ABC - Actions based on circumstances

On intimacy : getting closer to… 

Teresa Paiva

artist's personal objects, circle of soil on the ground and an orange cloth.

approx. 15 minutes
2023 

The performance explores the meaning of ‘intimacy with the audience ’, through the

exposure to visual information as a vehicle to invite wisdom through feeling and sensation[1]  rather than reasoning. Sensations & emotions become the access point to the highest form of intimacy, that one with Oneself , in connection and presence to what is, rather than what could be... touching up the relation between ritual and intimacy. Or rather, ritual as a form of intimacy.. 

 Audience activates the meaning for the symbolic attributes of the objects used, different for each individually, as well as through the symbolism of the actions unfolding throughout the performance towards an exploration of innate individual meaning making mechanisms.

Becoming intimate with One -self as with the audience, performance unfolds as a form of collective meditation, opening space for personal inquiry about what intimacy might mean/feel to different individuals, in an open/experiential way rather than didactic or more prescriptive.

 Inspired by the Sleep Temples in Egypt and the practise of Yoga Nidra , as the ‘artefacts’ used in the performance are put to rest, wrapped in orange cloth individually, the use of domestic ‘votive’ artefacts from the artist’s personal archive, gathered through travels, references the American art movement ‘Intimism’, with the representation of domestic environment elements/objects.

Sharing glimpses of personal ‘stories’ with the objects brought for the performance, evokes yet another kind of intimacy...that of togetherness and sharing of time and space. The artefacts wrapped with small pieces of orange cloth and laid upon a circle of soil on the floors are arranged in a mandala-like shape as the performance unfolds. In conclusion of this ‘mandala’, the objects are ‘cleansed’ with sound ( bell). I will weave slowly through the audience to exit the shared space, coming into closer contact with the audience.

This sense of closeness with another ‘unknown’ body, brings awareness to how we really experience ‘closeness ‘ and intimacy, individually and collectively, activating a shared space for intimate self-reflection.

Documentation