Bodiness: hands like wings.
Creative Development, Stage 1.
The Mill
June 2023
Kirsty Martinsen undertook a Free-range Residency at The Mill’s Breakout Space. The collaborative team included with James Dodd, Erwin Maas, Will Spartalis and Sue Grey-Gardner.
Development of the work in this stage of development included the design and construction of the prototype wings for Kirsty's wheelchair and the accompanying script and lighting schedule. There was a small showing and Q&A to invited guests, providing a chance to test ideas in front of peers for feedback and to make adjustments ahead of showcasing at VitalStatistix and POP later in the year.
Bodiness: hands like wings Creative Development Stages 1, 2 & 3 with Kirsty Martinsen, Erwin Maas, James Dodd, Will Spartalis, Sue Grey-Gardner and Sam Roberts, supported by Arts SA, began in June 2023 and included a Free-range Residency at The Mill (June), Adhocracy, Vitalstatistix (July) and an Work-in-progress performance at POP Gallery (September).
Bodiness: hands like wings.
Creative Development, Stage 2.
Adhocracy, Vitalstatistix, The Harts Mill.
July 2023
The Creative Team participated in Adhocracy, Vitalstatistix in July - taking the work through its second stage of development and showcasing the work to new audiences.
Kirsty Martinsen on the creative rationale for the project:
"I’ve been a painter for 45 years. I am an observer. My studio practice has always been solitary. But for this project I’ll be working with others in the same space, building relationships and utilising transferable knowledge and skills to create a new work. The transition to performance is a natural one as I endeavour to find the most powerful form, other than painting and drawing, to express my ideas. Like drawing trees on a piece of wood with charcoal, I believe theatre is the best form to communicate my ideas about our shared humanity. It’s also important to see a disabled body pushing against limiting expectations and stereotypes.
In 2016 I approached Internationally respected Educator, Director and Theatre Maker, Erwin Maas, to help me build a performance about my relationship to my own increasingly disabled body. I respected him and his inclusive collaborative methods.
We began with a line from a Rumi poem “limited surrender is the human mire/we’re sodden in bodiness…” and mined my journals and drawings for material to build a performance around, including ink drawings I did during initial intravenous treatment. In this sense Bodiness: hands like wings is a durational piece.
Each time I revisit it is an opportunity to dig deeper and refine what it means to me. Erwin and I have not stopped talking about it and the amount of material I’ve already accrued ever since.
I’m aware of the calibre Erwin brings to this collaboration. He knows my backstory from when we were studying in New York. He has a clear picture of what the next steps I need to take to bring Bodiness to fruition. Working with Erwin is the most efficient usage of the small time we have available."
Bodiness: hands like wings Creative Development Stages 1, 2 & 3 with Kirsty Martinsen, Erwin Maas, James Dodd, Will Spartalis, Sue Grey-Gardner and Sam Roberts, supported by Arts SA, began in June 2023 and included a Free-range Residency at The Mill (June), Adhocracy, Vitalstatistix (July) and an Work-in-progress performance at POP Gallery (September).
Bodiness: hands like wings
Creative Development, Stage 3.
Post Office Projects
September, 2023
Kirsty share's her thoughts on the aims underpinning the Stage 3 Development at POP:
"My aim for the thirst stage of development was to explore how audience members could help me build the Kinetic Wings structure around me and the wheelchair, piece by piece, bolt by bolt, until my hands are like wings and I can fly. The audience and performer make something together in a mutual space of personal introspection.
While this work has a disabled performer in it, it isn’t solely about disability. Instead it grapples with the grief abound in the loss of independence, and finding love for who I am, in the body I have, right now.
My body has changed significantly since 2016. I feel trapped in many ways. Visualisation is a very powerful nemonic tool to connect with muscle memory, spirit, and personal freedom in the midst of, and because of, confinement and continual loss. This is what hands like wings stirs in me. And it’s what I mean by ‘the transformative lens of memory’. The enduring metaphor of a bird evokes liberation and hope. Making the audience build my wings with me connects us and says ‘we’re all in this together’. There is no “I want my life back”. This is all we have, and it’s beautiful."
Bodiness: hands like wings Creative Development Stages 1, 2 & 3 with Kirsty Martinsen, Erwin Maas, James Dodd, Will Spartalis, Sue Grey-Gardner and Sam Roberts, supported by Arts SA, began in June 2023 and included a Free-range Residency at The Mill (June), Adhocracy, Vitalstatistix (July) and an Work-in-progress performance at POP Gallery (September).
