There are a million bizarre sights in Edinburgh during the Fringe...and this is just one of them from 2009. :-)
This young lady is from Upstaged Theatre's production of 'The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, which is about Penelope (wife of Odysseus) reflecting on the events of The Odyssey.
Now for the obligatory plug. If you like my Edinburgh Fringe photography...you can see numerous examples of it in my first photographic exhibition at The French Institute in Edinburgh...which runs until November 20th.
i was skeptical about doing this today. i had pulled apart and tried to rebuild the cube that contained the fingers cube, to be able to use it again. i have more unused ones at home but i forgot to bring them. rebuilding the cube was futile at first because for some reason they didn't fit, and all the corners were gaping holes. solved the problem later on by wrapping the cube with cling film.
i was a little short of plaster for this one. the surface was at least three centimeters below the top of the cube, and i was afraid that i wouldn't be able to get my face past the surface of it. this was all i could get in, and the edges of the wooden cube were pressed against my neck and eyebrow. it hurt a little. i think those two holes beyond the facial imprint are holes made by my breathing, a little heavy in effort to keep absolutely still. in retrospect i must learn how to be zen when doing things like these, ignoring my mad throat that is screaming to swallow.
i had planned to get part of my cheek, and had vaseline up to the bottom of my ear actually. but this works too. better, probably, because the circular crop of the chin and cheek complements the curves of the lips.
no one seemed to notice my head halfway down a cube of plaster. mrs mackay came in and asked a question that i knew the answer of ("where has all my gum tape gone?") but i couldn't move. miss doonar came in to say bye. and then miss buchanan started talking to me while i was waiting for the plaster to set, and asked me a question which i can't remember. in response to my non-response i felt her turn around and she said in disbelief, "is she asleep?!" from here i tried my best to keep from laughing. failed at "oh, right, she's molding her face, we can't talk to her," and quickly lifted up my face from the plaster before the many muscles in my cheek and lips contorted into a grin.
i believe this is my coolest mold yet. my sister thinks it's beyond creepy, though.
i can no longer remember how this idea was born. all i remember was it growing too fast; me scribbling it down in my student planner (i have been successful so far in my quest to actually use it. first time in my life. i even tied a piece of ribbon to use as a bookmark, to make finding the week's pages easier). i had forgotten to bring my monoprints home that weekend to work on, so i had sat and got lost thinking about my contextual study until i bumped into this poem:
I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
& that necessary.
- margaret atwood, variations on the word "sleep"
oh, there you go, i do remember how the idea was born.
these are all negative molds of my arm. from left to right: elbow (+ a bit of arm), wrist, fingers. i took the long hours of obliging to volunteer to be a "live exhibit" for open evening thursday night to start this. a lot of people stopped to ask questions, and one of them was "are you going to put anything in there?" i guess holes are generally thought to be meant to be filled. but, "no. i am doing this to show the negative space."
i have five more days to work on this. hopefully i can make at least six more cubes. part of a face, sadly an ear would be too complicated and will probably just break when i try to get it out, the nape, a knee, the back of an ankle. i would have loved to get a curve of the back but it just wouldn't work. ideas?
*
so... here's to the unnoticed. and all those whose raison d'etre is to make them necessary.
At Seattle's Town Hall. October 2009, reading from her latest sci-fi novel, The Year of the Flood. (Sorry about picture quality, SORRY! It was dark, my digital camera was unhappy).
Margaret Atwood stopped during her interview at the Texas Book Festival to take a photo of her interviewer (Benjamin Moser) for her blog or a Twitter posting. This was taken from the upper balcony in the historic old Paramount Theatre near the state capital in downtown Austin.
I didn't think that I would enjoy this book because I don't know The Olympiad at all, but I actually really liked it!.I enjoyed the kind of tongue-in-cheek sarcastic tone that she has going through the book. I do wish that there was actually more to the tale instead of just... stopping.
This is a pieced together shot of the crowd at Seattle's Town Hall auditorium in October 2009 when Margaret Atwood came to give a reading and signing of her latest book: The Year of the Flood.
The VIWF presented a dramatic reading by Margaret Atwood from her novel The Year of the Flood, accompanied by three of Vancouver’s top actors and a choir that sang hymns written for this performance by Ms. Atwood.
The VIWF presented a dramatic reading by Margaret Atwood from her novel The Year of the Flood, accompanied by three of Vancouver’s top actors and a choir that sang hymns written for this performance by Ms. Atwood.
From left to right: Joel Bakan, Lorna Fortin, Margaret Atwood, Linda Quibell, Donald Adams, Adrienne Wong
The VIWF presented a dramatic reading by Margaret Atwood from her novel The Year of the Flood, accompanied by three of Vancouver’s top actors and a choir that sang hymns written for this performance by Ms. Atwood.
From left to right: Margaret Atwood, Jane Mortifee, Linda Kidder, Rebecca Jenkins.
The VIWF presented a dramatic reading by Margaret Atwood from her novel The Year of the Flood, accompanied by three of Vancouver’s top actors and a choir that sang hymns written for this performance by Ms. Atwood.
The VIWF presented a dramatic reading by Margaret Atwood from her novel The Year of the Flood, accompanied by three of Vancouver’s top actors and a choir that sang hymns written for this performance by Ms. Atwood.
