Eeva-Maria Mutka in response to 'Starting from a place of comfort', a workshop with Rosemary Lee
Multimedia Image: Eeva-Maria Mutka, Edit: Meriel Paget
This image and writing below is a creative response by Eeva-Maria Mutka to attending Rosemary Lee’s workshop ‘Starting from a place of comfort’, held at Arnolfini, Bristol on 22nd January 2022. You can find out more about Rosemary Lee and Eeva-Maria Mutka below.
Since attending Rosemary Lee’s workshop, I let it all mull and develop freely in a studio, out on a walk, in the editing process.
Starting from a place of comfort. Starting from the image of the dark earth, shadowy cavities, deep space beneath our feet....reaching into stillness - silence - hollow tree, charred wood - reflection below, of what’s above - what is visible to us and what is not.
After the lovely ‘doodling’, which I often call 'humming in movement' myself, came planting the feet on the floor, working in trios. What stayed with me most was what followed that exercise / ‘formal touch’ (Rosie’s term) and this developed into the most lasting image for me - [see above one of Eeva-Maria’s image creations]: Rosie spoke about rooted figures standing, the space below our feet, the dark earth, and us dancing with that space. That was enough for me to start experiencing space below and above, multidirectionality. It was like a key to a fresh experience of space in all directions and what eventually made me create images with paper. I drew and danced inside giant paper shapes, layering movement and drawing, so that I was completely enveloped by them. And I was photographing, dancing with the camera. Other fleeting images came into my dances and drawings, and memories of other dancers from the workshop moving towards me and away, but there was also solitude, stillness and space.
Later in the workshop we worked with sliding and seamless, soft rolling on the floor. I experienced it as silky spreading from which Rosie’s next invitation of reaching developed. And the space became full of rising and falling events, like a seafloor reaching up or stars reaching down in echo. All these elements were with me in the studio when I had a chance to revisit the sensory, kinaesthetic memories of the workshop. Rosie's workshop gave gorgeous starting points, pointers and encouragement into my explorations, as well as a chance to meet and move collectively with a fabulous, creative group of dancers gathered in Bristol!
For more info about Eeva-Maria Mutka: www.eevamariamutka.com
For more info about Rosemary Lee: https://www.artsadmin.co.uk/profiles/rosemary-lee/