performing arts – movement and sound

Comparing Marina Collard’s performance at British Council and a Musical performance in Carnatic Music.

I drew in both situations but in Marina’s drawings I sketched after her performance as the auditorium was too dark. In the Carnatic Music, the lights were dim but enough for me to see the pen moving.

I watched the musical performance and could not keep up with the movement of the hands and was wondering where the sound is coming from. All through out i drew only to how the music / sound was being played as my lines changed as the Ragas changed. From slapping / tapping the vessel to beating the drum (dhol) to the Sitar’s complex movement of the strings, i could not keep up with where the hand struck, which string was pulled, moved to where and how the sound orginated. My lines kept on rotating forming the representation of the individual who was creating the sound. My movements were more based on sound then the movement of the figure.
In Marina’s case i drew from memory what happened in her performance as she dragged herself with a bent of the body with a background video and sound. I drew her live as she answered questions from the audience sitting after her performance. Drawing from memory, static poses erupted as what I could remember.

In the earlier part of the day I was sketching in a cafe which allowed me to wander more in the possibilty of image and text. It was creating a comic book, a sequential moment where i was allowed to sip on the coffee and think of minor changes to a scene. I could be interrupted and lose sight of my thought. But the two performances did not allow me any such space. The music, the sound and how it was built up on the Sitar was not allowing me to stick the way I normally draw. The music itself became the force for the line. Maybe I will have to draw more such performances to know, or maybe draw a running gear system, a car running on race tracks, an avalanche or be in presence of musical instruments creating their own lines which i need to tap into.

Marina Collard’s performance