SAFIYYA LEA & NICHOLA FARNAN

Ongoing choreographic and performative collaborator

TRANSFORMATION (IN PROGRESS)

A documentation of the process of casting intimacy (in perspex).

Movement research and development with Martin Sarreal, images by Nichola Farnan and Safiyya Lea.

UNCOMPOSE (In PROGRESS)

Uncompose is an experimental fashion film; the documentation of a choreographed performance and the simultaneous transformation of a water soluble garment dissolving on a model. The film aims to capture the transformation from two points of view; a primary camera documents the performance using a juxtaposition of abstract and suggestive close-ups with more remote, sterile wides. A secondary, wireless camera will be embedded within the garment to capture the transformation from the point of view of the observer, with the final film resulting in clash of grainy lo-fi and hi-def footage. Working with the notion of voyeurism and states of undress, the performance will be subtly fetishised, using a palette of slightly sickly, muted pastels and a clinical undercurrent.

The movement transforms in co-ordination with the garment, starting off stiff and rigid the model replicates these qualities of the garment; tense body, imalleable movement, and awkwardness. As the garment begins to mutate and soften, her limbs move freely, as she explores torsions and the range of movement with this new ‘skin’. Close up shots allow us to see ripples of movement through unidentifiable body parts.

Directed by Safiyya Lea
Costume design by Nichola Farnan
Choreography by Darcy Wallace
Music composed by Thom Green
Director of photography Todd Pacey
Performed by Alys Hale