Emma Rochester: Circular Structures as feminine Echoes

Whilst in Caylus, France I have chosen to map place through the act of circular motion. Beginning in a burnt brown field I made maps of walking in circles. These maps then act as the basis for a series of exploratory works titled, ‘Circular structures as feminine echoes of the primum mobile.’

In ‘Circular structures… ’ unhurried repetitious circular motions can be seen as simple primitive gestures. The primal act of mud drawing becomes interlinked with myth, creation and art. The many layered cumulative process of drawing circle after circle transfigures the act of drawing into ritual statement.

The body is used not just as a tool for the process of drawing but an experience of embodying ritual. The motions of hands, the facial reactions, the subtle adjustments of the overall body to the functional activity of drawing circles ensures that the body becomes a performative site of repetition. The sublime tension of cyclical movement acts as a gateway to ritual, which blends the Neolithic past with the present.

Motion, time, nature and the unseparated human form become paramount to the experience of drawing. The feminine body is venerated object: sexual, organic, vulnerable, mutually dependent, and ritualised.

Installation: Circular structures as feminine echoes of the primum mobile

Emma Rochester. ‘Refracted movements as ways between time.’ (Documentation of Installation). 2011

Emma Rochester. ‘Refracted movements as ways between time.’ (Documentation of Installation). 2011.

Emma Rochester. ‘Mud rings as echoes of pre-cognoscente time.’ (Documentation of Installation). 2011.

Emma Rochester. The primum mobile as the birthing point. (Documentation of Installation.) 2011.

Video Stills:

Emma Rochester. Mud Rings as echoes of pre-cognoscente time. Video Still. 2011

Emma Rochester. Mud Rings as echoes of pre-cognoscente time. Video Still. 2011

Studio Work: Research and rambling through the local area of Calyus, France.

Emma. Rochester. Screen Shot: Studio Work in Progress. 2011

Re-Imagining Space: Recreating a feminine form of cartography

When one looks at a map one sees place devised and redefined into a strict grid like system with roads and landscape marked out in different coloured lines. The grid (upon which the map is constructed) with its hard lineal structure not only signifies place but is also a cultural reminder of how society contains, defines and understands place. Terrain is reduced to simple lines that were once devised and decided upon by men.

While cartography may once have been designed to demacate place, somewhere along the line mapping became mistaken and intermeshed with place. Maps became formailsed, accurate, exact, unquestionable in some cases, easier to understand than the place itself. In sum, maps replace place.

But what if place, terrain, territory and spaces could be represented in more personally fulfilling and gender inclusive ways? What if one could separate the unquestioning belief in the digital navigation system and the two dimensional fold out map, look up, look down, gaze around and see that place can be defined in a myriad of ways, and that what we now have to define place is not necessarily the best form of construct. What if place could be represented in a way that was personally meaningful and reflective of the individual experience rather than of the man who originally invented or created the map?

The Meaning of Method:

Through both performative and static works Emma Rochester inhabits the space in order to create a new dialogue of how place can be presented and invites the viewer to extend their imagination beyond the line of what is presented.

Walking through the space with pen on paper or even something as simple as drawing a line by walking. Emma Rochester creates drawings that can be seen as layered memories of place. These are often considered seismographic as they simultaneously map the movement of the artist through place.

The performative walk also becomes one of assessment. Of understanding ones location within the space dependent upon the point on which one stands on the line: Like the map which has its basis in scientific assessment and determination of place so too does the walk becomes a reflection on orientation and ones position in relation to not only the line the artist walks but also in terms of mapping as an entirety of lines that culminate in grid like structures.

WIthin the performative aspect of Emma Rochester's work the line transforms beyond its' delineation on the floor to exists between the footsteps and the movement she makes as she moves around the space.

The artist often dressed in black or in tutus -of a corresponding colour to the surroundings- no longer represents herself as an individual but becomes a generic signifier of all women as she inserts in feminine into the map making tradition

Emma Rochester

Pages

Philosophy & Biography

Circular Structures as feminine Echoes

New Work Makers

Re-Imagining Space: Recreating a feminine form of cartography

The Meaning of Method:

About Me

Three is a bicycle in my studio