Anna Perach and I talk about an awareness of darkness and adjusting to a lack of sun. Anna tells us about settling into the new Saraband Foundation Studio after 4 years studying for her MA at Goldsmiths. We talk about how she fell in love with tufting. We talk about how tufting feels, how tough it is physically and how it is now central to her practice. Anna talks about being heavily influenced by soviet decor and how unpicking and reworking the things she’s grown up with to understand and explore her practice. Anna talks about art with primal feelings and we talk about tactility, about carpet, the body and containment. We talk about faces, how they come into being and if we speak to them. 

We discuss some of the folklore stories that influence and inspire the work and we talk about conversations in your head and conversations with the work. We talk about female archetypes, relating directly to the Seven Wives piece and we talk about primal mother figures and ritual or repetitive behaviour. We talk about inherited information, how we hold our histories in our bodies. We talk about collaborative working, with a movement director to learn about and understand applying pressures on performers. We talk about trying to connect the body and mind, and investigate ideas about how the body takes over when its not possible to verbally communicate. We reference Bluebeard, Pina Bausch and the film Suspiria. Anna talks about creating an environment thinking about bringing in music, ideas of avant-garde theatre and the possibilities of working with glass and hot and cold. We talk about carrying on working as a strength and an escape! 

Image:

Seven Wives performance documentation 2020

Image Credit, Matt Ashford Studios

Links:

https://www.annaperach.com

The Herzliya Museum-  https://www.herzliyamuseum.co.il/en/