Tiger Tempts Hell is a multidisciplinary performance and activism project
dedicated to the voices of women who have survived war and conflict.
It encompasses the refugee crisis, Diaspora, motherhood, conflict of beliefs between family members, rape and sexual violence, grief, poverty, and ultimately the journey of finding ways to rise above these things, to live again and reclaim your life and identity.
The project will be closely informed by research, interviews and creative collaborations with women and girls from communities that the dominant societal hierarchy prefer to disregard; vulnerable members of society, including the homeless, trafficked women, refugees and asylum seekers.
It is the courage, truth, sacrifice and incredible journeys of female survivors that inspire Tiger Tempts Hell into being. This is an open and explorative platform for their voices, and the voices of the women who champion them when society turns them away.
Through investigative journalism, interviews, research, dialogue, and creative play and collaboration, emerging activist and multidisciplinary artist Molly Olivia Rodelli will create an original and dynamic performance project for female survivors that offers a space for expression, connection and creativity.
Artists Statement
Thank you for showing your interest in the project! I'd like to share with you a statement, explaining some of how I work and some of my approach to creating work. I have a natural interest in and tendency towards integrating different creative disciplines; therefore I describe my practice as multidisciplinary. It is largely concerned with writing and performance. These pathways generally operate as the underpinnings of my projects; as platforms for inquiry into the use and nature of other mediums. My practice extends over a range of disciplines. I often choose moving image-which I define to be an area interconnected with performance-to serve as a footing. This includes video art; documentary; or narrative film-making following the path of cinema. I also like to bring words and language into play; this can include a particular tradition of writing such as the novel or the autobiography; digital literature; publication; poetry; and new explorations of writing such as Oulipo. Other principal interests of mine are theatre and performing arts and particular elements attributable to performing arts, such as somatics; creating and physically embodying character; analysis of story as told through writing and words; language-driven theatre; and performing relationships and ideas. Finally, I include an inquiring exploration of sound, music and sonic art in my practice. I like to give attention to the objective of looking at chosen elements in new ways. The results to my process are different each time. I always begin with an experimental frame of mind; an embedded awareness of allowing the work to grow and develop organically, and to make space available for the work to respond to change and new information as the process unfolds. Working in a multi-disciplinary way is important to me as it always generates exciting effects and outcomes. In addition, while I am continually excited by methods and mediums, there are fundamental topics that I come back to time and time again as a storyteller; a body of material that drives exploration. Philosophy, anthropology, psychology and science describe these topics with integrity to the broadness of their spectrum.
My core motivation is circulating ideas, especially those that are original and revealing. Exposing people to things they would not otherwise know, such as the practical details of how the different components of an ecosystem are connected, or the rhythms and patterns of mental states in the brain, is a strength I’m keen to cultivate in my work. It’s about elucidation and education. I love to show people scenes of simple but important beauty that link in to the aforementioned topics. To an extent, I would say my work is not absolutely personal, but interpersonal and supra-subjective at times because I can engage things that are happening in the world today, that concern everybody, via this approach.
For more information about my artistic practice visit www.oliviarodelli.weebly.com
Photos & screenshots from video art & performance work:
What is the project?
The project I am undertaking is called Tiger Tempts Hell. My goal is for the project to commence with a 3 month period of research and development in Spring 2018, which will cover the various attributes of the project in an integrative, holistic manner. This period of intensive and immersive inquiry will result in a performance piece, devised from the findings of the research period. This performance will be accompanied by an outreach workshop, and an interactive exhibition that opens and continues the purpose of the work. Tiger Tempts Hell is a project dedicated to the voices of female victims of conflict, particularly wars.
What do you hope to achieve and how will you go about it?
In the preliminary stages in which I currently stand, I have a number of strong objectives for the project. My principal intention is to create a performance space that is open, educational and revealing; a dynamic platform for the sharing of lived experiences through multidisciplinary exploration. In my line of inquiry, research and interest I constantly find that to truly live in the world is to practice intersubjectivity; to experience the world through changing perspectives, where focuses can shift and integrate and the mystery of ‘otherness’ both within and beyond ourselves is examined. My conviction is that creative work within performance not only offers, but effectively is space to step into new states of being, mind and response. It initiates us into a heightened space where experience can be transformational, and there is a rich history of how mankind has engaged this heightened space to tap into deeper awareness and knowledge; to hold communities together; to open up cerebral, emotional and spiritual connections with the environment; to understand ourselves and the world with a clearer, and vaster perspective.
It is my intention to create work that evolves; that explores different ways of communicating through engaging new technologies; fusion of disciplines; and intellectual and somatic participation. Exploring how materials appearing in nature such as clay, water, fire and sand, projection, light, sound and moving image can be applied to create new kinds of immersive and sensorial experience is of key importance to me, and I'm very much inspired by new ideas about the physical-digital interface.
Most importantly, I intend for this project to sound a response to issues currently facing women around the world today. I am particularly interested in how women find means of survival and achieve extremes of endurance in war, throughout history as well as in the present day; how women defend their families, raise their children, contribute to campaigns and, surviving hardships unique to womanhood, live to tell their tales themselves when their surrounding societies fail to report them or minister to them. I’m interested directly in true, untold tales. My intention is for this project is for it to carry an honest and informative narrative, and for it to serve as a compassionate, creative space for women and girls to release themselves from inner conflict, and tease out deeper purpose and passion in their lives. I am keen to connect with radical social groups and charity organizations, including Women for Women International, aligning my enterprise as an artist to dynamically support women in countries affected by war and conflict.
Key Points of Process
INTERVIEWS: Holding interviews and connecting with various support networks and charity organizations to gain knowledge of my subject group’s stories. Gathering information, which will drive the development of script/narrative. Researching & organizing interviews with key female figures whose voices and ideas may influence the direction of the work.
DEVISING : Playing intensively in space with key details from the interview & research period. Discovering story, character, movement, and direction and combining these findings with the developing script.
COLLABORATION & MENTORING : Connecting with collaborators/mentors to take part in the devising and rehearsal process to contribute to the shaping of the piece. Opportunities for other artists to work on the project, and for training to move my own practice forward to take place.
MEDIUMS & MATERIALS: Creating space to devise the role of media-material in the piece. Exploring tactile, tangible, physical elements of the performance. Discovering natural materials and/or objects in the research that can be feature as prominent elements of the piece.
DIGITAL SPACE & EXHIBITION: Material from the entire process to be opened up and shared with the public in an online, digital space and a physical exhibition. Members of the public can contribute their own material to the project through a cycle of interactive activities and tasks.
OUTREACH : I aim for a union of creative inquiry and arts therapy to arise through the process, which will result in an outreach workshop running alongside the performance.
For information, resources and blog please visit the project website:
www.tigertemptshell-project.weebly.com