WE-ING with Eleanor Sikorski (it's about doing something to someone isn't it? Making them feel something...)
Chloe Cooper and Eleanor Sikorski
Screened at EX-FACTORY as part of the KULES residency, Stoke on Trent
............................................................................................................................................................
WE-ING with Eleanor Sikorski (it's about doing something to someone isn't it? Making them feel something...) from Chloe Cooper on Vimeo.
Want
Want
Want
- ing to explore the materiality of those objects asked to operate as props within the performed narrative of WE-ING, Chloe Cooper invited dance artist Eleanor Sikorski to respond to their objecthood using hers...
...these things, these things, these things caught between object and image, anchor and illustration, prop and back drop; asked to carry meaning, to be solid and weighty and simultaneously relational and associative like footnotes and superscripts...
...slipping through the cracks...
inflamed - and - unable to settle into a definite nook...these things, these things, these things are just left there... marooned.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!THESE!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!DUMB!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!THINGS!!!
They've got the ingredients: the corporate sensibilities of the foam board, the failure of the crinkled print outs, the indulgence of the model maker's landscaping material on the papier-mache-d crack, the swank of the mirror roll, the seediness of the red plastic, the menacing weightlessness of the air dough rings but where's the crackle?
.';'.';''.'.';''.'/';;.';.;..';';;.;';;.;...........';;..\\';..,,;;,,.;;''''';;';,,;',;.''.'.' wait! ,,.;;''''';;';,,;;.;..';';;.;''.'.';''.''',..;;';;'...;;...here it comes!
';;.;,;.';;,.;.;.;,;.;'.;,;.; ..';..',.,';;'',..;;';;''''';;.;;',;;,'; it's coming, don't rush it! '';''';...;;';,,;;.;..'';''.'/';;.';.;';;;;;,.;.;.;,;.;'.;,.;..';';;';,,;;.;..';';;.;''.';.;''.'.';'';;.;,;.';;,.'.'... holey moley!
...A bit like lava before it's cooled and turned dull....
...Coercing into participation....
...A period of observation and mimicry as she surveys the situation....
...Back and forth until something spills....
...And escalates with a jolt....
...One thing making sense....
...Leading to another thing making sense....
...Coming clean....
...Repeating things....
...Some things work....
...Some things don't....
...Try again....
Something new.... Some thing that neither was projecting before encountering the other. Rivals, playmates, enemies, kin. Testing, rolling, breaking, rubbing, nibbling, manipulating, slapping, flapping, prodding, twisting, turning, flexing, flicking, repositioning, scraping, encircling, out-doing, swaggering, mirroring, undermining, activating...
AND YOU'RE THE GOOSEBERRY.
Capturing points of intimacy between her and the things. You don't know what she's going to do. You can't get the camera in the right place. She'll probably go out of shot. She might make you burst out laughing. You can't centre her.
“URGH!” “YEAH!”
Bear witness to the squeaking, thumping, hair on mirror, breathing, the camera juddering on the tripod, moments when you can hear, see, smell, feel, taste it... taste the crackle.
- Chloe Cooper
Eleanor Sikorski
Eleanor is a choreographer and performer whose solo work has been commissioned by Dance Umbrella (Big hands, big heart, 2014) and by BELLYFLOP Magazine (Cake, 2013, for Sadler’s Wells Wildcard).
She also makes work in collaboration with other artists – choreographing A&E with Alberto Ruiz Soler (performed at RISE Festival, Findhorn and Experimentica Festival, Cardiff); writing and performing with Matthew de Kersaint Giraudeau (presented at Wirksworth Festival and Experimentica Festival, Cardiff) and running a dancer-led commissioning project with Flora Wellesley Wesley (commissioning Liz Aggiss, Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion, and Simon Tanguy).
She is currently performing a UK tour of A Lyrical Dance Concert(Gillie Kleiman and Sara Lindstrom) and has ongoing working as a dancer for choreographers Eva Recacha, Evangelia Kolyra, Seke Chimutengwende and Alexandre Achour (Berlin). Eleanor is also a member of BELLYFLOP Magazine, an artist-led magazine curating and writing about contemporary dance in London.