Compress-Squash-Flatten

Since late 2006 I have been researching the effect of these three things on materials and landscapes.
I am now turning my focus to how these things effect bodies and relationships, physically and psychologically.

The form of this next exploration will be a performance, loosely a duet performed by two dancers on the 4Th of July 2009 in London. The piece was made partially in response to '30 Pieces of Silver' by Cornelia Parker and various Paula Reago paintings as well as the exploration in materials that I have carried out over the past two years.

You can watch some footage here www.youtube.com/alexizeldastevens. the piece is called 'You Are A Lid to Me' .

Encounter as a project wants to collaborate, and is the foundation of a collective.

The next series of posts present the most significant findings of previous research, and opens up my working process to my audience, that includes you.. by the way.

compress
Part of Speech: verb
Definition: compact, condense
Synonyms: abbreviate, abridge, abstract, bind, boil down, coagulate, concentrate, consolidate, constrict, contract, cram, cramp, crowd, crush, decrease, dehydrate, densen, densify, epitomize, force into space, make brief, narrow, pack, press, press together, ram, reduce, restrict, shorten, shrink, shrivel, squash, squeeze, stuff, summarize, syncopate, telescope, tighten, wedge, wrap
Antonyms: blow up, expand, extend, fill, increase, loosen, stretch, uncompress, uncondense

squash
Part of Speech: verb
Definition: compress
Synonyms: annihilate, bear, bruise, crowd, crush, distort, extinguish, flatten, jam, kill, macerate, mash, pound, press, pulp, push, put down, quash, quell, scrunch, shut down, sit on, smash, squeeze, squish, stamp on, suppress, trample, triturate
Notes: quash means to crush or to subdue or to suppress or extinguish summarily and completely, while squash means to compress, crush, or squeeze
Antonyms: fan, open, uncompress

Main Entry: flatten
Part of Speech: verb
Definition: level out
Synonyms: abrade, beat down, compress, crush, debase, deflate, depress, even out, fell, floor, flush, grade, ground, iron out, knock down, lay, lay low, mow down, plane, plaster*, prostrate, raze, roll, smash, smooth, spread out, squash, straighten, subdue, trample
Antonyms: break, elevate, make uneven, raise, round
* = informal/non-formal usage

And then THIS happened! ...

I said in a very small voice, so as I wouldn't notice....

" I want to work in dance."
that,
I thought,
is very worrying..

So then gravely concerned.. I said in a loud voice so as Wimbledon College of Art would hear me....

"This MA thing, just doesn't really feel quite right to me, I v'e thought long and hard and have already that decided that this route is not going to my destination.... so it makes no sense to come with you".

I was stunned.

Then myself and everyone else looked at me as if I was mad...

and I said

"let's see,
just in case,
if i am really so bad at this dance thing...
lets see if I can get a handle on this because if I can I might just be able to realise my dream and if I never do I will wilt at the deadening hands of sculpture and whither on my own studio floor. I would rather fail spectacularly than fade away... and once I set off, failure is just not an option"

My honest and terrified refusal to accept my own untimely death convinced Birkbeck, and they jumped with me into deep, murky waters to see what we can find.

Over the next year this sketchbook with evolve as I venture into the depths.......