week it was shown at U.W.I., St. Augustine campus; at the Brian Lara Promenade, Port of Spain and Chaguaramas for CAFRA's march against domestic violence.

For more on Stephanie Leitch, view her blog:http://thecontessawearsnoshoes.blogspot.com/

Part II of The Machine

2009-10-20T17:41:00.000-07:00

The T.V. Conversation installed at Alice Yard

The T.V. Conversation

The conversation among five t.v.s consisted of five short videos I made. Each video explored a different aspect of discomfort. There was one about my gendered experiences from girl-hood to womanhood called 'All the Girls'. Another showed the footage from the 'Girl in the Box' performance staged at Alice Yard as Part I to this project. This footage was also sped to double time to produce another video, called 'Fast Forward Me'. There was also another one produced during the first semester which mimicked the quick and seemingly random cuts of M.t.v. programming, this was called 'MTV'. The last one was the video documentation of a self produced play called 'The Machine' .This play describes my understanding of Postmodernism. It was performed twice; at Studio Film Club to a live audience and in my Garage to be filmed for the video.

This is the story board, as it was installed in Alice Yard, illustrating all the scenes in the play
The Machine

Girl in the Box

2009-10-20T17:39:00.000-07:00

Part I of the Machine

The Machine contains inherent values of Industrialization, Progress, Technology, ‘The Decline of Western Civilization’, World Wars, Human Suffering, Defects, Materialism, Consumerism, Commercialism, Mass-Production, Convenience, Destruction, Annihilation, Globalization, Modernization, Man-made, Deconstruction . It has forever changed the life of man kind; it represents phenomena that have followed the singular act of creating machinery to complicate and distort living. This relates to the idea of limits as convenience has been an underlying and false rationale behind these phenomena.

(I Am a Thinking Machine/Consciousness is a disease)

This way the Machine relates to the progress of man-kind but I also want to consider it as a metaphor and medium to understand the human being as a Machine itself. This provides a context for venturing into the philosophical realms that asks the questions, What is the human being? What are its components? What is human consciousness? What is the nature of this being?
The more parallels I can draw between the Nature of machines and the Nature of the human being would I be able to inform my vision of them as one and the same.

In November of 2007, I came up with an exercise in which I could pose these questions to myself through experience. This has since become the 'Girl in the Box' series.

Versions of 'Girl in the Box'

Two different edits from the 'Girl in the Box' series can be viewed below.

The first is Discomfort + Speed

The Second version was filmed by the BOOKMANN, from the original 'performance' at Alice Yard in November 2007.

Me in the T.V.

2009-10-20T17:28:00.000-07:00

The MTV

The T.V.monolougue

Look into my t.v. and see my soul,
Look into my t.v. and see my insecurities
Look into my t.v. and see my eyes,
Look into my t.v. and see my breast size,
Look into my t.v. and see my Anxiety,
Look into my t.v. and see pain,
Look into my t.v. and see my pessimism,
Look into my t.v. and see my fear,
Look into my t.v. and see my prejudices,
Look into my t.v. and see my manic depression,
Look into my t.v. and see my life story.
Look into the t.v. and see reality.

The T.V. as Existentialism.
It is a basic visual media that links to the ever growing media-technology that extracts the human from reality and re-inserts it into a virtual reality or simulacrum. Within this frame the pseudo-reality glorifies aspects of human behavior that serves to objectify the human as a commodity in the machine of Western domination. The engine grease in this machine is a culture designed to objectify people ……

Women Don't Grow on Trees

2009-09-19T06:52:00.000-07:00

This series of works developed from the dismembered parts I was making for the Hot Woman sculpture. This idea was rejected for living sculptures. However I decided to use the pieces for a new show after 'The Temple of Local Sexuality'. I also continued making some more parts while I also asked around if anyone would be interested in working with me. I wanted this to be a collaboration in which my main contribution would be an installation of the casts of female parts. My research led me to a Spoken Word Artist- Ivory Hayes and coincidentally she was working on the ideal event. Together with Tracie Rogers, Jada Lee Condappa, Althea Octave, Akilah Riley, Joanne Charles; they worked on a performance piece about female solidarity. I contributed the name of the event, the artistic design of the show and the place. It happened in a woods-like area near the chemistry building in the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus. I was always drawn to it because it was poorly lit and foreboding There have also been reports that there are high incidents of rapes at this site which made it important to have this work performed there.

The Guardian newspaper published a feature on the event, it can be read here.

The Temple of Local Sexuality

2009-09-19T06:15:00.000-07:00

This series of work is made up of visual parodies of sexual phrases from the local dialect; it brings together various art mediums to represent culture, history and language as all interlinked. It includes four paintings, installations, food (Arepas) and living sculptures. The living sculptures were originally intended to be one life size life like sculpture of the female form covered in three plume match box covers as a pun 'Hot-Woman'. However I was not able to arrange the pieces of the figure to stand so I decided to leave it in pieces as it was and accept that my role is merely to accomodate a process and not force a preconceived ending. It looked like dismembered body parts and so the title, 'Ah Mash She Up' felt most appropriate. This positioned the piece as a human sacrifice within the spiritual system I was creating. The vernacular expression links sexuality with violence and I seek to take that further and add crime in general by calling it a sacrifice.

The Exotic Erotic

Sexuality’s link to the primal instincts, violence, sin, and all other abjection eroticizes all that is ‘other’; all that stands in opposition to the dominant culture. This is the innate lust or primal attraction to all things different to one’s customs and as a consequence to danger. The establishment of the status quo has long been defined by and described as white middle class culture. This already illustrates that all ‘colored’ people are sexualized as the 'other'; making them a desirable/desired threat.

"A lovely little creature but sly, spiteful, malignant perhaps, like everything else in this place."
( Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys, Penguin Books pg 45)

The Entrance

The Cleansing

The Offering

Worshipers : 'Rude Gyals'

Human Sacrifice: 'Ah Mash She Up'

Female and Male aspects of Divinity