curious

Leslie Hill and Helen Paris are currently the Resident Artists at the Arts Institute, University of Wisconsin Madison. (click here for residency website)

As part of their residency they will be developing new work, teaching a course called Autobiology: Biography and Biology in Live Performance (click for course details) and presenting a series of public events (below).

INSIDE STORY: PERFORMANCE, BIOGRAPHY & BIOLOGY

December 4-12, 2010

A week of performances, films, installations, papers, seminars and workshops exploring the connections between biography and biology, featuring resident artists Helen Paris and Leslie Hill and students from their fall semester interdisciplinary arts course ‘Autobiology’ and guest speakers and artists including Lois Weaver.

As part of Inside Story, Curious (Paris and Hill’s London-based theatre company) will present two performance works developed in collaboration with biological scientists. Their intimate performance piece On the Scent explores the connections between the sense of smell and memory and emotion. This piece has been performed in 14 countries since its premiere in 2003. Curious’ latest work, the moment i saw you i knew i could love you, is about ‘gut feelings’; fight, flight and freeze reactions; impulse, love and undefended moments. This piece premiered in London and toured the UK to critical acclaim in 2010. For the Madison production the company will work with local performers.

Documenta, Kings Lynn 28-30 June

The end of the month saw a really interesting collection of work as part of Documenta; a delightfully creative artist-led initiative with UK and international artists participating. The setting of the Kings Lynn Arts Center is really gorgeous and the spaces were really thoughtfully used. Lets hope this organization gets all the support it deserves as it has much to offer

Co-Curator of the event, Richard Layzell, had some lovely work on show particularly interesting was ‘The Shed’. This piece was developed in Shanghai as part of the Visiting Arts One Mile Squared residency. You come upon the work as if by chance. You enter a warehouse on first glance full of clutter. You become aware of a cacophony of noise – its sounds like hundreds of song birds have been let loose. Then to your left you glance movement. On a seemingly haphazard pile of boxes is a beautiful projection of Chinese men surrounded by bamboo cages of tiny birds. We happen upon this vision just as Layzell, suddenly stumbled upon this scene on his recent artist trip in China

There was a really lovely range of work thoughtfully curated - to mention just a few: a ferry ride to a ‘pick your own gift’ jumble sale, Kate Hodges Backstreet Tour which gave a highly informative, unique and often surprising look at Kings Lynn, a hypnotic video piece ‘YOU’ by Australian artist Allan Giddy, Tiki Mulvihill and Fae Logie’s ‘Flotsam and Jetsam’ and Brigitta Laube’s mesmerizing pictures of the Rhine.

A curious communiqué highlighting recent live art events happening in the Eastern Region.

Junction Sampled: Live Art 1-3 May 2010

It was impossible to see everything in this action packed event, especially as Curious were also performing, but some of the pieces we did have the chance to sample were:

‘Breathing’ - a chance to take hold of a moment with artist Caroline Wright, enclosed in a tiny one-person tent under the stairs in the foyer of the Junction. I unzip the tent and enter a bright white space. Caroline gently instructs me to sit down. There are two white bowls filled with water between us. Caroline places a white towel over both our hour heads and says,’ Breath with me.'  Together we breath the moisture evaporating from the bowls of water. The smell is menthol, eucalyptus. It is head clearing and reminds me of being off sick from school - the smell of Vicks Vapour Rub. It is pleasant and I relax in this moment of breathing together.  Gradually the rhythm of the breathing changes, it gets faster and faster. I try to follow, to keep up. The tranquility of a moment ago changes to a feeling of panic, claustrophobia and breathing becomes breathlessness.  But then Caroline’s breaths slow down and mine with her and all is calm again and the performance over.  A lovely moment where breath became so present and so absent at the same time.

Abi Cunliffe’s quiet ‘Reflection’ conjures a moment of stillness amidst the hectic programme of work happening all round it. Using audience members and seemingly random words on paper she creates a silent contemplation of the Moments in Between Everything Else. The placing of the words on the window reflects the world in between and are a lovely trace to leave through the weekend of performances.

With ‘64’ Vicky Weitz leads us to contemplate a very different world, more familiar to Alice’s Wonderland where anything can happen - and very well might! In her energetic funny and engaging performance Weitz whips up her audience into participants of a game where no one is sure who is in charge and what the rules are. Weitz has a great persona and can pretty much get us to do whatever she wants!

Another pair who exhibited good audience control were Hunt and Darton with their madcap ‘Break Your Own Pony’. This was a really enjoyable performance that knew its withers from its walking trot. It took me back to the days of the WH Smiths ‘Win a Pony’ Competition in a piece that was smart, saucy and a little bit posh. Like Weitz , these gals also put their audience through their paces and good teeth and flowing locks are rewarded with satin rosettes.

With ‘Reduced Frequency’ Richard Dedominici has whipped up a whole whirlwind behind a door on the first floor. Witnessed only through the tiny spy hole in the door you are privy to an office in chaos and a wind that you could feel against the lashes of your eye that upturns office furniture and runs amok with the filing system

In ‘Projection of Circumstance’ the Escape Artist takes us on a physical visceral journey of experience. The performance starts with the lights coming up on a figure prostrate and immobilized. He is tightly wrapped, mummy-like on the floor. Through struggle and effort the escape artist breaks free and pulls himself upright, and finally stands,his naked stomach contracting, concave. The journey ultimately delivers him into the light of love and acceptance.

A background to all this work through rain, wind, freezing hail and sudden shafts of sunlight was ‘Hop Skip and Jump’ – the hop scotch game that really builds up those calf muscles and gets the heart racing. The stalwart participants kept up their steady pace over the long hop scotch court, cheered on by the LACE organisers.

Mayfest Review: The Moment i Saw You i Knew i Could Love You
5 stars

Bristol, Contemporary, Multi-Visual, Stage, Theatre, Theatre Review

May 15, 2010, Arnolfini

Up until now I have never had cause to climb aboard a life raft, a fact for which I am exceedingly grateful. But sitting in one to watch this latest production from London theatre company Curious only added to the show’s quiet magic.

‘The Moment I Saw You…’ is about love, and whether you should stay and stick it out or give up and run. Skillfully blending intimate live action with vintage-looking film and a gorgeously evocative soundtrack, Curious weave together wonderful stories about imperfect characters: a lady cast adrift on a lilo, a woman trying to hold back the sea, a man standing on the edge of a cliff, waiting to jump whilst being watched by a calmly philosophical whale.

There are some compelling performances. Claudia Barton has a voice as richly seductive as ladlefuls of melted chocolate, while company founders Leslie Hill and Helen Paris sure know how to spin a yarn, whether that means holding court with a mic or whispering right there in the life raft with you.

Granted, the life raft is a bit cramped and not enormously comfortable (my bum is still a bit numb). But discomfort is easily dispelled by the ending, a moment of pure joy that celebrates love and says yes to staying and sticking it out. I urge you to see this, but be sure to take someone you hold dear (and maybe a cushion).
Clare Ogden

What to see: Lyn Gardner's theatre tips

And the one show of the week you shouldn't miss? Curious's beautiful The Moment I Saw You I Knew I Could Love You, at the Bluecoat in Liverpool on Saturday. Can't make it? Don't despair: it's touring to Cambridge, Lancaster, Bristol, Brighton, Colchester and Exeter, too.

Posted by Lyn Gardner Friday 9 April 2010 15.03 BST guardian.co.uk

FOUR STARS Lyn Gardner The Guardian, Sunday 21 March 2010

Until I saw this exquisitely delicate show, created by Curious, staged here as part of Scotland's National Review of Live Art, I had never considered that when you are cast adrift on a lilo, you are, in effect, floating on nothing but your own breath. If your breath gives out as you float out to sea, you will certainly sink and drown. You might be swallowed by a whale and find yourself sitting in its belly and bleached white by its gastric juices, like the sailor who tumbled overboard from his ship and was found by his crew inside the whale's stomach: white, frozen with fear but still breathing.

The lure of the sea is strong in this beautiful, watery show where the spectators becomes immersed, too. You have to find your sea legs in a performance that places the audience in jelly-like structures recreating the experience of sea sickness or that lurch in the stomach that comes with sudden love or terrible fear. This is all about gut feelings.

Film and live performance, soundscape and installation combine in this love story to offer glimpses of an endless horizon as well as intimate close-ups. A pack of sea sickness pills becomes a miniature movie screen; we pry into the stomach of a member of the audience to find a surprising place where boats lurch on storm-tossed gastric oceans.

There is something immensely wistful about a piece that demonstrates that we are merely chemical compounds, and yet also shows us how to discover equilibrium. At the end, we are paired up and dance, an apple balanced between our foreheads. Like every second of this show, it is fragile and intangible.