Saturday, February 5, 2011

Secretly dancing to impressive vocalizations

Last night Meredith Monk spoke about her work and sang. Some of the autobiographical stuff was review from the last time I saw her speak, on Wednesday. I was a bit bored and restless at the start, but Meredith's attention to fine-tuning movement inside the mouth and Eun Jung's suggestion to "move the small muscles" were on my mind. So I started some small slow movements while seated... breathe in expanding the rib cage, softly press the shoulder blades and elbows downward, lengthen and curving the lower spine. It was a challenge to make continuous movement that was so small and slow, but I felt connected relaxed as well. Basically an energizing meditation.

Then of course Meredith brought my attention more away from myself and on to her, particularly once she started singing. The whole presentation gained momentum and ended, climactically, with a duet that uses a technique I can't figure out how to spell the name of... hawking or hocking maybe. Meredith and her partner took turns singing one short note each, passing the sound back and forth. I had heard this type of singing in Meredith's work before, and it is a beautiful style to hear, but seeing the electric connection between the two singers added so much more to it. It looked like both play and competition between the two, who held an intense eye contact the entire time.

During the Q&A section Meredith spoke of her creative process, a topic that always fascinates me. She phrased a popular sentiment well when she said (something along the lines of) "Sometimes you have to get yourself out of the way of your art." She was talking about how sometimes the work "doesn't want" a part that she, the artist, wants to hold on to. She also said, several times, that while making a piece she tries to "hang out in the unknown" and that the unknown terrifies her. And then something like... "Then you get more curious than you are scared and then you know you're getting somewhere." I enjoyed that.

It does seem important to me to be able to "hang out in the unknown" in order to make original artwork. But shouldn't that be fun as well as a little scary? Artists shouldn't have to sacrifice themselves for their work. That fits way too easily into the "crazy but glorified
Artist" stereotype.

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