ISCA GALLERY

MIA VAN VEEN
External rotation 
09.04 - 08.05.21

The Artist Dance

A body sits alone in a chair at a desk, sketching, writing, dribbling. Feet are on the floor or crossed or curled under the thighs. Lower abdomen is slack. Tension creeps along the arms and into the shoulders and neck. Breathing is shallow. The head bends over the page. Eyes squint to concentrate the thinking that bubbles up within the body. As words cluster in the space behind the forehead, they are squeezed out through the tips of fingers and pen onto the page. The words represent this body that sits and thinks.

So begins the dance of the artist

The arms bifurcate the iron transforming it into two sets of mentalities. The metal is shaped and molded, separated and divided.  While heated it’s lured into a molted suspension and expansion. Arms and fingers are pulling, dragging, stretching. Into east and west, north and south. Hands are shaking. Fluid-filled blisters rise to the surface, but quickly disappears. Legs churn, fingers cold. The metal is pulled out of its center, past gravitation, past the feet of the ground. Into every direction. And Release! Lengthening the spine, tail to top of head. Inhaling, pulling air up the flat front of the body, up through a rising arc.  Pulling against the torso from deep in the pelvis.  Pausing as the spine peaks, perpendicular to the floor. Chest expands, dissolving into air. Contract again! deeper into the source. As head floats upward, buoyed on cushions of breath, body center is awake. So begins the dance of the artist

Feet on the floor, dig into the earth. Soles of the feet pressed together. Hands firmly gripping the machine. Spine curved, rooted in the ground, bent over the steel. Concentrated. Breathing calmly. Waiting. Contract! Exhale, deeply, emptying out the inner surfaces of abdomen, curving in and pulling up, expelling all air into infinity. Belly pressing into spine, chin rising. Head and spine hold the arc and curl over. Ribs and neck relaxing freed by the squeeze of the contraction. Eyes blinded by the veil of the mask. The welders mark skips on the surface of the melted brass. Putting its mark here and there, skipping, tripping, twirling and falling. Do not tremble! Jitter! So begins the dance of the artist

(Loosely based on Martha Graham choreographed dance movements) 

Anne Guro Larsmon, 2021 

Photos by Julie Hrnčířová