i completed my first artist residency!
well! i did it! my very first residency is on the books. i spent two weeks in the village of agios ioannis in crete at mudhouse residency, working on a dance performance that i’m very proud of. it was definitely full of ups and downs. i switched projects three times, cried a lot, and was both over and underfed. i wasn’t sure what to expect going into it, so here were my takeaways.
i am very ready to start my masters lol. i LOVE research. i spent a lot of time doing research and whatnot instead of working on art. i’ve become very interested in broken britain horror films… so that was a large part of my work there, which i did not share, because it was not artistic.
i am very sick in the head. received lots of questions about why i was so fascinated by: snuff films (no i have not ever actually watched one)/snuff aesthetics, violence in media and literature, the dark web, etc. i could not really answer these questions, but i did try. answers ranged from “i’m severely depressed and it stimulates serotonin in my body” to “i don’t know i’ve always been fucked up and sought out fucked up things”. this will require more introspection and thought in the future.
spending time only with other artists is actually very cool! i maybe dreaded this part the most? i wasn’t sure what the vibes would be… ended up making some very close friends i’d like to go visit in the future (whether that be in estonia, montreal, or london) and some who live very close to me as it stands (new york city baby!). they are full of advice and interesting philosophical ideas and are also very funny. this ended up being my favorite part: late nights on the roof and early mornings on the beach with some of the closest friendships i’d ever made in such a short period of time.
I AM A HOMEBODY. oh lord. hated this realization coming back to me once again. i just LOVE my creature comforts… i love my family and my friends and my loved ones in general… it was very hard to be so far away for so long!!! i thought i would have grown out of this but i haven’t yet.
having unlimited time to make art makes it really hard to make art. i felt less focused than i thought i would be with all that free time. maybe having a job is a good thing sometimes?
overall very glad to have done it! i’m sharing my performance here as well. i did not write during this residency really… i’ll post what i wrote during a free writing session we had, which i didn’t think was very good but sure is proof that i keep returning to the same themes over and over. now that i’m back in the united states with wifi, i shall return to blogging again!
