Note #9 ~ 'Becoming the Icon’ from www.bleedonline.net
Today I have been watching ‘Becoming the Icon’ performance video by Lilian Steiner and Emile Zile that was presented on BLEED 2020 (www.bleedonline.net) festival.
This is the first collaboration work of Lilian Steiner and Emile Zile who both are Melbourne performance artists. ‘Becoming the Icon’ fuses movement and film to explore the ways in which politics manifests at the physical level. Two bodies exist in a realm whose boundaries are defined by light, their relationship and the eye of the camera. This is the metaphysical arena in which their shifting power dynamics will play out, at some times flaring up into outright confrontation, at others attempting to manipulate and persuade in more insidious ways.
Basically, it is quite engaging and resonant performance, which feeds upon a classical logic of theatrical play with an exposition, development, climax and finale.
As both artists have completely different body complexion and motoric skills it allows them to create an unusual symbiosis of a ‘pseudo-pair’ where partners complement each other well.
The performance lasts 30 minutes, including scenes with sound effects and the ones where we could hear only human voices. That serves successfully for putting right accents on important moments and manipulates our attention.
The piece consists of scenes where the characters could sit on chairs or stand on stage as if speaking to the public or journalists. Further, they are shown in profile in a low-key light, actively debating with each other.
These scenes are interspersed with intriguing episodes that show subjective perception of how characters can perform their functions, being limited by something (e.g., the scope of their ‘political’ powers). Within the show, these restrictions are brought to an absolute and represent a limitation of the ability to physically control their bodies. As such the characters roll across the stage, forming chaotic and sometimes even creepy bodily compositions.
For more intensity, these sequences are entwined with a sort of ‘battle’ on markers. The characters being playing politicians, draw plans while interfering each other, crossing out what is written by the other side and confusing the whole process of ‘making plans’. Literally, we could see chaos on a verbal level that is an outcome of previous “subconscious” level (where bodies were rolling).
Within the show, the lighting is often set as on a theatrical stage or a TV program. However, there are sequences where characters use only gestures without saying anything. In this case, the low-key light is designed to emphasize the expression of gestures. I found it beautifully done.
Going to the soundtrack, it is an acoustic ambient that, at certain moments, powerfully sets the uprising tension and controls major narrative rhythms.
As to the editing, in the last scene I have noticed that they used the split screen and masking, so that the characters could be on the same level and say different things at the same time. It is also interesting to note that each of the characters would look at their own camera and they are lit in slightly different ways.
My general impression from the performance was that the artists deprived the social role of ‘politician’ from its meaningful semantics, while trying to depict only politician's body language in different situations. It has done to such an extent that it is now perceived almost as a mental illness where a person is able to recognize objects but cannot identify them because of the brain injury. It is a strange and unpleasant feeling. We all know that politicians rely heavily on non-verbal body language to successfully achieve their goals. This video performance brings this to the point of absurdity and exposes the cynicism of manipulating the human psyche.
As I have experienced this work online, I would not say it would be different if to watch it in person, as it is screen-based work. Unless we mention the importance of cultural environment of physical festival in which this video piece would be a part of.
