In October 2021 I received a full Arts Council Developing your Creative Practice grant to make a radical step change with my art and develop my series of sea-scape paintings (Deadpan) into an animation and performative and filmic landscape for dance, physical theatre and monologue performance. With the assistance of Manchester based movement practitioner Bridget Fiske, local artist Debbie Yare, producer Kit Abramson, and filmmaker Michael Gillbanks I re-trained and learnt the necessary skills to make an immersive theatre and/or gallery situated installation work. The piece itself is based loosely on the Greek tale of Icarus ,the young man who fell from the sky when the wax that fastened his wings to his body was melted by the heat of the sun. I have taken this tale, dismantled the imagery within the story and adapted it in accordance with my interest in somatic movement, gravitational forces and elemental and material transformation. The work was presented as a work in progress/investigative installation in the gallery and performance space at The Dukes in Lancaster in November 2022.
Laura van Tatenhove 