The body of work in this chapter refers to the temporal curve of the adolescent body, re-imagining the body in its state of (be)coming.
Through a series of experimental photographs using long exposures, to capture the moments in-between of movement, the stutturings and stop/start nature of teenage dance practice.
The first series, young dancer aged 14, uses a corset designed with a heartbeat sensor and a series of leds, which flash on and off acording to the rythmn of the dancer's heart.
These images attempt to capture the invisible bodily rythmns, that are particular to young dancers, as they attempt to turn fluidly in the studio. The photographs aim to highlight the moments in-between.
These images appear in the non-linear film below, Swift as a Shadow. This film explores the curve of childhood, mapping my daughter's dance training from her hesitant starts at aged 5 through to her own compositions for A level dance.
The polaroids shown below, Be-coming, are analogue/digital images of my daughter, again wearing the light corset. The two images show the transformation of the polaroids as an emulsion lift, where I have either lifted the print onto glass or scratched into the prints.
I printed the above series on large scale aluminium, to see these in exhibition, and the video below, click here:
In Double Time above I re-map the movement of the twins as they dance in an abandoned factory in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham. These photographs were printed on recycled felt and exhibited as large scale prints in an exhibition at the Hive (2024).
In Double Time on Point I record the twin's durational movements as they attempt to turn on pointe, using a long exposure on a medium format camera.
This series highlighting the difficulty of turning on the point of the foot for adolescent dancers is expolored further in the Interval, Hem, Edge, Extremeties.
Becoming 2 & 3 shown above, are created by scoring into the emulsion layer and adding a cynatope background, the image is transformed into a study of the moving body in time, space is abstracted. The title, Becoming 2, is also a play on words, as this a double exposure showing two images of the young female body in one analogue print, the second figure becomes more prominent in the manipulated print. It also has a temporal dimension, as the first print is destroyed to create Becoming 2.
The original polaroids wer exhibited in a vitrine in the basement of the gallery alongside the film, Swift as a Shadow.
This series highlights the impermenance of polaroid prints and how they naturally decay over time. I am playing with this notion of transformation over time, and manipulting the image to highlight this.
