In the writing task, seen below, I didn't really respond to the question of process and I didn't express from my own perspective. In the seminar I found I had much more to say - ie. the process of translation / collaboration / subversion that this work portrays alongside the physical subjective / artistic processes. For example - the quote about this piece standing outside of the normative and/or Patriarchal structures - why? Do I agree? In answering off the cuff I listed the structures of Patriarchy: the hierarchical, the institutional (the history of institutional abuse of power), the binary positions, othering, order, the 'white cube', 'fixing the object', creating one history or dominant narrative, valuing specialised objects within already established hegemony, separative, objectifying, the colonial perspective, the suppression of the feminine, body, feeling, unconscious, earth / nature. Peake's performative sculpture: RITE - subverts this perspective by it's messy, sensual, body-orientated, fluid expression - she destroys the '4th wall' - the audience, the performers and the clay are united into one event - the audience are inside the work, to protect themselves they wear ponchos! (The clay started quite hard, but they sprayed water with lavender on it so that by the end it was very wet). Something about the horizontal (web) subjective - unified field of relationships - we're all in it together - shared experience - no walls of separation. Their is no one author - and history is brought to the present and re-translated - does this process work? Cross-disciplinary collaboration - dance, art, performance, sculpture.
I think you might look to develop the discussion more in your words, to shift the focus onto the material processes perhaps – e.g. the way that water and clay combine, or the way in which the process of firing changes the structure of the clay at a molecular level?
or you might look at the process of translation – what happens in Peake taking the Stravinsky work and bringing it into the 21st century?
perhaps you are trying to deal with too many aspects to cover in 300 or so words;
Florence Peake is a London based performance artist, who’s practice explores the relationships between the moving body and different materials. Peake’s interest is in the theatricality of making and tactility of the actions and gestures behind the sculptural object. The meeting between body and material act as a metaphor as she says,
‘I want to give significance to the riotous and primal body as a manifestation of protest and as a catalyst for positive change as we see growing turmoil in the world as well as exploitation and repression of people and the environment’ (Joseph (2017).
RITE: On this pliant body we slip our WOW! is described as ‘a primal, erotically-charged mud-fest’ (Buck, 2018) where the audience members wore pink plastic ponchos to protect themselves from flying wet clay. The physical process of choreographed movements is exaggerated, restricted and ultimately captured by the clay, which is at first wet and then fired and glazed. The dancers are coated by the wet clay and become like dynamic living sculptures - we, as an audience, watch the mayhem of sensuous interaction, which is continuously in the making – a fluid encounter which activates body, material and audience in one event. Of course the direct impact of Peake’s RITE (2018) can only exist in the moment, but the process of it’s coming into being can be felt by the sculptural installation of the fired clay (Duguid, 2018).
This piece is a sculptural translation Igor Stravinsky’s (1882-1971) The Rite of Spring (1913) – which when it was first performed induced riots, as the pre-war audiences were horrified by its perceived primitive and uncivilised nature. Peake is drawing an equivalence to today’s political climate, and in this piece her collaborators’ bodies shape the clay stage into a narrative arc where,
‘Slapping flesh, material and movement merge into a glorious, celebratory and defiant protest’ (Patridge 2019).
In this process driven performative sculpture the body’s instinctive intelligence reveals a language through touch – and this stands outside of the normative and/or patriarchal structures. As Buck says in her review, the ‘visceral intensity and physical power’ of RITE ‘blast away Little England conservatism and celebrate the rising sap of spring’ (Buck 2018).
References
Buck, L (2018), ‘A primal, erotically-charged mud-fest’: Florence Peake’s rite at De La Warr Pavilion’, The Art Newspaper, 14th May, accessed: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/blog/a-primal-erotically-charged-mud-fest-florence-peake-s-rite-in-bexhill on 28/10/19
Duguid, H (2018), ‘Lepaing around naked in clay, painting her girlfriend’s vulva… Meet Florence Peake – ‘the Lena Dunham of art’ , The Independent ,2nd May, accessed: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/florence-peake-rite-of-spring-lena-dunham-clay-phyllida-barlow-eddie-peake-a8331221.htmlon 28/10/19
Joseph, M (2017), ‘Marcelle Joseph Interviews Florence Peake, Recent Jerwood Choreographic Research Project Prize Winner’, Fad Magazine, 12th January, accessed: https://fadmagazine.com/2017/01/12/marcelle-joseph-interviews-florence-peake-recent-jerwood-choreographic-research-project-prizewinner/ on 28/10/19
Partridge, R (2019), ‘Bodily Intelligence: An Interview with Florence Peake’, Berlin Art Link, 25th January, accessed: http://www.berlinartlink.com/2019/01/25/bodily-intelligence-an-interview-with-florence-peake/ on 28/10/19
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