Made of Wood (2020) emerged in collaboration with Dance Artist Emily Bowman during a 10 day artist residency in Berrara, a coastal village in the Conjola National Park, in Australia. The work responded to a large piece of driftwood, turfed up on the beach.
“I found this beautiful shipwrecked tree and I cried; I felt like I had landed. Since the Covid-19 lockdown, I taken to dancing with trees including stumps and burnt down forests. As I danced with this great piece of driftwood I felt myself taking part in a story, that was akin to my story of getting stranded in Australia. As I danced with the driftwood and explored this land, I realised my British heritage and colonialist history”.
Exploring themes of ancestry and belonging, we played at becoming with the wood, the trees and the land some sort of pirates in us emerged, for an invited audience from the village.
Berarra Residency May 22nd – June 3rd 2020.
