On the Art of Keeping Moving
Last night, I was invited by Yorkshire Dance to take part in a public conversation, Shape and Momentum: Making Art in Restless Times.Talking and thinking alongside choreographers Liz Lerman and Holly Blakey, and Northern School of Contemporary Dance’s artistic director and principal Janet Smith, it was an hour and a half jam-packed full of big ideas, from US gun culture/dance cultures, to particle physics, to aesthetic and political equity.These are just a few unordered reflections on how taking part moved me to think about Fevered Sleep’s practice and the deep value of art.
>> What unique and specific knowledges do “we” value?What do artists value?What is the value of the arts to someone who feels they are not invited to take part in them?What value does art hold for society?How does the unique and specific knowledge of an artist hold up against the unique and specific knowledge of a plumber, say, or a surgeon, or a farmer, or an astronaut, or the people who keep the shelves stocked in the shops?In a deeply troubled, suspicious world where isolation and separation are literally trumping empathy at every turn, how can the unique and specific knowledge of art and artists be deployed with urgency and purpose, in order to connect, and consider, and carefully care?It seems to me that right now, when the chaotic politics in which we live and work might make art seem trivial, right now is when we have to make our most radical work, with the most passion and the most urgency, and the most radical hope.
>> What did I choose this for?What am I doing here?Why does this thing, this company, Fevered Sleep, exist?What right do we have to have this resource?And if we accept it, how do we honour that responsibility, make the utmost use of that opportunity; what can we do, specifically, and urgently, and with purpose?
>> Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle:if you focus on a particle’s position, you can’t measure its speed.To measure its momentum means you lose track of its position.How does this scientific concept translate for me, for art?I co-founded Fevered Sleep 21 years ago.I guess back then I was an “emerging artist”, which I guess means that now I’m a “mid-career artist”, which I guess means at some point in the future I’ll be a “late career artist”.But what does it mean, to be somehow on this track of career development and unexpected progress?How can I keep working with momentum, restless and curious, resistant to becoming fixed in a position, fighting against stasis, within a system that values clear identities (creative and political), concrete propositions, and a well-honed craft?
What risks do I take, personal, professional and political, in order to keep moving, keep changing, keep learning, keep going?
>> How do we “make ourselves accessible” to people for whom art and culture are not matters of entitlement?How do we “make ourselves accessible” to people who do not feel invited to take part?How do we “make ourselves accessible” to people who think and feel that art and culture is not for them, whose unique and specific knowledges are in a different territory entirely?Is it perhaps, simply, by being interestedin them.But to be interested brings another whole set of risks, because how do we remain interested if there’s a strong, strong chance we will disagree?
>> I don’t want to be “a mid career artist”.I don’t want to be fixed like that, somewhere between “emerging” and “late”.I want to be emergent, perpetually in motion, changing, and being changed.Being changed by being alert, and curious.Being changed by the work, and the processes of working.And being changed – and challenged – by others, by being interested in others, in those who are un-like-me.If I can be open to this, and nurture this, and use the opportunity of a company like Fevered Sleep to facilitate this:then perhaps we can start to make work that speaks with value and urgency and purpose, to these strange and restless times.
https://yorkshiredance.com/whats-on/event/liz-lerman/