Wednesday 30 May 2012

The girl and the golden thread.


Last summer I was invited by a friend to bring Sheepwoman to Buddhafield festival, in Somerset England.  I took with me three sheep masks packed in a wicker hamper, together with several dresses and a pair of tap dancing shoes.


My intention was to be completely spontaneous, trusting when sheepwoman would want to appear.  I have had this approach for several years now, only recently have I started to   incorporate rehearsed aspects into my often spontaneous actions. 

I waited until the time felt right for Sheepwoman to emerge.  She did not appear until two days into the festival, it was Friday night and the moon shone down over the beautiful Somerset landscape.  I decided to wear a new mask, a very dark mask, it no longer exists and I have no documentation of it.  It was a made by stretching black tights over a wire armature creating a slightly devil-ish void-like black sheep head.  I wore a simple black dress, black tights and black tap dance shoes.  

In the hamper containing my masks and costumes I also packed a reel of very fine, delicate golden thread.  I have performed several times with this thread, reeling it out to people, making a fine web of gossamer gold.





I set off into the night with my mask and gold thread looking for a place to get changed.  I returned to a stall I had been to earlier that day as I liked the people I had met there.  I was unable to change privately.   

As I put on my mask a woman said to me,  
"That mask is evil, nothing good will ever come of this".

I set off into the festival night, and gradually began to unravel the golden thread.  Tentatively at first, slightly put off by the dark comments and judgments that had just been passed on my black mask.  Gradually I entered into the sprit of things and gained confidence in my actions.  

I must have spent several hours making a circuit of the festival.  Wearing a mask is intense, vision is limited, and the world is perceived through a minute area.  I/Sheepwoman moved through the night delicately unravelling the golden thread as it caught the light of the moon and people in it's web.

As I picked my way across muddy land I heard comments, feedback, one person said,
"Ah you are the black sheep who spins a web". 
Another said,
 "Why are you wrapping wire around me?" 
A third said, 
"This is the golden thread that connects".  

I/Sheepwoman met people who were intrigued, indifferent, entranced, threatened, humoured. One man said, 
"I think I know this woman, I think she is my ex".
Another woman, as I reeled out the thread in a tent where a band was playing, said, 
"This is dangerous".  
Sheepwoman and I remained silent.   

As I walked up a steep, muddy path opening out onto a large field, with a group of people  entangled in my web, I noticed a girl or rather she noticed me.  She was with her dad and she burst out, 

"Oh look dad, look at her she's so pretty, she could be your girlfriend". 

I continued on my way unravelling the golden thread.  I had just picked my way around a group of people sitting and chatting around a fire, when someone threw their arms around my waist holding me tightly, my vision was restricted by the mask so I could not see who was hugging me but presumed it must have been a friend who knew me.  I continued on my way and again the arms were wrapped tightly around me for a moment, then were gone.  I moved on, for a third time it happened someone was holding onto me very tightly around my waist.  

I could see now it was the girl who had thought my dark Sheepwoman pretty.  Through the limited vision of my black mask I saw her face as I started to give out the golden thread to her, she gathered it in hungrily, she gathered it in, gathered it in greedily.  She gathered the thread close to her, it seemed to me entranced.   I felt immediately she needed as much thread as possible, as much as this golden thread as she could get.  I reeled it out.  I gazed at her behind my black mask,  feeling compassion, connection and a desire to give her the golden thread.  Seeing her face I now knew she was the person I had made my performance for.  Having given her as much thread as I could I felt I could now go home back to my tent.

Finally on my way "home" I wrapped some thread around a sculpture of a deer and made my way back to my tent, the thread was now taught behind me, the circuit completed.  I took off my mask and costume and sat by the fire in a daze.

The next day I was wondering around the festival as Philippa, dressed in my normal clothes, being myself, when I noticed the girl from the night before, she was still with her dad.  I stopped in my tracks wanting to reach out to her, wanting to say something to her about what had happened last night, but how could I?  I stood uncomfortably by as I noticed her dad had her in an armlock and was shouting at her.  She broke free and walked away, I still looking in her direction when she noticed me.  She approached me and said, 

"Do I know you?"
"Yes", I said,  "I'm the black sheep from last night."
She responded instantly, warmly and said,
"I cried last night when you left".
 I was stunned and asked,
"How did you recognise me just now?"
She said,
"Because of your gentle face".




That night wandering through the festival dressed in black with my golden thread I became a shadow and received all kinds of projections, good and bad.  An 11 year old girl found my sheep to be gentle and loving and somehow received something she greatly needed.  Whereas a grown woman found me to be "evil".  The experience was very intense and left me feeling drained.  However I knew that something very precious, something golden and beyond words had been transmitted to a young girl.   





Saturday 19 May 2012

Sheepwoman at 48 Hour Performance Art Marathon, ACUD Berlin. May 2012

























I've just returned from Berlin where I took part in a 48 hour performance art event.  Here are some photographs from a performance I presented.   The performance included rehearsed aspects and completely spontaneous elements.  Many thanks to Glen Stoker who photographed this performance and all the team at MPA Berlin.

http://www.mpa-b.org/mpa-berlin.html

Friday 18 May 2012

Felt Painting










A new sheep mask, photographed next to a mixed media drawing.  The mask is constructed from a wire armature and embellished with hand made felt, which has then been needle felted and embroidered for details. The drawing consists of a charcoal under-drawing, overlaid with mixed media - straw, wool, oil-bars, and acrylic paint.  I love the painterly quality and tones of the wool.  Photograph taken in my studio in Oxford.