Interview with Elisabeth Færøy Lund
Kabelvåg, October 1st 2015
Q: Why / when / how did you start to work with performance, what is your background, how did you arrive at doing performance?
I started doing performance before I knew much about the term. I did a performance in front of the camera, where all body hair got cut and shaved, followed up by a study in how we meet each other in relation to how we look. The idea came from a personal disagreement concerning the norms around hair and the female body.
This was my first performance just before I started my studies at the school of Photography in Gothenburg back in 2004. My photographic work had a performative
approach, the school had an open form and the path to doing performance art became clearer during the studies.
Creating situations for encounters and the potential in these meetings became more interesting than creating objects to hang on a wall.
Q: What is your process like when you make a performance, from idea to actual work?
When traveling somewhere to make and do a performance, I bring with me an idea- sometimes a strong visual image or an idea based on social events in our lives. To find and release new material, I use my movement practice combined with deep listening meditations as a source. My process is slow and the ideas that linger in my head for longer periods are the ones I rely on and put forth into a performance. The simpler ideas are often the strongest. The decisions of the action are never made before I am present in the room/ place where the performance is to take place. I have a starting point, the idea and my intention, then the journey begins when I meet my audience and the actions take place.
Q: Can you tell about your latest project?
Circular definition, was the name of my performance in a prison cell in the Old jail in Bergen. A person standing in a cell with a black circle around the waist, both circle and body spinning endlessly around, circle moving up and down the body in a spiraling movement. The floor was filled with mung beans and as the body spun, a circle was also formed by the feet moving around in the beans. The piece was connected to the history of the cell where simple and monotonous actions were the only actions possible and how many of us now search for places to have stillness, mindfulness, meditation and simple living. It made me want to attempt to cleanse both the physical space of the cell and my own mental space.
Q: What role does performance art have in your life / artistic praxis? Do you also work within other fields, like installation, sculpture, drawing, other expressions? How do they influence / inform each other?
Performance art is for me a space to explore society, using the body as material, letting the body move ahead of the mind. Working with others in performance improvisations creates new patterns in my own work and letting go of personal restrictions are somewhat easier in the safe space created by collaboration. Apart from my own art practice I also teach architecture students, hold performance improv sessions and workshops in movement meditations using the hula-hoop. In all of these, I use various exercises to find and hold focus, many influenced by Deep Listening where we go from passive hearing to active listening.
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Q: Why / when / how did you start to work with performance, what is your background, how did you arrive at doing performance?
I started doing performance before I knew much about the term. I did a performance in front of the camera, where all body hair got cut and shaved, followed up by a study in how we meet each other in relation to how we look. The idea came from a personal disagreement concerning the norms around hair and the female body.
This was my first performance just before I started my studies at the school of Photography in Gothenburg back in 2004. My photographic work had a performative
approach, the school had an open form and the path to doing performance art became clearer during the studies.
Creating situations for encounters and the potential in these meetings became more interesting than creating objects to hang on a wall.
Q: What is your process like when you make a performance, from idea to actual work?
When traveling somewhere to make and do a performance, I bring with me an idea- sometimes a strong visual image or an idea based on social events in our lives. To find and release new material, I use my movement practice combined with deep listening meditations as a source. My process is slow and the ideas that linger in my head for longer periods are the ones I rely on and put forth into a performance. The simpler ideas are often the strongest. The decisions of the action are never made before I am present in the room/ place where the performance is to take place. I have a starting point, the idea and my intention, then the journey begins when I meet my audience and the actions take place.
Q: Can you tell about your latest project?
Circular definition, was the name of my performance in a prison cell in the Old jail in Bergen. A person standing in a cell with a black circle around the waist, both circle and body spinning endlessly around, circle moving up and down the body in a spiraling movement. The floor was filled with mung beans and as the body spun, a circle was also formed by the feet moving around in the beans. The piece was connected to the history of the cell where simple and monotonous actions were the only actions possible and how many of us now search for places to have stillness, mindfulness, meditation and simple living. It made me want to attempt to cleanse both the physical space of the cell and my own mental space.
Q: What role does performance art have in your life / artistic praxis? Do you also work within other fields, like installation, sculpture, drawing, other expressions? How do they influence / inform each other?
Performance art is for me a space to explore society, using the body as material, letting the body move ahead of the mind. Working with others in performance improvisations creates new patterns in my own work and letting go of personal restrictions are somewhat easier in the safe space created by collaboration. Apart from my own art practice I also teach architecture students, hold performance improv sessions and workshops in movement meditations using the hula-hoop. In all of these, I use various exercises to find and hold focus, many influenced by Deep Listening where we go from passive hearing to active listening.
<< Back