Zanna Markillie

Sustaining Legacy was performed in a private blacked out space. I invited one friend to film and another to participate. In this contained space with only two other women friends I felt completely supported and free to express through my body whatever wanted, in the moment, to be expressed. In the previous performance - Lineage of Making - I was in a ‘social’ mode that was fundamentally there to welcome and invite the public into the creative process. Here I was free to go within myself and be completely authentic.  Because of this there was a strong ritualistic and alchemical aspect to this performance. I had researched how Tania Bruguera prepares for her performances, how she creates a space in which she can be fully immersed in the moment and in her body. Because of this I allowed myself the space and time to prepare for this performance. I performed a ritual by the river where I live and then brought symbolic material into the space at university - earth from my garden, water from the river, a stone and menstrual blood. This all supported me to perform from an embodied place. This performance felt like a deeply intimate experience that was both personal and archetypal in content. What transpired was a ritual about loss, death and rebirth.

My felt experience during this performance was that the three of us were in an inter-subjective field of relations and participation. The filming was as much a part of the performance as the two of us ‘performing’. The camera/camera woman acted like an embodied witnessing presence in the space; therefore the footage authentically transmits the quality that was in the room, at the time. I have made a film piece that I feel IS the performance, it is not separate. Whereas the film made from ‘Lineage of Making’ is a documentary. Both these films are available to watch on the 'Film' page.

The sculpture legs have been the ground and centre for each performance, and because of this I feel that they have been imbued with symbolic meaning. They have become sacred objects to me. And this interests me - when and how do objects become sacred? I have learnt and discovered so much throughout this year, mainly by entering the realm of performance and participation. I see my performances as practice-led research that give punctuation to an on-going process. This year the inquiry was in to the nature of sustaining, and through it I have been discovering my own lineage or legacy.