Still frame from TRACES, 2020
Ian Strange, Anouk van Dijk
HD, Single channel digital film 16:9, stereo sound
62m06s duration – Looped
TRACES, 2017 - 20
Durational film and performance work
TRACES is a collaborative film and performance work created by artist Ian Strange, Dutch choreographer Anouk van Dijk, and contemporary dance company Chunky Move. TRACES draws on Strange’s artistic practice exploring architecture, memory, and the ‘home’ as well as Van Dijk’s performance practice exploring history and identity held within the bodies of her performers. TRACES serves as both film and live performance, probing the ways in which movement shapes our perception of constructed environments and how physical contact alters those spaces—and our relationships within them—over time.
Filmed in late 2019, the performance work took place on a custom-built floor covered in stretched white canvases with stacked, burnt-black timber beams. During the performance, six dancers work through a series of choreographed actions and motivations developed by Van Dijk and Strange. Initially juxtaposing the space and beams with choreographed movements, the performer’s actions move them closer together and in contact with each other, building and deconstructing abstracted spaces with the burnt wood and fibres. At once acting as builders, sculptors, and inhabitants of the spaces they create, as they move through each action the burnt wood leaves traces of charcoal on their skin, clothes, and on the canvas floor. While these abstracted spaces quickly disappear, each action leaves a trace, literally ‘the materialization of movement’, both on the floor and performers. The conclusion of the performance leaves the floor as an abstract movement drawing, the film, and canvases both acting as artwork and documentation.
TRACES was created in partnership with contemporary dance company Chunky Move as a new commission work, with the support of Creative Partnerships Australia, and the Australian Council for the Arts, originally planned to premiere at Cinedans festival, Denmark, in March 2020.
Film
Still frames from TRACES, 2020
Ian Strange, Anouk van Dijk
HD, Single channel digital film 16:9, stereo sound
62m06s duration – Looped
Drawing
TRACES (Movement Drawing), 2019
Charcoal on canvas, triptych
9300 x 8300 mm
TRACES (Movement Drawing), detail, 2019
Charcoal on canvas, triptych
9300 x 8300 mm
TRACES (Movement Drawing), detail, 2019
Charcoal on canvas, triptych
9300 x 8300 mm
TRACES (Movement Drawing), detail, 2019
Charcoal on canvas, triptych
9300 x 8300 mm
TRACES (Movement Drawing), detail, 2019
Charcoal on canvas, triptych
9300 x 8300 mm
TRACES (Movement Drawing), detail, 2019
Charcoal on canvas, triptych
9300 x 8300 mm
Credits
TRACES was created in partnership with dance company Chunky Move as a new commission work, with the support of Creative Partnerships Australia and the Australian Council for the Arts. The work was developed collaboratively over three years by Van Dijk and Strange, along with performers Tara Samaya, Richard Cili, Joel Bray, James Pham, Lauren Langois, and Niharika Senapati. It was co-produced by Chunky Move and Ian Strange Studios, with producers Jedda Andrews, Sarah Greentree and Vanessa Pigrum.
[FULL CREDITS]
Ian Strange
Anouk Van Dijk
Executive Produced by:
Chunky Move
Ian Strange Studio
Producers:
Jedda Andrews
Sarah Greentree
Vanessa Pigrum
Performers:
Tara Samaya
Richard Cili
Joel Bray
James Pham
Lauren Langois
Niharika Senapati
Cinematographer: Sam Winzar
Camera Operator: Matty Jenkons
Camera Operator: Jesse Gohier-Fleet
Gaffer: Ryan Fish
Sound: Fabrice Galli
AD/Producer’s Assistant: Mashaka Gunnulson
Runner/Assistant: Lauren Kennedy
Sound mix: Lachlan Harris
Grade: Daniel Stonehouse (We are Crayon)
Editor: Dominic Pearce, Ian Strange
Production manager Chunky Move: Mikkel Mynster
Production manager Chunky Move: Angus Robson
BTS photos, footage, content: Sarah Cooper
BTS footage: Dan Gallagher
TRACES was supported by: The Angior Family Foundation, Mary Barlow, Leigh O’Neill, Rosemary Forbes and Ian Hocking, Nelson Estrella and Phil Rounsevell, Jerry Remkes, Naum Tered, Rose Hiscock and Virginia Lovett, John Carr, Jackson Clements Burrows, Jacqueline O’Brien, Sue Donnelly, Michelle Brooks, Rhod Ellis-Jones, Jeremy Blackshaw, Sean Jameson, Roger Poole, Margaret Parker, Hans Brinckmann, Caroline Farmer, Michael Agar, Rosemary Walls, Cameron Lewis, Pamela and Adrian Lombardo, Jane Badler-Hains, Gaye Murray, Jacqueline Rose, Min Li Chong, Gordon Conochie, Suzana Ristevski, Collette O’Neill, Aneka Manners, Sue Morgan, Jane Badler-Hains, Helga Svendsen, Jodi Burley, Sue Westwood, Roya Alma Azadi, Karen Weiss, Li-Hsin Serene Tan, Laure Pradier, Sylwia Dinehin, Lucy Mariani, Helen Forrester, Annie Dawson, David Geoffrey Hall, Phoebe Preuss, Heidi Groen, Victor Sojo Monzon, Anthony Oliver, Matthew Self, Moira Millar, and Claire Wilcock.
Chunky Move and Ian Strange Studios are located on the unceded lands of the Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nations. The artists and producers respectfully acknowledge the significant contributions of Australia’s First Peoples, and are committed to supporting the continuity of culture and relationship to this land.