PRODUCTION SPRING 1- results
Yekrik!
Yekrak!
Yemisikrik!
Yemisikrak!
That’s how you start a story back home in Trindad & Tobago where I come from. In other words:
‘ mout’ open, ‘tory jump out’.
Feel free to pass this around.
This is the story of a little child walking in the forest. Her name is ‘I’. There’s a river near-by, it’s wet and amp and hot in the air. But then she stops under a tree, and it’s cooler and shadier under the Silk Cotton Tree.
Y’all know what a Silk Cotton Tree is? It’s a huge huge tree, as tall as the Oslo City Hall if it gets very old. And massive roots, taller than the tallest human, with spikes growing all over its trunk. That’s a warning. Everybody knows, animals included, not to disturb the Silk Cotton Tree. That’s where the ancestors live: the dead ones and the unborn ones.
This Silk Cotton Tree is particularly big, the roots are taller than I she realises as she walks closer. The Keskeedees have grown still, no more chirping sounds, and the gråmeis have piped down drastically.
At the foot of the tree lies a small piece of rope. I stoops to pick it up.
Is this a story?
Yes, says the tree, anything can be the beginning of a story’.
And with that begins the unravelling, one by one the ancestors come out and sit besides I, some noticing her, some not, laughing and greeting each other as if they were stil alive.
There’s ‘little Martin’ and ‘Granny Tilili’ and Tantie Eastlyn, grandma Eliana the Traveller, Grandma Jo, and Gang-gang, and Papy Niel, and Grandpa Solly and all the rest of them.
It’s a bit confusing. I doesn1t know who is older or younger than her anymore.
Somone, a child maybe? is sitting up in a tree. ah no! they’re climbing higher. Like everyone likes to climb trees in this family boy.
As she keeps watching, I soon realises that the child’s eyes are closed. They’re feeling their way around the tree. I had never seen anyone so agile. There they go again, jumpinh into another tree, from one branch to the next. from the oak, to the ash. across time and space.
I looks at the oak, straight ahead, right at the bark. She can feel the world slowly spinning as if the world is making her rotate around the tree. She looks up at the strong branches, and again the (her?) world seems to rotate as the whispering branches whisk by. and then I looks at the roots, and again the world spins, rotating around the tree, like the Earth to the Sun/like a horse on a merry go round.
I can feel her heart rate slow down. She can hear the gråmeis starting up again in the distance. She walks up to the oak and puts out her hand, and closes her eyes. She opens them up again instantly! It’s moving ! inside the tree!
IDEAS FOR PRESENTATION & COMMUNICATION OF THE PROJECT
- oral storytelling/oral presentation/ monologue that talks about the workshop results and stories, and merges with own thoughts and references (Haraway, Le Guin, Maynard, Da silva and Newman from Corpus Infinitum).
- similar to the Henie Onstad artist book story
- Paul Keens Douglas storytelling from trinidad
- excerpt from Henie Onstad book, use parts of this as introduction?
‘A little girl walking in the forest. Her name is I. There’s a river near-by, it’s wet and damp and hot in the air. But then she stops at the foot of a tree, and it’s cooler, and shadier. Under the silk cotton tree.
This one is particularly big, the roots are taller than I. The keskeedees have grown still, no more chirping sounds. At the foot of a tree lies a small piece of rope. I stoops to pick it up.
‘Is this a story?’
‘Yes’, says the tree, ‘anything can be the beginning of a story’.
And with that begins the unravelling, one by one the ancestors come out and sit besides I, some noticing her, some not, laughing and greeting each other as if they were still alive.’
- an artist book that does the same as the storytelling/monologue. maybe the book is just the monolgue with pictures and quotes from the workshops as part of the story?
- artist book references from ‘Artists’ Books’ Stephen Bury
- only print 3 copies but have a digital option for reading the book online (Dev Dhunsi inspired? https://devdhunsi.com/RAKAVAN-photo-book-2019)
- the copies will be passed around during the presentation
- simple booklet, tall and narrow? vertical A4 folded in half ?