Grasslands Residency 8 - Alex Billingham & Vicky Roden

Title: A Catalogue of the intangible.

‘Explorers of the 17th and 18th century. Mirroring the English arrogance by claiming to be the first to have discovered Grasslands in spite of the indigenous inhabitants; through performance and time slippage through character driven performance.’ - Alex

‘This performance was at once an expression of anger, a howl of pain and an act of catharsis. The ripping of the clothes and the stabbing motion of the bodger are both acts of self-violence. The actions are carried out in a fast, frenzied state.

The use of traditional symbols of grief and loss is intended to be subverted by the performance itself. The central figure isn’t just tearing her clothes as an ultimately futile gesture of loss – the cutting and tearing gives her the opportunity to make herself anew. Like the poor girl of the Velvet Underground’s ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’ she will take the silks and linens of yesterdays rags but wear them as a badge of honour rather than shame. By remaking her clothing she remakes herself – the finished article being not a creature who wishes to be a pleasing image, nor someone who has forgotten who or what she is, but a being who is determined to remodel her world out of the ashes of her fury and the rags of what came before.’ - Vicky

Photo: Alex Billingham

Photo: Alex Billingham

Photo: Alex Billingham

Photo: Alex Billingham

Photo: Alex Billingham