Mona Ayyash’s aim during the Homebound Residency was to make a video piece containing footage filmed by the participants selected to work with me on this project. She compiled them together to reflect the themes of attention and boredom, response and relation. In some videos, she plays with an accumulation of gestures and actions; in others, a reduction or subtraction of gestures.

 

For this project, Mona created a call for participants via Warehouse421’s social media, inviting anyone to assist in creating the footage. She selected seven people from the local community and invited them to film themselves doing a series of body movements. Participants were asked to commit to 6 online Zoom sessions. During these sessions, artist and participants discussed the evolution of the project and reviewed the developing video, as well as the next set of exercises for the following session.

 

 

Mona Ayyash, Folding Bellies (working process), 2020

Single-channel digital video

Courtesy of the artist

 

 

 

 

Mona Ayyash, Folding Bellies (still), 2020

Single-channel digital video

Courtesy of the artist

 

 

 

 

 

The Zoom sessions started with introductions to each other and the project, discussed technical matters, and Mona introduced them to one of her inspirations for the project. At the start of each session, they would do a viewing of the videos Mona had edited from the footage sent by the participants, and group members would give each other feedback. The artist then realized that some were more comfortable than others with the exercises, so she made sure to show a reference in each session to help inspire them in future exercises. In one of the sessions, Mona asked the participants to bring their own references when they thought of movement, to inspire others in the group. The project started taking a turn at this point. Participants were asked to imitate their references and consider how much of their identity they were comfortable revealing, trying to reach that line in the next set of exercises. Mona asked the participants to start to use the videos the group made so far as their references and to mimic or respond to each other’s videos. The group arrived at a point where members, artist and participants were truly in conversation with each other.

 

Throughout the residency, Mona used the feedback from the participants to learn how the project was evolving, regularly shifting it to suit their needs and the momentum of the project. Participants were given exercises to provide some direction for their movements, such as arm-bending, sidestepping, toe-twitching, but it was open enough for them to add their touch. After the sessions, Mona pieced the footage together to create a compilation of fragmentary gestures. The videos are layered on top of one another, constantly accumulating and subtracting. As the gestures repeat from different bodies, they begin to form their own visual language.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mona Ayyash, Folding Bellies (still), 2020

Single-channel digital video

Courtesy of the artist