"She thought I was a Valentino runway model, but there I was at home in my sweatpants". The quote is for real and stems from when the artist was suffering from depression during one year, reduced to a relentless rationing of energy. When unable to walk, get out of bed, to get dressed, to answer an email, sometimes speak or understand language, she stumbled on some beautiful Valentino haute couture gowns, and started to Photoshop her face into those really expensive beautiful dresses for the privileged; to change face, or life. Creating moments where she afterwards realized that she hadn’t thought about the illness for a few precious hours. One day she posted it online, and an acquaintance thought she was the model.She wrote everything down of fear of forgetting, she forgot anyway, so that may seemed pointless. But when recovering and working with her MFA solo exhibition she found her way back to the notes. The project is based on all the writing during those years, an excavation of archives, for a subtraction into a second bodice. In the work Above the silent, we meet the artist in a live solo performance in which she is blending together video projections, spoken word and choreography and absurdly performing what could look like a catwalk while privately speaking from the very dark corners of her existence. The poetry together with choreography forms the performance. And with the notion that as every day is followed by a night, so every night is followed by a day.
Artistic Statement
My texts and poetry are the foundation in my body of work, which later on materializes into a live performance, video or remains on the page.In my practice, I tend to fluctuate between the strong and the fragile as well as between what is normally perceived as the humorous and deeply painful. I work with how I perceive the spoken language; transforming everyday speech into everyday poetry, constructing it in the interplay between self and societal structures. The politics of emotions are universal; we all feel. But often these feelings are left behind in a demanding noise of the image of us having to be successful, and perfect. With my work I create a metaphorical archaeological site; I dig up what is buried, trying to reveal and share the poignant feelings that we often leave behind. I choreograph the absurdity and humor of life through words and with my body. I believe that choreography forms into different shapes and sizes; and how this is one thing we all have in common; a choice to make every day: to move, or not to move, that is the question. How I shift motion, emotion, makes the language change in time. Together with being ‘here and now’ in my live performances, I try to create a moment in time that never comes back, a present tense we share, that disappears and only remains as a memory.