Animals are my concern. Whether in the form of a figure or not. they multiply, lunging more and more wildly in my face in proportion as my texts seem to become autobiographical, or so one would have me believe. jaques derrida (2008. p35)
The ceremony Thetford Forest at the Medieval Warrens Lodge 2021
Conducting A Hybrid Nation a performative workshop (IMAF) International Multi Media Art Festival Serbia 2024
The Blessings of the Beasts Whitstable Beach 2024
Raqs 'Abr Al-Zaman (Dance Through Time) part two Landmark Art Center London UK.
The Phantom Rabbit Thetford 2021 (Brandon Lodge)
A hybrid in Madrid 2023
The Hybrid Dictator who threw all the humans out of the gallery. The humans returned to rebel. (IMAF) International multimedia art festival 2022
The Hybrid Alchemist: It takes of lot of experimentation before something becomes aligned. (IMAF) International Multi Media Art Festival Serbia 2022
A mythical band within a band: The hybrids come together thanks to Shriekback 2023
I was approached by the musician Barry Andrews from Shriekback, who I have known since the early nineties. Barry had been following my research adventures with A Hybrid Nation, and took interest in the creatures that he was seeing via the internet. Barry initially wanted a few masks, but being neurodivergent, I couldn't stop making. Initially I was going to perform each hybrid, but it was technically impossible. In the end I had to let go of the masks, and allow other people to wear them. This was interesting due the fact I had made them for me to wear, so they were formed for my own body not others. The by product of this the performers who wore the costumes, that didn't fit, or made the wearer feel different, awkward, and strange.
Each person embodied the hybrids with their own body, and this manifested through the film. One of the most pleasant accidental collaboration of being part of this music video, was the creation of a mythical band within a band, and that the hybrids who were all created as loners, drifters, nomads who are normally isolated within a time and space, came together, they were a group they were no longer alone, but together their difference worked, they had a home, a place, a purpose.
I was approached by the musician Barry Andrews from Shriekback, who I have known since the early nineties. Barry had been following my research adventures with A Hybrid Nation, and took interest in the creatures that he was seeing via the internet. Barry initially wanted a few masks, but being neurodivergent, I couldn't stop making. Initially I was going to perform each hybrid, but it was technically impossible. In the end I had to let go of the masks, and allow other people to wear them. This was interesting due the fact I had made them for me to wear, so they were formed for my own body not others. The by product of this the performers who wore the costumes, that didn't fit, or made the wearer feel different, awkward, and strange.
Each person embodied the hybrids with their own body, and this manifested through the film. One of the most pleasant accidental collaboration of being part of this music video, was the creation of a mythical band within a band, and that the hybrids who were all created as loners, drifters, nomads who are normally isolated within a time and space, came together, they were a group they were no longer alone, but together their difference worked, they had a home, a place, a purpose.
Research video diary in Thetford Forest 2021 (Brandon Lodge)
Background to the making of the shrine
While I was on a visit to IMAF (International Multi Media Art Festival) held in Odzaci a small village in Serbia. I created the shrine after I came across a catholic religious community in a middle of a field in-between two villages in 2021. In an open shed by the outside wall of the community I saw a discarded shrine, broken, years of neglect, but yet it had a charm.
This inspired me to create this shrine to all rabbits and hares. It took about three weeks to make in the wood workshops at Kingston University, with the support of an amazing team, as it was quite a complex piece to make. At the stage of construction I had no idea what it would be used for, though it became the prop and shrine for my experimental film of the ceremony etc. There are two icons that are on either side, which were images from the medieval archive of "evil" anthropomorphic rabbits hunting humans and hounds. I was still exploring the idea of "embodying the rabbit art myth and folklore".
"White Rabbit, White Rabbit, White Rabbit" In 1909 there is the only evidence in Notes and queries a English Gents magazine, where one of the readers wrote in to enquire where the ritual of saying white rabbit every first of the month, as their daughters and friends recite this, to receive a reward for the coming month. There are no other traces of this myth, and sadly after weeks of going through endless journals, I couldn't find the source. This led to a time of reflection, what started my research path, may not be achievable. I had to come to terms that I may never find this answer, which in a positive way opened up the research.
I moved away from thinking about the mythology of the rabbit, even though I still perform white rabbit every first of the month, and people still perform their recital. I began the slow process of looking at the impact of wearing an animal costume, and along with my methodology of performing and making objects I began a new journey of trying to contextualize the practice. Over time, and many turbulent emotions, confusion and of course tears, the sense of failing, I still pursued the path of the rabbit, which evolved into the hybrids, that evolved into "A Hybrid Nation."
Source:
1. British Library.
https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2021/06/killer-rabbits.html
2. Kingston University workshops.
https://www.kingston.ac.uk/faculties/kingston-school-of-art/about/facilities/3d-materials-workshop/
While I was on a visit to IMAF (International Multi Media Art Festival) held in Odzaci a small village in Serbia. I created the shrine after I came across a catholic religious community in a middle of a field in-between two villages in 2021. In an open shed by the outside wall of the community I saw a discarded shrine, broken, years of neglect, but yet it had a charm.
This inspired me to create this shrine to all rabbits and hares. It took about three weeks to make in the wood workshops at Kingston University, with the support of an amazing team, as it was quite a complex piece to make. At the stage of construction I had no idea what it would be used for, though it became the prop and shrine for my experimental film of the ceremony etc. There are two icons that are on either side, which were images from the medieval archive of "evil" anthropomorphic rabbits hunting humans and hounds. I was still exploring the idea of "embodying the rabbit art myth and folklore".
"White Rabbit, White Rabbit, White Rabbit" In 1909 there is the only evidence in Notes and queries a English Gents magazine, where one of the readers wrote in to enquire where the ritual of saying white rabbit every first of the month, as their daughters and friends recite this, to receive a reward for the coming month. There are no other traces of this myth, and sadly after weeks of going through endless journals, I couldn't find the source. This led to a time of reflection, what started my research path, may not be achievable. I had to come to terms that I may never find this answer, which in a positive way opened up the research.
I moved away from thinking about the mythology of the rabbit, even though I still perform white rabbit every first of the month, and people still perform their recital. I began the slow process of looking at the impact of wearing an animal costume, and along with my methodology of performing and making objects I began a new journey of trying to contextualize the practice. Over time, and many turbulent emotions, confusion and of course tears, the sense of failing, I still pursued the path of the rabbit, which evolved into the hybrids, that evolved into "A Hybrid Nation."
Source:
1. British Library.
https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2021/06/killer-rabbits.html
2. Kingston University workshops.
https://www.kingston.ac.uk/faculties/kingston-school-of-art/about/facilities/3d-materials-workshop/
Reflection of performing Raqs 'Abr Al-Zam
2024 The Landmark performances was an opportunity to use a space I had been given use of during an art exhibition over two days. I was experimenting what happens to the hybrids in different environments, other than just appearing in different nations and cultures. Here it was the in the United Kingdom, and the use of a beautiful space. Coincidently this was also the same space I had hired to hold my civil partnership in 2005, the same stage to which my husband and myself stood in front of a room full of two hundred guests.
This was a challenge as I came across complaints, due to the noise of the music that I had playing. Each day I explored how the hybrid fits within the space and changed the setting with each new day. My cousin Sarah who is not a performer, wore one of my hybrid masks. It was interesting working with someone who is not use to wearing masks, also the unfamiliarity that comes with the performance territory. It was the first time I was able to see how these hybrids exists within other people, and though I had made the mask for myself to wear, witnessing how awkward my cousin was feeling, through her body language, but also the mask was slipping off her head, and that she was beginning to struggle with how to breathe beneath the latex under the intense heat of the lights.
Raqs 'Abr Al-Zam is a collaboration with the artist and recent Kingston University MA fine art graduate from Pakistan Fahiem Abdulah, I wanted to work with someone from another nation, to explore how in this case can one of my hybrids become part of the Pakistan culture. I had performed the rabbit there as part of the Islamabad art festival in 2019, which was since then disrupted by the pandemic. The masks I chose to explore in this space, are not the masks for Islamabad. Since then I have commissioned a new mask called "Usagi" meaning rabbit in Japanese. Working alongside the fashion designer Nancy Nelson who is based in Edinburgh in Scotland. This is still work in process, but a new hybrid manifested from this experimentation and collaboration.
Source:
1. A collaboration with Fahiem Abdulah. Sound created by Fahiem Abdulah Bull performance by Sarah Alderdice.
2. https://www.instagram.com/fahiem_ab/
3. https://www.landmarkartscentre.org/
4. https://islamabadartfestival.com/
5. Freelance Designer/Atelier, based in Edinburgh. If you can imagine it, I can make it. If you can’t imagine it, let me do that bit for you. https://www.instagram.com/nancynelson2235/
2024 The Landmark performances was an opportunity to use a space I had been given use of during an art exhibition over two days. I was experimenting what happens to the hybrids in different environments, other than just appearing in different nations and cultures. Here it was the in the United Kingdom, and the use of a beautiful space. Coincidently this was also the same space I had hired to hold my civil partnership in 2005, the same stage to which my husband and myself stood in front of a room full of two hundred guests.
This was a challenge as I came across complaints, due to the noise of the music that I had playing. Each day I explored how the hybrid fits within the space and changed the setting with each new day. My cousin Sarah who is not a performer, wore one of my hybrid masks. It was interesting working with someone who is not use to wearing masks, also the unfamiliarity that comes with the performance territory. It was the first time I was able to see how these hybrids exists within other people, and though I had made the mask for myself to wear, witnessing how awkward my cousin was feeling, through her body language, but also the mask was slipping off her head, and that she was beginning to struggle with how to breathe beneath the latex under the intense heat of the lights.
Raqs 'Abr Al-Zam is a collaboration with the artist and recent Kingston University MA fine art graduate from Pakistan Fahiem Abdulah, I wanted to work with someone from another nation, to explore how in this case can one of my hybrids become part of the Pakistan culture. I had performed the rabbit there as part of the Islamabad art festival in 2019, which was since then disrupted by the pandemic. The masks I chose to explore in this space, are not the masks for Islamabad. Since then I have commissioned a new mask called "Usagi" meaning rabbit in Japanese. Working alongside the fashion designer Nancy Nelson who is based in Edinburgh in Scotland. This is still work in process, but a new hybrid manifested from this experimentation and collaboration.
Source:
1. A collaboration with Fahiem Abdulah. Sound created by Fahiem Abdulah Bull performance by Sarah Alderdice.
2. https://www.instagram.com/fahiem_ab/
3. https://www.landmarkartscentre.org/
4. https://islamabadartfestival.com/
5. Freelance Designer/Atelier, based in Edinburgh. If you can imagine it, I can make it. If you can’t imagine it, let me do that bit for you. https://www.instagram.com/nancynelson2235/
RESEARCH MATERIAL: Mr Horatio Nibbles 1970
Research material bellow: is a clip of Harvey with James Stewart with his invisible friend "A Rabbit called Harvey"
Research material: Bellow is a video essay (with spoilers) about the dark deeper meaning of 'Donnie Darko' (2001), directed by Richard Kelly and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Patrick Swayze, Seth Rogen and more. In this video I get into its deeper themes and symbolism. I look at Roberta Sparrow's book 'The Philosophy of Time Travel' and tangent universes, predestination, eschatology and Donnie as a Christ figure. "We are the rabbits Donnie!"
RESEARCH MATERIAL BELLOW: David Lynch Rabbits. When I first saw this it blew me away, I was so engaged with it, to the point I made one of my hybrids inspired by this film (The Lagamorph)
RESEARCH MATERIAL: White Rabbit in Japan at a Japanese graveyard and shrine, where Japanese Buddhists spontaneously chant to white rabbit.
RESEARCH MATERIAL BELLOW: Hybridity of Homi K Bhabha
RESEARCH MATERIAL BELLOW: Age of Insecurity lecture Homi K Bhabha
RESEARCH MATERIAL BELLOW: Going full animal: Migration and Tribal Nationalism Homi K Bhabha
RESEARCH MATERIAL BELLOW: Whos' Afraid of Gender? Judith Butler
RESEARCH MATERIAL BELLOW: "Systems and Things" Jane Bennet/ The Nonhuman Turn Conference, May, 2012
RESEARCH MATERIAL BELLOW: Anil Seth Consciousness in humans and other things at the Royal Society. I actually attended this actual talk. 2024
G&D spinoff series These are two of the hybrids created for the Shriekback Video, where God and The Devil embrace. The hybrids are built up from rabbit masks. Both the costumes I have made from scratch. The other hybrids, I bought various clothing from charity shops to dress the dress them. The horns on the devil came from another mask, and if you look closely at the devil, you will see its head is at a pointed shape. These are the rabbits ears concealed beneath the black fur.
"THE TOTAL HUMANIZATION OF THE ANIMAL COINCIDES WITH A TOTAL ANIMALIZATION OF MAN."
(Giorgio Agamben. 2002. p76; Open, Man and Animal.)
"THE TOTAL HUMANIZATION OF THE ANIMAL COINCIDES WITH A TOTAL ANIMALIZATION OF MAN."
(Giorgio Agamben. 2002. p76; Open, Man and Animal.)
White Rabbit is a short documentary or hop-umentary made by a local family, depicting an insight into the mysterious appearance of white rabbit.
"Barnes has a very quiet and unusual secret, a funny secret, a not very secret secret. A secret that happens on the first of every month. The White Rabbit is a short ‘hop-umentary’ about a happening. The man, the myth and the legend of the White Rabbit."
(click on white rabbit link below)
WHITERABBIT657
"Barnes has a very quiet and unusual secret, a funny secret, a not very secret secret. A secret that happens on the first of every month. The White Rabbit is a short ‘hop-umentary’ about a happening. The man, the myth and the legend of the White Rabbit."
(click on white rabbit link below)
WHITERABBIT657
Jane Bennet Systems and Things. Nonhuman Turn Conference 2012
Jane Bennett is an American political theorist and philosopher. She is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities at the Department of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Arts and Sciences. She was also the editor of the academic journal Political Theory between 2012 and 2017.
Education: Cornell University, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Siena College
Affiliation: Johns Hopkins University
Research interests: Political Theory
Notable ideas: Vibrant matter, new materialism
Jane Bennett is an American political theorist and philosopher. She is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities at the Department of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Arts and Sciences. She was also the editor of the academic journal Political Theory between 2012 and 2017.
Education: Cornell University, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Siena College
Affiliation: Johns Hopkins University
Research interests: Political Theory
Notable ideas: Vibrant matter, new materialism
Introduction to Henri Bergson:
Absurd Being channel provides many videos not just on Bergson but also looking at the work of many other academics and philosophers, which has been really important within the context of my research, to gain access to text based knowledge.
13 Dec 2020
Henri Bergson, late 19th – early 20th century French philosopher, authored an original philosophy that contains elements which would later get a fuller expression in both existentialism and phenomenology. He is most famous for his unique conception of time, which he called duration, a compelling interpretation of Darwin’s natural selection, and a method of thinking he called intuitionism.
An immensely popular intellectual figure at the beginning of the 20th century, his star fell precipitously after WW2 under withering criticism from Bertrand Russell, and as a result of his (almost unanimously misunderstood, I believe) critique of Einstein’s relativity theory. This video is an introduction to this great philosopher, whose legacy has, in my opinion, fallen victim to the hegemony of the materialistic, scientific mode of thought in which we live. I discuss how I plan to structure this series, briefly introduce the three must-read books if you want to understand Bergson, and outline a quick (highly abridged) bio. Website: http://www.absurdbeing.com Twitter: / absurdbeing Patreon: https://patreon.com/user?u=84430098
Absurd Being channel provides many videos not just on Bergson but also looking at the work of many other academics and philosophers, which has been really important within the context of my research, to gain access to text based knowledge.
13 Dec 2020
Henri Bergson, late 19th – early 20th century French philosopher, authored an original philosophy that contains elements which would later get a fuller expression in both existentialism and phenomenology. He is most famous for his unique conception of time, which he called duration, a compelling interpretation of Darwin’s natural selection, and a method of thinking he called intuitionism.
An immensely popular intellectual figure at the beginning of the 20th century, his star fell precipitously after WW2 under withering criticism from Bertrand Russell, and as a result of his (almost unanimously misunderstood, I believe) critique of Einstein’s relativity theory. This video is an introduction to this great philosopher, whose legacy has, in my opinion, fallen victim to the hegemony of the materialistic, scientific mode of thought in which we live. I discuss how I plan to structure this series, briefly introduce the three must-read books if you want to understand Bergson, and outline a quick (highly abridged) bio. Website: http://www.absurdbeing.com Twitter: / absurdbeing Patreon: https://patreon.com/user?u=84430098
Maurice Merleau-Ponty - Phenomenology of Perception (Summary 'with diagram' )
5th Dec 2020
This video is a whirlwind tour through PoP in which I basically try to summarise all of the individual video summaries I made throughout this series. Using a diagram I’ve put together in an attempt to get a bird’s eye view of MP’s magnum opus, I look at all of the major topics MP raises as well as discussing both the phenomenological and the transcendental reduction before musing on how they fit together. Website: http://www.absurdbeing.com Twitter: / absurdbeing Patreon: https://patreon.com/user?u=84430098
5th Dec 2020
This video is a whirlwind tour through PoP in which I basically try to summarise all of the individual video summaries I made throughout this series. Using a diagram I’ve put together in an attempt to get a bird’s eye view of MP’s magnum opus, I look at all of the major topics MP raises as well as discussing both the phenomenological and the transcendental reduction before musing on how they fit together. Website: http://www.absurdbeing.com Twitter: / absurdbeing Patreon: https://patreon.com/user?u=84430098