I've been feeling the need to have Pirate Jenny help me confront a lot of things. Around February of this year - I started using aspects of piano in my installations. Since the age of 6 and well into my early twenties, I trained heavily in classical music - mostly piano, a moderate amount of trombone and I had experimented with violin, and clarinet. At some point in my undergraduate days, the identity I had built around myself as a pianist was sticking, but subconsciously i couldn't deal with not knowing anything else. Learning, practicing and performing piano no longer became the safe space I would go to and eventually became traumatic. The learning environment I was in also didn't serve my emotional needs, especially as I was dealing with uncovering my sexuality, identity while being away from home for college.
What has evolved, is a series called Pirate.Jenny.Scores in which PJ is confronting, or facing those things that have affected me (Shola). The idea of scoring, scores - as music, as record as getting even sits well with me, and as PJ has been developing, I have been using her as a means of confronting events in my own life as well as social injustice in the world. Earlier, I had been working around the piano, putting it in my installations. Almost unavoidably, I had to start physically working with it, just so I could embody what I had been dealing with. Piano excercises/etudes such as having Pirate Jenny Pushing, pulling, dragging, leaning against this thing felt interesting. Setting up spaces/installation where I experimented with items and artifacts let me feel like I could insert her in them and give her tasks, or give her regimens that she had to receive.
What has evolved, is a series called Pirate.Jenny.Scores in which PJ is confronting, or facing those things that have affected me (Shola). The idea of scoring, scores - as music, as record as getting even sits well with me, and as PJ has been developing, I have been using her as a means of confronting events in my own life as well as social injustice in the world. Earlier, I had been working around the piano, putting it in my installations. Almost unavoidably, I had to start physically working with it, just so I could embody what I had been dealing with. Piano excercises/etudes such as having Pirate Jenny Pushing, pulling, dragging, leaning against this thing felt interesting. Setting up spaces/installation where I experimented with items and artifacts let me feel like I could insert her in them and give her tasks, or give her regimens that she had to receive.
The last etude in Pirate Jenny Scores involves a video performance of Pirate Jenny leading a funeral procession as she decides to find a place to bury her piano. There is a first time for everything. Producing the third piano exercise of Pirate Jenny Scores required: getting a cast, having a pre-production meeting, creating a storyboard, doing costume design, making sculpture, costume accents and props, rescheduling, scouting and locating a site, hiring a videographer and production assistants... among other things.
And it all happened. In Branford, CT - West woods Trail. It was cold, but I had some warm hearts helping to make the majic happen.
Stay tuned,
Love,
PJ
And it all happened. In Branford, CT - West woods Trail. It was cold, but I had some warm hearts helping to make the majic happen.
Stay tuned,
Love,
PJ
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