Unit 3 Portfolio
Costume Project-Sand Hat
Sand Hat, a performative costume, consists of a stream of sand falling from a large hat over the performers body. The costume’s form shifts constantly in accordance with the cascading of the sand, and as such explores not only the constantly shifting from of nature, but also our cultural attempt to contain, control, and curate this constantly shifting form. It is performed in front of a rough patch of brambles and overgrown grass, barely contained behind a wire fence.
The costumes inspiration comes from the sacred form of the circle, drawing from religious imagery of halos, third eyes, and the sun and moon. The dress is inspired by designers like Hussein Chalayan, and Alexander Mcqueen, while the hat draws from the designs of Harris Reed.
The makeup design is inspired by the imagery of Japanese Kabuki, and reinterprets the third eye as the sacred circle which inspired the hat. The Original Design of the costume featured a flat hat covered in sand, however in order to further express our cultural attempt to contain nature’s form it was redesigned to obscure the sand until the moment it falls from the hat.
Short Sharp Film-The Witches Hammer
Instructions for Performance
Influenced by the instructional performances of other artists such as Yoko Ono and Sol LeWitt, the above are instructions for performance. Performance instructions are rarely carried out, and as such exist primarily as an imagined performance in the mind of the audience. The above instructions take this into consideration and seek to challenge the reader to confront their own vices, secrets, or prejudices through the act of imagining the above performances.
Instructional Performance-Crumpled Paper
Crumpled Paper is an instructional performance created by Scott Castner and performed here by Kaiva Kumerova. The performance consists of one page of instructions, and produces a single paper with three names. Additionally the audio of Kaiva’s Performance is included. The piece forces the performer to make difficult decisions about their feelings towards people in the room as well as people in their own life. It counters our unwillingness to be honest with ourselves, instead forcing the performer to confront their intimate decisions.
Dada Performance-How to Love Yourself
Inspired by the Dadaists practice of creating art and poetry through the random collection of words and images, this performance consist of 12 instructional audio clips, arranged into a playlist and played on shuffle. Because the order of the clips is always different the performance is always spontaneous, requiring me to react impulsively to each instruction.
The collected clips are sourced from different instructional articles on the website wikihow.com. The site, originally intended for simple household instructions (“How to Fix a Door”, or “How to Tie a Tie”) will often veer into the emotional, psychological, or extremely personal. By drawing clips from a source unqualified to handle the complexities of these issue I am challenging the cultural habit of reducing mental illness to simple problems, and applying blanket solutions to a deeply personal issue.
Durational Performance-My Journals
Taking inspiration from the phrase “Just Be Yourself”, My Journals is a three hour durational performance which seeks to challenge notions of identity. For the course of the three hours I whispered the incredibly personal and often uncomfortable contents of my journals into a microphone. Audience members can then listen, one at a time, to these whispers through a pair of headphones. As the performer I refused to acknowledge the audience as they listen, and read clinically without regard for their presence, continuing to read no matter if someone was listening or not. The piece deals with the narcissistic and self aggrandising way western cultures encourage people to seek out and develop deep relationships with themselves, attempting to let audience members in as I create a similarly narcissistic relationship with my ugliest and most upsetting memories.