Thanks for arriving at my blog and taking an interest in the cannons and lineages for my performance experiment piece:
We-dentity – in the company of entangled selves
Here’s the concept and PR blurb:
Four alter-egos and an artist inhabit the same space for the first time. Who will show up and how? Might they become a community, split or refuse to engage?
It’s a moment of not knowing; an improvised experiment that starts with psychoanalyst Philip Bromberg’s idea that a healthy identity involves fluid movement between distinct self-states of cognition, affect and behaviour. Inside the artists’ mind there is randomness, moments of clarity and chaos.
We-dentity is about expanding ourselves, challenging norms and exploring different ways of being. It matters because society needs more we, less I.
It’s taking place on the 18th June in Studio 6 at ArtEz. Check @futuredawnreeves for more details.
It’s a performance by Dawn Reeves and her alter-egos: Donnah, Tatyana Bogdanovic, the little one and Doris*.
Technical assistance: Irina Baldini and the tech team
And thanks to: Arya Celik for invigilation
Here’s more information and background on the dramaturgical operations that are at the heart of my piece and the artists whose work has informed its development.
Lineages and cannons of dramaturgical operations
My practice and research into alter-egos benefit from a long lineage and cannon of artists who use a wealth of dramaturgical operations. In this module I am choosing the following dramaturgical operations:
i) layering
ii) multiplicity
iii) points of view
These are the main operations, I have chosen them on the basis that they serve the concept of my performance experiment and its development. I want to acknowledge other operations that are important to this piece that due to space, I am not illustrating the lineages for, these are: framing – this defines the space and is always a feature in the piece, particularly holding the space, introspection – this underpins the practice and primes / guides the audience into the work, and also I am using personification as I use object (in this case chairs) as if they were the alter-egos in some cases.
(In my notebooks / reflective journalling there are more operations that came up during feedback on an early run through.)
i) Layering
Joan Jonas is a seminal American artist whose work spans decades, a key influence of mine, her practice makes extensive use of layering to create complex, multi-dimensional experiences that intertwine identity ( including various alter-egos), storytelling and myth. She does this using a variety of media: live performance, drawing, installation, video, sound, and photography to create dense, textured environments. In her foundational feminist work Organic Honey (1972) and one of her later pieces Reanimation (2012), she layers live action with video monitors, drawings, and soundscapes, creating a space where the boundaries between live event and recorded image, object, and action, are blurred. I have written about her work Sweeney astray: disgust at the thought of unknown places (1998 ) in the Bodies in Dissent module, where she performs wearing costumes, uses the voice of the poet Seamus Heaney as an alter-ego and explores the fluidity of identity in times and places of war through layering and contrasting images.
ii) Multiplicity
Sin Wai Kin is for part of my lineage as an artist working with multiplicity in relation to their alter-egos and characters. Their works challenge binaries of many kinds, particularly gender. (And I acknowledge their use of drag.) I am particularly building on Sin’s work, “A dream of wholeness in parts,” (Sin, 2021). The video work formed part of the exhibition, It’s Always You at the Blindspot Gallery, Frieze London and was nominated for the 2022 Turner Prize. There’s also the piece, “It’s always you” where they embody a boyband, and centre on interaction of multiple characters, using them as a system to explore and dismantle binaries related to gender, identity, and reality.
Sin Wai Kin conceptualizes their multiple characters as a collective or "multiplicity as one body," where distinct personal narratives and identities coexist and are performed simultaneously. What I distil from this multiplicity operation is the way it allows Sin to unfix identity and present it as fluid and relational rather than singular and fixed.
iii) Points of view
Nisha Madhan and Julia Croft are New Zealand-based performance artists who collaborate closely are known for their innovative dramaturgical approach called “liquid dramaturgy.” Nisha Madhan and Julia Croft use dramaturgical operations of multiple points of view to create performances that are non-linear, fragmented, and intersectional. Works that I have in my lineage include Power Ballad (2017) and Working On My Night Moves (2019), which use points of view to create performances that are part performance experiment, part karaoke party, and immersive theatrical experiences.
This dramaturgical approach supports their conceptual goals by enabling a multiplicity of perspectives to coexist, challenging dominant power structures, and inviting audiences into a more complex, embodied experience of the work. More generally, dramaturgy as a practice thrives on the interaction of diverse perspectives within the creative process, enriching meaning and fostering reflexivity.
Concepts
Concept – As described above, and in the programme notes for the DRA performances – my concept is the community of alter-egos (for the Artez assessors – it will not explore the transitions / third spaces between my alter-egos – that will be explored in the DBR.)
i) Layering
I am using layering because it presents and mirrors a multifaceted way of seeing the world, because it allows multiple and meanings and temporalities to coexist, this supports my concept of multiple alter-egos performing and expressing themselves in different forms. In the experiments in the development of my current inquiries I have found this to generate new connections, responses, and data. I am also using layering like Joan Jonas as an aesthetic response to challenge fixed notions of singularity and gender through the interplay of images, performance, film, and fragmented narrative. By layering performance, drawing and film with storytelling I hope to connect personal, cultural, and contemporary issues. This multi-layered dramaturgy allows for a poetic exploration of identity that is non-linear and open-ended.
ii) Multiplicity
I am presenting bringing my four alter-egos into the performance and focusing on an aspect of multiplicity that Sin also uses in the above pieces – a focus on inter-character relationships and dialogues. This is at the heart of my concept as I attempt to understand how the alter-egos work as a community (or not), how they relate to each other, interact with, and reflect on each other. I hope this also supports the concept by showing the constructed nature of identities and that multiplicities can challenge societal norms. Through this performance experiment with the group of alter-egos – and what comes next – I hope to extend the dramaturgy into a philosophical and embodied inquiry.
iii) Points of view
I’m using points of view to support the concept of multiple distinct entities of cognition, behaviour, and action. It’s a show don’t tell operation. It supports my conceptual goals by enabling a multiplicity of perspectives to coexist, testing, and challenging norms and inviting audiences into a more complex experience of the work. I hope the interaction of diverse perspectives within my creative process, enriches meaning and fosters reflexivity.
Bringing it together – synthesising effectively and helping the audience with a coherent structure.
I am using a combination of layering, multiplicity, and points of view to deepen meaning, to provide a rich the range of narratives in order to support the overall impact of the performance experiment. The different dramaturgical operations work together hopefully to provide coherence to the performance – for e.g. because there are multiple alter-egos with layers of images and media, there is multiplicity in all aspects of the work. Because there are different points of view, associated with the alter-egos, we will see how their community evolves or not.
After the rehearsals I am in a better position to see how coherently the choice of operations worked – I hope that comes across in the performance experiment - and I’d be happy to hear any further feedback. Thanks for reading.