Hedge Subs[tan]titute
performance film in collaboration with Martin Toloku (Ghana)currently in phase-two of remote-production
made during 2021 perfocraZe artist residency in Kumasi, Ghana
original performance upon which the film is based was
presented at X:7 exhibition at crazinisT artisT studiO
in March 2021
filmed by CediMfoni (Ghana)
with sound collaboration by lbk Violinist (Lagos) and
Hanna Elliott (Chicago)
Original performance description:
Hedge-Subs[tant]itute is a combined story between two individuals from different parts of the world who discovered each other through sharing their experiences of witnessing the corpse of a loved one. Performing opposite each other under one roof constructed from a mixture of collected dead and fresh woods (a structure of relics), their collaborative performance sees Martin laid-in-state as a wounded body with Eryka as a psychopomp dancing in search of a response from the soul that has begun wandering away from his body. Meeting in the liminal space between opposite sides of animacy and inanimacy, the performance sees Martin’s wake invoking the collapse of the roof above his body as Eryka attempts to create a bridge for him with hers straddling the Above and Below. Drawing inspiration from their material construction process, early histories of tablao ritual dances and improvised movement exchanges, the earth and the wood laid upon it are engaged as a door upon which life force is exchanged in their bodies’ attempts to embody a beat in silence. Hedge-Subs[tant]itute is a space designed to hold a restaging of the aftermath of death and witness-bodies’ resistances to it.