Purification
Material: Body, locally gathered beach sands, cliff face clay, water.
Action: 90 minute, two meter Butoh walk through a fine mist of water as the sun sets.
Context: Shown as part of the 2009 Rifrazioni Festival in Italy. Purification acts a juxtaposition and companion to 2008's Erosion. Located in the cliff top ruin of Emperor Nero's former Villa, the artist responds to the environment, where a balance between presence and absence has seen the landscape decay and regrow in balance to its own history.
Covered in local clay and sands the body of the artist moves through a fine mist as the sun sets and night falls, creating an energy of near imperceptible struggle and symbiotic ease in which elements are returned back to the ground. This is a dialogue between body and earth.
Supported by the sponsors of Rifrazioni.
2009
Rifrazioni - Anzio, Italy
Photography - Helen Spackman