The pandemic, on top of all other damages, has also hit an extremely sensitive point of performance art and made it almost impossible for this artistic practice to continue in a meaningful way. A social context is a very central moment of performance art as the simultaneous presence of artist and audience is essential for the work to emerge. What remains of this art process if this important moment is not possible?
The question arose, how can I transform performative thoughts and ideas into other, equivalent artworks without significant cuts and compromises? Drawing, collage and painting are and have been constant companions in my artistic practice. They support thought processes that are essential to my performance work.
Central to my performance work is the creation of poetic images. Drawing and painting share a similar thought process, problems and solutions. Through this intersection I started in October 2020 to experiment more intensely with coloured pencils, white acrylic paint, and brown wrapping paper.
Focused on a small paper format (15 x 12 cm) I related the image making process to my performance thoughts and research. Paper replaces the performance space, while colours, shapes and collage elements substitute actions, gestures, movements, materials and their traces. The resulting drawings are the scores, describing the performative situation and processes.
The moment before the pen hits the blank sheet of paper is remarkably similar to the moment before I enter the performance space. It describes the feeling of rushing into the unknown and is filled with attention and the excitement that art is about to be created. Transferring performative thoughts into another form of visual language gives me the opportunity to continue and develop the process that has been disrupted by the pandemic.
The wonderful thing about art is: Even without a described contextual background, these scores can be considered as pure drawings.