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Work, Rest & Play
Fieldgate Gallery, London
| Work, Rest & Play was commissioned for the private view of a new exhibition entitled New Life and the Dream Garden at Fieldgate Gallery in Whitechapel. The exhibition, curated by Yu-Chen Wang, included a collection of various art works from international artists, all inspired by the theme of the 16th century novel, Utopia, by Thomas More. For this event, Para-Site developed a dance piece performed around the guests spread across the 10,000sqft converted office space. With three professional dancers, a choreography assistant and a dramaturge the company created three works, interlinked by smaller movement sequences. Each piece was inspired by a different theme discussed in the text and covered community, work and possessions respectively. The first two pieces were performed to a text score and the third was performed in silence. The dancers, dressed in grey hoodies, underpants and socks, represented the Utopians, part of a communist-style society with very little freedom, personal expression or imagination. The three speakers, performed by director Lydia Fraser-Ward, writer Tamara von Werthern and dramaturge Zena Birch, represented the cast-outs from society, those that had indulged in excessive living and now were isolated from the others. |
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| With inspiration from other sources including current newspaper articles, George Orwell's 1984 and images from 20th century communism in China, the piece intended to make a comparison between More's writing, based on 16th centruy England's society and today's. | DANCERS Macarena Campbell Janine Harrington Maria Rita Salvi |
| With the increase of CCTV in daily urban life, the first dance was based on the idea of community, and focused on the idea of being watched by your neighbours and complete strangers. The rhythmic text spoken was written for the piece and focused on the effects of paranoia. The second dance piece, which emphasised the natural routine of daily tasks and work habits was set to a text score of Orwell's quotes and the movement was developed after researching the factory work ethics of Taylorism and Fordism. The third dance, which looked at the consequences of theft and multiple possessions recreated many of the images researched from communism in China, especially the use of placards around the speakers' necks which was a method used in China in the 20th century to punish criminals through humilation in front of their peers. | TECHNICAL Director - Lydia Fraser-Ward Writer - Tamara von Werthern Dramaturge - Zena Birch Choreography Assistant - Lisa Hood Photography - Christian Schmermer |
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