Misuse / Displace: strategies for installation and performance
Over several days, working in the studio and the surrounding area, participants concentrate on the interaction of objects, materials and locations as strategies to build metaphoric imagery and action. Kate presents development tools and games that she used during the making of two of her works - the performance Dark Matter and the video installation De-Placed (a collaboration with Eva Meyer-Keller). Both of these pieces rely on the interaction of objects and materials to push forward the ideas in the work - in a sense making the materials become performers. Kate presents these strategies as working tools, which the participants can then explore and extend practically for themselves, both individually and in collaboration with other participants.
The work comes directly from Kate's fascination with scenography, with the physical traces left by actions, and with the ambiguity of metaphors generated by playing with materials. In her work this is often explored through the tension of misusing or displacing objects in unexpected and disconcerting relations.
The workshop also circles around ideas to do with the performativity of demonstrations and material processes, around language and non-language metaphors, and around installations built in found locations.
Kate's own background is in performance, but the workshop is also useful for scenographers and visual artists who are interested in developing their play with materials, towards a possible performance element.