DOCUMENTATION | performance

The following photographs document Deborah's interest in time based performance compositions and the collaborative possibilities between artists, performers and community.

Shapes of Sleep

For eight hours five

Shapes of Sleep

For 8 hours 5 performers attempt to physically recreate the movements made during sleep. They do this by following recorded instructions played from speakers embedded into their mattresses. Through sheer exhaustion the performers

sometimes also fall asleep, blurring the boundaries between fiction and and the so called 'real'–choreographed and everyday slumber.

Yowza Yowza Yowza

A gruelling 24-hour performance that encaptulates the bizarre and cruel dance marathon craze of the 1930s Great Depression. Trapped in a ring of vaudevillian footlights the two dancers Carly and Jackson recreate historic images of the dance marathons. Over the 24 hours the performers' exhaustion also starts to reflect the exhaustion of those depicted in the historic photographs.

Ferkel-n. small pig

is a collaboration between two chefs, a butcher and three performers. It is an exploration into the artistry that exists within

FERKEL noun. small pig

is a collaboration between 2 chefs, a butcher and 3 performers. It explores the artistry that resides in everyday activity as well as on stage. FERKEL is a performance timed to the cooking and serving of a three-course meal. Each course is made entirely from pig products, including a wonderful blood based Italian dessert, Sanguinaccio.

Postcard

is a collabortion with the rice farming community of Mendut in Java, Indonesia. The performance is a looped choreography based on the actions of farming. The work is presented two hours before sunset and ends as the last light fades. This coincides with the natural cycles of the farmers' working day.

Badai Pasir

is a site specific work made in collaboration with Javanese traditional dancers. Presented at Baron beach in Java, the work explores the Javanese folk stories of the sea siren Nyai Roro Kidul. The godess takes the unsuspecting to their watery death.

Girt by Sea- works with life savers in Sydney. It is the partner project to Badai Pasir and continues to explore cultural understandings through activities and mythologies associated with the sea.