WASHING FRUIT
Performance
Museo del Ciudad, Queretaro, Mexico
2019
A performance developed during a workshop residency with Guillermo Gomez Peña and LaPocha Nostra.
This 20 minute performance meditated on questions of labour and class through a series of repetitive gestures. Standing in a bucket of soapy water, I alternated mopping the surrounding stone floor of the museum's courtyard, washing my body, and floating pieces of plastic fruit. A purifying ritual, that made use of psychomagic objects and props, discovered on a series of meandering walks, or dérives, throughout the old colonial city of Queretaro, Mexico.
Psychomagic: A term coined and practice developed by director and spiritualist Alejandro Jodorowski, Psychomagic suggests that we must transcend our rational and material mindsets to, tap into the deeper and more subtle currents of creative energy in the body, mind and spirit.
In developing this performance, over a five day workshop, I was prompted to go on a series of walks around the old city of Queretaro, without any pre-determined destination, to see where my instincts lead me. In these meanderings, I came across a number of objects - an old bucket, a dirty mop, plastic replicas of fruit at a small shop. These objects worked their way into the performance, enabled over a process of tuning into the subtle, and remaining open to creative possibilities. This practice of destination-less walking is one that I have long employed, inparticular, in my experiences with new places while travelling. Through teh guidance of Guillermo Gomez Peña, and other members of LaPocha Nostra, I was encouraged to lean further into this practice, and to notice what I found, when not looking for anything in particular.
This 20 minute performance meditated on questions of labour and class through a series of repetitive gestures. Standing in a bucket of soapy water, I alternated mopping the surrounding stone floor of the museum's courtyard, washing my body, and floating pieces of plastic fruit. A purifying ritual, that made use of psychomagic objects and props, discovered on a series of meandering walks, or dérives, throughout the old colonial city of Queretaro, Mexico.
Psychomagic: A term coined and practice developed by director and spiritualist Alejandro Jodorowski, Psychomagic suggests that we must transcend our rational and material mindsets to, tap into the deeper and more subtle currents of creative energy in the body, mind and spirit.
In developing this performance, over a five day workshop, I was prompted to go on a series of walks around the old city of Queretaro, without any pre-determined destination, to see where my instincts lead me. In these meanderings, I came across a number of objects - an old bucket, a dirty mop, plastic replicas of fruit at a small shop. These objects worked their way into the performance, enabled over a process of tuning into the subtle, and remaining open to creative possibilities. This practice of destination-less walking is one that I have long employed, inparticular, in my experiences with new places while travelling. Through teh guidance of Guillermo Gomez Peña, and other members of LaPocha Nostra, I was encouraged to lean further into this practice, and to notice what I found, when not looking for anything in particular.