My practice explores using the Peak District as a stage for performance through orienting the terrain to challenge ritualism and endurance of the female nude.
Consumed by terrain delves into a durational video of discomfort of the subject being covered in mud and washed to posed performative works examining the figure’s endurance and ritualism. The endurance of the figure becomes prominent through the risky environment of the public sphere and further in the rigorous environment and climate.
The Peak District is orientated and trekked through in search of height and dramatisation, creating an oscillation between landscape and figure through a female gaze perspective. The landscape decontextualises the figure from the photographic studio where it has previously been eroticised turning the posed image into one of performity.
My practice centres on the oscillation between figure and landscape. This creates durational performances; the video projection of Consumed by Terrain allows for an embodiment of the landscape and forges a documentation of the oscillation. Further encouraging endurance through its duration.
The terrain is oriented through all conditions and weather. The public nature of the Peak District invites endurance, visibility, creating an elemental risk which becomes integral to challenge the gaze.
Eldon Hill Quarry 53.32956° N, 1.82191° W
