CURRENT WORKS

So Far Sonar

The uncanny presence of sound - particles vibrating in the air - surrounds us. When we hear, we are both listening to the air and feeling the vibration of a space. The curiosity of how we can be with, support or even disrupt the atmos informs this work.

So Far Sonar asks the viewer to engage in a process of feeling, and attune to the presence of the unseen.

Using the resonant frequency of the performance space as a starting point, we map the topography of the ephemeral - exploring sine waves, vibrations and radial signals. This frequency grounds the work, creating an invisible yet tangible foundation from which the sonic landscape can grow, allowing the performers to respond to the peaks and valleys of the sound waves within the space, which although subtle – can be felt. Working with the body in and around the invisible forces, bringing care and attention to what may be difficult to see but tangible to feel, and noticing what is possible to transmit to each other.

Tracing these peaks and valleys, we will develop an alternative map of the space for the audience to follow during the performance. So Far Sonar takes place in the air waves, appearing on axes of resonance, hovering around new age speculation, all the while grounded in the feeling body, sensing the very real matter that physically vibrates in the air around us.

So Far Sonar (2022)

With thanks to Lee Serle, Benedict Carey and Cleo Mees.

So Far Sonar was commissioned by Dance Makers Collective's youth company Future Makers, and performed at Granville Art Gallery, in December 2022.

Choreography: Patricia Wood
Sound Composer and Performer: Alexandra Spence
Performers and Collaborators: Future Makers 2022
Maddy Backen, Sarah Goroch, Beryl La, Matina McAneney, Juliet Saito, Rachelle Silsby, Ashleigh Veitch, Bianca Yeung.
Producer: Dance Makers Collective
Photo: Alex Karaconji
Footage: Mitchell Christie Edited: Patricia Wood

Trish + Trisha

How can one become bodiless?
This is one of the many questions that underlies my fictitious friendship with modern dance pioneer Trisha Brown.
It began by thinking about what it might mean to share a name, Trish/a, accompanied with a soft realisation that through my training as a dancer, I have some pathways and embodied information that can be traced to her.
This practice isn’t about becoming Trisha Brown but instead setting up ways to spend time with her. The aether becomes a site where we potentially meet - both bodiless - and be in relation to each other.
This work attempts to deal with the transference of embodied knowledge from a body to another, mediated through archival material and through non-symbolic morphic processes - resonance, vibration, kinaesthetic empathy and perhaps forms of soft telepathy.
At the moment the research lives and morphs through the actions of reading, dancing, mimesis, conversations, working near and amongst archival footage, CB radio broadcasts, writing letters and a number of short choreographic works.

“Trish Wood… is at the top of her game in terms of both physical/ technical and emotive/intellectual prowess.”
Vicki van Hout, FORM Blog, 2022
https://www.form.org.au/trishtrisha/

Trish + Trisha (2018-ongoing)

With thanks to Lee Serle, Benedict Carey and Cleo Mees.

Trish + Trisha was initiated by an invitation to contribute to First Run, facilitated by Rhiannon Newton and Brooke Stamp at ReadyMade Works.
Trish + Trisha has received DAIR support in 2019 from Australia Council of the Arts, Ausdance NSW, ACPE.
In 2022 Trish + Trisha was supported through a residency at the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies, the University of Sydney, March Dance and ReadyMade Works.
Patricia received a career development grant from Creative Australia to travel to New York and work with the Trisha Brown Dance Company in 2022 and also received funding from CreateNSW.

Photos: Lauren Vassallo and Saskia Wilson