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Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/1344568
On inspirations for his dance-theater short film "The Privilege of an Ending": I personally don't have many talents in videography, but I do really like to watch movies. And some of my favorite movies are where either, one, the camera is kind of invisible, or, two, the camera is a character. I chose the second route — in my episode, the camera is a character, so that way the audience is complicit with the theme that they're watching. I feel like that is something we don't really actively think about — how being an audience member is a role that you play. As I am the performer, which is a role, you as the audience member is also a role that you're playing. And I feel like a lot of times, we bear witness to things that we should not be just simply bearing witness to, or allow to happen. So this work was born out of the idea of the warping nature of, in my experience, the straight white gaze, which is a tool that turns, for example, young Black boys into monsters, into a big scary Black man. That was the defense, like when they killed Tamir Rice, the police officer thought he was 18 years old with a real gun and he was 12 years old with a toy gun. That is the force I'm trying to talk about: Who decides if something is a performance — the performer or the audience? On feeling the act of creating: I think the biggest thing that this has done for me is allowed me to question, literally, 'What the hell am I doing?' We are living through one of the largest civil rights moments in our lifetime; there's a pandemic outside; an actual autocracy is knocking on our door, fascism is knocking on our door; and I'm going to make art? Like, how dare I? I've been really thinking about what does it mean to make art worthy of this time? That, if I'm going to spend my time making art right now, with all of the privileges that I have, I need to say something that is important. I feel like this time that we live in requires a response, not a reaction. I think this time that we live in requires an acceptance of its complexity, and not just some sort of watering it down just into good and evil, good people and bad people. Because if we water it down, the good and bad also becomes more muddied. And if you allow things to live in its complexity, you will be able to see better what side of history you want to be on. 10 WHAT'S UP! FEBRUARY 28-MARCH 6, 2021 FEATURE Ozcast Continued From Page 9 Milk and Honey A flesh-centric collaboration between Robert P Gordon and Ashley Kaye, Milk and Honey explores and lampoons pop culture, partnership and the body. Milk and Honey's oeuvre draws on the creators' experiences as a non-binary person and a gender non-conforming woman. Utilizing an array of props, custom designed and printed textiles and bodysuits, their live performances, videos and installations contemplate new ways of being. (Courtesy Image/Milk and Honey)