Writer Chris Fagan previews Robert Foster’s Bucket Dance
12.30pm, 2.30pm, 4.30pm
Free limited capacity
Robert Foster‘s Bucket Dance comprises of three performers following a series of pre-set conditions within the confines of a small space. Each of the colour coded performers must follow the geometric shape on the floor relating to the colour of their jumpsuit. All the while wearing buckets on their head that block their vision.
Reasonably simple, right? Well yes and no: this apparently simple piece is full of complexity.
When I first heard about this work I thought of Bruce Nauman’s Walking in an Exaggerated Manner around the Perimeter of a Square. The idea of bucket headed figures traveling along lines within a claustrophobic space is very evocative of this piece. Yet upon reading the programme notes, I learn that the work is in fact a ‘parody’ inspired by Oskar Schlemmer's performance work at the Bauhaus, and the ideological failings within Modernism. Simple, yet complex, right?
A key part of this piece is that as each performer moves they sometimes drift wildly off course. When they collide with each other or the wall, it draws associations with human behavior and how we can very quickly become accustomed to our own personal set of rules and conditions and follow them beyond the point of absurdity. Its only when we collide with the wall of someone else’s absurd rules that we take the time to review our trajectory.
