Day One: What a wonderful day, great group of performers, lovely space and sunshine all day. Inspiring or what? Playful, proper learning, embodied, relevant and alive.
Ten performers bringing a wealth of experience into the room along with open hearts and joyful enthusiasm. They are led gently though an alchemical process of an oral/ bodily tradition allied with imagination, improvisation and inspiration.
What a delight and joy to be part of this.
Clay designs made, starting the papering process. We has a visit from Sarena to tell us more about the Carnival Parade we shall be joining on Light Night. Over the evening about 12 folks put in their time and effort. We shall have a gang going to the ball.
A great atmosphere this evening, good humour, perseverance and hard labour in short bursts. Some great ideas and some extremely fast realisations. From clay into paper.
Session Four being the day we make clay designs for the masks. Great session. Although we seem to have lost three people, we look to have gained five new participants. Next week we shall move into casting in paper.
Drawings: moving betwixt Eagle and Human…not married the two images yet. More work to be done
Today I re-hung an old painting which I made in 89/90 while living in Brittany. Curious as to how I made work then, I found the figures have mask like faces, yes, the mask was with me then, I just hadn’t discovered it. Technically it is a bit rubbish, but looking at it again after 26 years helps me clarify my trajectory. At that time I was rediscovering the figurative while looking at my own personal and political concerns….sexuality, individualism and community. Concerns which occupy my practice to this day.
Preparations before moving into clay. Set of Zanni’s plus. I think,
one more of high status.
This gallery contains 3 photos.
Three Commedia characters. The Human Animal. A Starting Point.
On Wednesday 23rd November, Outburst met again. This time we cast faces using plaster bandage. Eight of them which become negative moulds. I spent a few hours on sunday painting the insides with clay slip, then casting them with plaster to make positives. I removed the plaster bandage and washed the faces clean. We now have facsimiles of faces.
Because of the bandages, the tissue eye protecters and the inexactitude of this process, we have ‘veiled’ faces. This suggests an idea of ‘veiling’ for the emerging project. We shall see what the next week brings.
Stephen Jon Mask 