Philip Lee

By Cally Trench and Philip Lee

Live performance with body paint.

Part of The Rubik's Cube curated by Iceberg Fernandez, at the Joiners' Arms, Hackney.

29 January 2012

Double Helix was a live body performance for two performers.  Their bodies were transformed from clothed to painted in spirals of black body paint, via intermediate stages of nakedness, being bound in tape, and being taped and painted.  The process by which the performers applied the tape, slapped on body paint, and removed the tape demanded a certain set of movements.  The performers had to keep circling each other, making the performance dance-like.  The process required care and concentration.  It was uncomfortable and constricting, and occasionally painful.  It had elements in common with a magic trick, as the final removal of the tape reveals a spiral pattern on each body.

At various stages in the performance the bodies took on different characteristics - vulnerable and human when naked; sacrificial and meat-like when bound in tape; object-like and punished when taped and painted; and animal-like and elegant when the spirals of paint were revealed.

http://the-rubiks-cube.blogspot.co.uk/

Performances on Cally Trench's website at  - http://www.callytrench.co.uk/performances.html