traces is a series of performances
in collaboration with
the visual artist
Hilde Grønner Flikke
exploring documentation
through a combination of
drawings and poetic descriptions
traces is part of an ongoing project
and currently
its documentation here
compiles fragments from
four performances
which took place
in a forest
on north and south sides of a shore
and on a beach
by or close to
Oslofjord’s coast
the documentation
as compilation
aims to create entries
towards imagining
what might have happened
including clues
as to what actually happened
and highlighting the perspective
of both
the method of documentation
and its materiality
the poetic descriptions
and non-figurative drawings
are fragments of the experience
of the performance
from the painter’s point of view
motion and attention
the assignment is simple
the painter documents the performance
the aim is not to
reproduce
the performance via
figuratively drawing it
but rather
to explore
how the sensuous experience
of a visual artist drawing
can be the medium
through which
the performance is documented
commonly
documentation is not there
to consolidate its own presence
but rather
to register
the presence of something else
Alice was seating in the balcony drawing, the Snake asked her:
Do you draw what you see?
No.
Answered Alice.
I see one thing and my hands see other things. I draw what my hands see, my drawings are the action of follow the movements my hands see.
what happens to
both documentation and performance
when the act of documenting
is incorporated into the
action of the performance
and the presence
of the documentarian
is part of the performance’s composition
and concept
the performances traces
are based on
a framed relationship between
motion
attention
and environment
the main action for me
as performer in traces
is to move backwards
this action
allows the movements
to be done in a highly attentive mode
and at a slow pace
as I, the performer, move
the visual artist attends to
draw the meeting points
she is perceiving
she continuously moves
between the lines of
the performer's movement
and the lines she discerns
in the surrounding context
Flikke works with
the visual art method:
movement drawing
which is usually associated with
rendering recognisable figures
as in croquis for example
yet here
the visual artist does not work with
figurative drawing
her focus is
neither on the shape
of the performers’ body
nor on the shapes
in the landscape
the artist’s gaze zooms
into the continuous shifts
between moving lines of
body
matter
and landscape
her hands follow
what captures her gaze
attentive only to the meeting points
between
body in motion
matters
and landscape
she draws lines
with no separation between them
there is no foreground or background
only liminal lines
linking body and world
in this respect
the visual artist’s method
has affinities
with the research practice
which proposes
the body as a constantly
transforming environment
within which
to encounter
and attend to
other bodies
matter
and
environments
Front and back side of one documentation plate of traces #4 - Hellviktangen south seashore, 2023.
Performance Fernanda Branco
Drawing and text by Hilde Grønner Fikke
18:19
the line from the newest twig
in towards the branch
in
towards the branch
down towards
the line
in the woollen jacket
the lines
in the skirt
across the thigh
the knee
the stockings
the shoelace lines
down
into
the lines
of the soles
down
into
the earth
the
long
way
down
the descriptions are
testimonials
written from
the visual artist’s perspective
sharing subjective experiences
of drawing what
she was witnessing
as it was happening
the fragmented
quality of the
descriptions
invites them
to become
poetic texts
Digital version of the documentation of traces# 1 - Drøbak beach, 2020.
Performance Fernanda Branco
Drawing and text by Hilde Grønner Fikke
moving in the liminal space
between sea and land
in relation and in response to
constant shifts in
dynamic and momentum
as I move along the seashore
Flikke draws
the relationship between
my movements
and the landscape
immediately after drawing
Flikke registers the time
and describes what she drew
in short poetic notes
"The drawing gaze does not judge, it only sees. There is no difference in the line along the arm that continues out into a bunch of seaweed or into a fold in the sweater, yes, maybe into the anatomy and then moves out into the fleeting water lines. These movements are a stream, but I still have to stop and look down, to note the time and write down what I just saw. A moment is documented and left where it happened."
Flikke's testimony of her mode of working
Overview of the digital documentation of the performance traces #3 - Hellviktangen north seashore, 2022.
Performance Fernanda Branco
Drawing and text by Hilde Grønner Fikke
Video documentation of the documentation for the performance traces #2 - Røerskogen, 2021.
Performance Fernanda Branco
Drawing and text by Hilde Grønner Fikke
Video and voice over Fernanda Branco
in traces
the documentation of
the performances are also
artistic works produced
in situ by the visual artist
this creates an opportunity to
explore concepts of
collaboration
authorship
and ownership
the agreement between
myself and Flikke
is that anything
produced by Flikke
in the context of traces
exists both as
an original artwork by Flikke
and as documentation of those performances
which are part
of my current Artistic Research PhD
at Oslo National Academy of the Arts
throughout our artistic collaboration
the challenges of
shared authorship
are regularly discussed
with recognition that
re-framing
and renovating our agreement
is an ongoing process
in this way
the artwork doubles itself
I have ownership
of the documentation of
my performances made by Flikke
yet
at the same time
Flikke has authorship and ownership of
the drawings and descriptions she created
unexpectedly
the consequence of these explorations
into documentation have had a ripple effect
generating entirely new art works
which
in one way or other
feed back
into this artistic research
Flikke
had an exhibition of traces
in which
she invited
the musician and composer Håkon Thelin
the musician Maria Bovin de Labbé
and the actress Hildegun Riise
to create
a work based on
one score - drawings, sentences -
of the performances traces
her exhibition
had a concert performance
where they
together with myself
performed those pieces
recently
I have invited
the dancer and choreographer
Kristina Gjems
to create a dance piece from one
of the documentation's scores
of traces
such a generative process
of re-creations
directly connects to
one of the guiding tenets
of this research
a circulatory process of
becoming-with
