Day IV

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Task: Kimura photo session/ Show and Tell objects on the desk, as if explaining to a classroom. 

Using this structure: “This is… It belonged to… I think it is x years old. It is of value to me because…” 

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We went to the studio that morning with a suitcase full of family heirlooms, photos, objects, letters, and more. We took turns doing the show and tell exercise using only words. Hala: “I felt my memories become vivid, my emotions were triggered. The show and tell inspired the movement and allowed me to invite other people to the objects and their meaning to me. I liked sharing those personal things. I found it brings people who are dead, back to life. There is continuity to life. Mona: “I enjoyed having someone to share those objects with as well. I also enjoyed having my mom on the opposite side to ask her questions about who this belonged to, or who is this person in the photo, who was he married to, how we are related, how old she was when she visited this country, who gifted her this earring...I enjoyed inviting strangers to our past, in an intimate setting, expanded. 

 

Task: Added layer: interact with the object, feel its weight, touch it, wear it, smell it, look at it. 

 

Task: Same thing but now allow the object to affect your body, move you. 

 

Task: Move with the trace of the object, without its physical presence, with the memory or traces of it. We then took that to the Cardiac Cycle path and mixed it with the gestures of landmarks. 

 

Task: Both of us picked the same object (the mirror) and found different ways to interact or react to it.

 

Mona: “I liked when Hala found different uses to the mirror. I saw her questions and creativity come to life, almost intrinsically. I loved the moment of wiggling of toes in the mirror, not looking at the mirror, representing the light rays,    Spinning the mirror reflecting the light rays.” Hala: “I enjoyed the part when Mona placed the mirror on her forehead, mirror in the light, went away from it, when she pretended it was a hair dryer, and when she stepped on it at the end.” 

 

Task: Write for 4 minutes without removing pen from paper. Reflect on the session with the objects. 

 

Task: Use the mirror to reflect the projections of my Grandmother’s wedding video circa 1950’s in Homs, Syria.

Mona: “I went to the studio in the evening and I was inspired by Hala’s improv with the mirror so I used it to reflect the film reel and added some music to it.”