Recently I've been combining the statues exercise with a response to visual art.
and others. It's been liberating. After doing the training this long, the challenge to achieve the form of the exercises, seems to have become insufficient. Maybe I'm bored, or maybe I've lost the ability to examine my own technique. Whenever the statues exercise is taught, the analogy of the sculptor creating an aesthetic from a piece of stone is used. That the artist can see the statue even though they are looking at a hunk of rock. The process of cutting away is a process of trying to reach the kernel, the essence of the idea that they see in their mind's eye. And so if you look at just one tiny part of the statue you will be able to experience the whole. That is if the artist has been successful. So the statues exercise is framed in terms of visual art in the first place. I don't think I'm stepping too far away from the basic tenets of the exercise in using these prompts. I once heard a member of SCOT say that just before they strike a statue they might be thinking of an adjective like red or black, or compressed or stretched, push or pull, front or back. Like it was a condition that was put in place before the statue was struck. In that sense, it's pre-meditation. But why should we be so obsessed with spontaneity anyhow? Spontaneity is merely the act of staying within the moment. The steps, the dialogue, the sequence of a performance are all pre-determined but each night they are performed as if for the first time. So I guess I'm bringing that ethic into the training. So I've been choosing just one painter per night. I look at quite a few of the paintings and I try to study details, or get things that strike me, that inspire me. Then when we do statues, in those moments in the ready position, I let the feeling of the painting invade me. As though the inspiration behind the painting is the state of potential for the next statue. I've been excited by the results. One of the ideas behind doing statues is that an actor can notice well-worn habits. 'Oh my god, how many times can I do that statue where the hand is bent like that and the head is tilted'. But with this injection of visual-art, those very technical ticks have been dropping away. It's as though all parts and each moment holding or moving a statue have found a single spark. I suppose it means that statues on a given night will not be distinct, rather a series on a given theme. I guess I'm okay with that. I could explore this line for a while couldn't I?
Arthur Boyd:
Guo Jian:
Donald Friend:
and others. It's been liberating. After doing the training this long, the challenge to achieve the form of the exercises, seems to have become insufficient. Maybe I'm bored, or maybe I've lost the ability to examine my own technique. Whenever the statues exercise is taught, the analogy of the sculptor creating an aesthetic from a piece of stone is used. That the artist can see the statue even though they are looking at a hunk of rock. The process of cutting away is a process of trying to reach the kernel, the essence of the idea that they see in their mind's eye. And so if you look at just one tiny part of the statue you will be able to experience the whole. That is if the artist has been successful. So the statues exercise is framed in terms of visual art in the first place. I don't think I'm stepping too far away from the basic tenets of the exercise in using these prompts. I once heard a member of SCOT say that just before they strike a statue they might be thinking of an adjective like red or black, or compressed or stretched, push or pull, front or back. Like it was a condition that was put in place before the statue was struck. In that sense, it's pre-meditation. But why should we be so obsessed with spontaneity anyhow? Spontaneity is merely the act of staying within the moment. The steps, the dialogue, the sequence of a performance are all pre-determined but each night they are performed as if for the first time. So I guess I'm bringing that ethic into the training. So I've been choosing just one painter per night. I look at quite a few of the paintings and I try to study details, or get things that strike me, that inspire me. Then when we do statues, in those moments in the ready position, I let the feeling of the painting invade me. As though the inspiration behind the painting is the state of potential for the next statue. I've been excited by the results. One of the ideas behind doing statues is that an actor can notice well-worn habits. 'Oh my god, how many times can I do that statue where the hand is bent like that and the head is tilted'. But with this injection of visual-art, those very technical ticks have been dropping away. It's as though all parts and each moment holding or moving a statue have found a single spark. I suppose it means that statues on a given night will not be distinct, rather a series on a given theme. I guess I'm okay with that. I could explore this line for a while couldn't I?
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