MemoryWork
(feminist methodology of working originally, what the project combines is art and choreography practice working with memory as a form of labour)
TASK_
︎︎︎ come up with 10 different artworks, projects, books, other performances that you feel fit into the category of memory work
︎︎︎ this can involve your practice in the form of keywords OR cited Title, Year, Name
︎︎︎ write down your experience of ROM, and about the MemoryWork experience
1. Black Boys 2018 Tawiah Ben M’Carthy, Stephen Jackman Torkoff + Thomas Olajide (performed at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Toronto, Canada)
2. Shape-shifter
3. Belonging: A Culture of Place by bell hooks
4. the body as a fever dream 2020 Dallas Fellini (exhibition curated by Fellini on “ the moments in which our understanding of and presence in our own bodies is fluctuating, moments in which we feel we do not wholly exist, moments where our physicality may encounter a limbo state between presence and absence.”)
5. Tentacular
6. PREVAILING VOICES 2018 Aria Evans and Lilia Leon (two solos exploring themes of identity and self-empowerment for women. performed in Scotiabank Studio Theatre, Toronto, Canada)
7. Soft openings
8. Muted findings
9. My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem
10. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
The experience was fruitful. Finally I feel at home in a learning space. We sit on the floor where and how we want. The openness is nostalgic.
We are first introduced to Ingunn who moves us through her narrative of memory, embodied practice and moments received and lost through remembering a piece that was held in her body years ago. I recognize myself in her, even though we are separated by decades and my body is not yet as wise as hers — experience layering her body knowledge richer.
I am curious to see the development of this process, and wished to be a fly on the wall as the three of them navigated the VR world. What we saw: the paper grounding us in the space is enough though. It allowed the class to organize together threads of what memory means to us in relation to our practice, in relationship to our being.