Kudum
KUDUM / the WEAVE is an on going process and practice. It is an investigation about time, place and body. It can take the form of an installation, performance, video piece,action or ritual-all depending on available place, time and bodies.
KUDUM / the WEAVE started without any intentions. It came out of play and curiosity from time and materials that were available to the artist at that time. First there was a work. Therefore it is impossible for the artist to construct a concept. The only thing an artist can do is to explain how it was made and how did it evolve.
BEGINNING
Place, trees, thin red cotton sewing thread.
Connecting two trees; stretching aline between them back and forth. Finding other directions between these preliminary vectors, falling into the spell of doing repetitive movements, letting this repetition become part of me, sensing it with my whole body.Repeat and repeat until error appears, what gives path for a change. Playing with the support points available, given by trees, adding new support points into the weaving,Chaos, until some order seems to appear, loosing this order: I could keep doing it forever.Repetition is an enchanting, calming activity, almost like a meditation.
The weather changed, more rainstorms didn’t let me go and work out there and carry on the daily “weaving” practice. However I managed to run out between showers and do a little bit. It became more as a daily practice and I could have kept going with this, in that place, if I had stayed in Nodar forever.
Day-by-day KUDUM / the WEAVE got more and more embodied. I had used already several thousand meters of thread. When hiking to the other side of the Paiva River and climbing to the hilltop, I could see the weave glowing from a distance.
It could have gone on forever. From this routine I had developed an idea to do something more immediate. So,one day,I decided to build another kind of structure (by that time I had already gained some experience and technique in “forestweaving”). My idea was to construct a string tunnel, what would be stretched between 4 trees. Once it was done, my idea was to break it, by slowly moving through it, sensing the resistance of the created structure with my whole body. Be inside of what I created, also to break free from it.Weather had become really rainy and stormy by the time I finalized this tunnel. I had to keep an eye on the weather and take a chance from any clearing of the sky. And the moment came: John came to help me. Placing the camera in spot and after somewarm-ups I started, by entering one end of the tunnel. Thin string had became a strong structure and provided quite a resistance to the body. I was working hard my way through it, trying to keep slow with the whole body, with my back and neck, with my lips and forehead,with my knees and toes… It took a long time to break the structure (at least it seemed tome so). Reaching the end of the tunnel, the structure where one could be in, was broken. I had just a tangle of red thread in my hands. From this action video piece KUDUM was edited.
These series of explorations in material, place and body lead me to several other experiments and collaborative actions with other people in other places and times. This is another story.