I've been interested in acts of compaction and materials that have gone through a number of processes or some sort of state change. It's partly to look at time - how substances that have been through such change have their own time and appear to contain, struggle to contain or perform it. Some substances command certain movements when interacting with them. It often feels like enactments of intuition, messages or body memories.
Molasses and indigo are materials that (along with their ontologies and physical attributes) also make me think about those before me who, historically, cultivated and processed them on plantations in different parts of the Caribbean including Jamaica. How in this subjection, transferences and extractions of labour, energy, knowledge, capital and resources occurred. Of the past but also very current, on a global level. I'm reminded of Kathryn Yusoff's 'A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None'.
I did this performance back in June, 2021 at VSSL studio in Deptford, London for their event 'Gathering in a time of Plague'.
materials: Indigo, tree branch, molasses, squid, glass jar/bottle, bowl, water
Filmed by Marco Berardi and Baiba Sprance
Thanks to Benjamin Sebastian and Joseph Morgan Schofield for the invitation and support.