Penelope Thompson -art performances -Jeonju International Film Festival - May 2,3 2009

On May 2 and 3, I was invited to do some art performances in conjunction with the Jeonju International Film festival (JIFF 2009), in the southern city of Jeonju, Korea.

On the Saturday, May 2, there was a street performance art event in front of the main JIFF cinema area with many artists performing, accompanied by 2 Korean musicians playing a grand piano and keyboards.

My performance was a simple improvisation called 'Spring Play' based on 2 red spirals.

I asked a young Korean girl from the audience to "play" with me using the spirals.

We created rhythmical movements and patterns together, as the spirals twirled and danced in the wind.

" The Elements #3"






On Sunday May 3, I did a different kind of performance, along with 3 other artists at the historical site of Gyeongijeon Park in central Jeonju.

My performance was called "The Elements #3", and was based on the idea of working with the 4 traditional elements of air, water, earth and fire.

My performance actions were accompanied by the drumming of American artist/musician Ripley Torres.

First, I collected samples of earth, air and water from the local environment, lit a candle and set up 4 glass cups containing these elements on a table.

I then started by folding a large origami paper box which I inflated with my breath (air).

I mixed the samples of earth and water together to make a natural paint, and painted alchemical symbols for each element on the sides of the paper box.

I completed the elemental quartet by setting fire to the box, which burned to ash as the audience watched.

"Here & Now" opening performance, Danwon Arts Center, Ansan

Yesterday, I was invited to do the opening performance for the Korea Contemporary Art 1000 Artists Exhibition, held in the Danwon Arts Center in Ansan City, just south of Seoul.
This performance was called "Here & Now " and was a symbolic tea ceremony to celebrate the passion and creativity of the 1000 artists who joined together for this exhibition.


The artist rolls a circular black table symbolizing "now" until it intersects with a square black box symbolizing "here".




At the meeting point of "here and now", the artist inscribes these words in Korean and English and then begins to set up the table to perform a ritual tea ceremony.



A square black silk cloth is laid under the round table, and a square gold teatray,and jars of various spices are laid out.



The artist creates a multicultural and fragrant blend of tea and five different spices that are labelled (in Korean and English) as "courage", "passion", "persistence", "self-belief" and "audacity".

These spices represent some of the qualities that artists need to continue to create uplifting and inspiring art in a world that is all too often focused on destructive and materialistic endeavours.

The teapot is marked with an infinity sign, symbolizing the infinite power of human creativity and the infinite power of the "now" moment.


Thus the tea is called "infinitea", and the audience members are all invited to drink the tea to share in the special energy of the creative "now" moment.
You can see a video below:

The Elements#2 - Goryeong International Performance Art Festival 2007

I was invited to the Goryeong International performance Art Festival in central Korea for the second time on October 20, 2007.There were several performance artists from countries including Japan, Australia, and Korea.

My performance title was "The Elements#2" - in which I made art using only the four elements of fire, earth, water and air.
This was a site specific performance and my performance area was a lovely stone sculpture set in the garden of the Goryeong Artists' Village.


At first I set up 4 glass cups, and added to each cup one of the elements - some rainwater, a burning candle, some air, and some earth from the surrounding garden.


I then proceeded to make an origami box from a large piece of paper.





When my paper-folding was complete I inflated the paper box with my breath (air).




I then mixed the earth and water together to make a painting medium.











With a calligraphy brush I painted ancient alchemical designs representing each of the 4 elements on the sides of the box.

These traditional symbols are based on the form of the triangle - a point-up triangle for fire, point-down for water etc.





To end the performance, I took fire from the candle flame and burned the box to ashes, and doused the smouldering remains with water - thus completing my use of the elemental quartet.





You can watch a 5 minute video below:

Goyang International Sculpture Symposium, Korea - 'The Beauty Myth', opening performance

On October 2, I was invited as a foreign artist to make an opening performance for the 3rd Annual Goyang International Sculpture symposium. Goyang is located in the north-western part of Korea, close to the border with North Korea. The city is newly affluent and has set out to provide a special focus on culture and arts for its citizens, including an enormous and beautiful lakeside sculpture park. This sculpture symposium invited many renowned Korean and international sculptors, who spent 2 weeks creating large permanent sculpture works for the lakeside park.

I chose to perform 'The Beauty Myth' again here because of the 'body as sculpture' aspects of this performance art piece. This performance was similar to previous performances of 'The Beauty Myth' , except for a new ending. I had been researching images of the goddess in different cultures and I had been intrigued by Kali, the dark-skinned Indian goddess of power, life and death.


The ferocious energy of Kali seemed to be the perfect counter-balance to the passive stillness of the white-robed statue woman in the first part of the performance. So when the woman tires of performing as the "beautiful object" and goes within,
she gathers all her repressed energy and emerges as a wild, black-clad, empowered woman. She wields a knife in one hand and the blonde hairpiece like a severed head in the other. This symbolizes killing off the old self, and cutting the ties that bind her to the old ways.


To end the performance she silences the ringing alarm clock with a single thrust of the knife, to show that she has conquered time.