Because of Love is a major new performance piece which aims to bring my practice to new audiences - not only within the context of visual art, but also dance and theatre. I am collaborating with some fantastic artists from different fields to realize the piece, which is concerned with childhood, humanity, inhumanity, love and grief.
The piece is loosely autobiographical, drawing upon personal and cultural memories from different times in my life. Central to the work is the idea of the sentimentality of memory � the emotional charge and romanticism often applied to the experience of remembering.
The piece is ambitious in its scale and complexity, bringing together elements of human presence, projected video, live music and lighting to weave a loose, non-linear narrative over a duration of around forty minutes. Individual images will be given time and space to develop and for connections to be made - or not made between them.
My influences include the Italian minimalist movement of the 1970s and many other artists such as Marina Abramovi?, Joseph Beuys, Gina Pane, Mark Rothko, Tehching Hsieh, Zhang Huan, Anselm Kiefer and Richard Serra to name only a few.
The performance will involve a life-sized, mechanical polar bear, which I shall dance with - not so much as a tightly controlled piece of choreography, but more as an instinctive response to the dynamic mis-en-scene and contexts in which the work will be shown.
Versions of the work will be devised in different formats to suit the different spaces and contexts in which it will be presented. The piece will tour from Spring 2012.
Collaborators:
I am working with an excellent team of professional producers and creatives and we believe strongly that we can create a spectacular new work. I am an independant artist, not represented by a commercial gallery, and I have always had to develop creative ways of producing my work. With this piece, I am engaging with new audiences and contexts, and so it is vitally important that the project is excecuted with the utmost professionalism and best production values.
Budget:
I have already raised around half of the total amount of money needed to produce the work, but still need another �25000 (about $40000). The money will pay for the newly commissioned works that will form elements of the piece (including music, animation, costumes) and for the polar bear - whose construction is technically complex, for development and rehearsal costs, materials, equipment, logistics and other costs associated with this production.
I am committed to this work, but I need your support to ensure that it can be produced to the highest possible standard. This is your chance to be part of the work.
Thank you for your support.
