top of page

AnOther

(2019)

"You are free to eat from any tree in the garden

But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil -

for when you eat it you will certainly die."

"You will not certainly die", the serpent said to the woman -

"and you will be like God, knowing the good and the evil"

   He is only the fruit of his actions. The past of his species has come to accumulate on his skin.

It’s time to open our eyes. To open up our senses. To look and to see beyond the matter.

Purification of the blemish to redefine ourselves below a new chance.

Analepse from its original sin. The genesis.

 

Back to the bygone era of this contemporary.

The apple is already on the ground. Fallen from the tree of knowledge.

Who were we and what became of us?

Forgetting the consequences of an individual conscience at the expense of our community.

Another is one of the 7.60 billion people on the blue planet, whose passage is only temporal.

Production:

Tiffany Mc Swaker

Music credits:

Oliver Goodwill - Neon Lovers

Pan Sonic - Vaihtovirta

Ez3kiel - Versus

"Suddenly, I became the future, during a performance shared in the present, performing the past."

I got inspired the whole process of my creation, from the singles element that I could connect together with my knowledge, opening wider the range of relationships between islands of ideas.

 

My general aspiration and contemplation were originally the questioning of being. If I could embody another being than the obvious humanity of my body. Having the opportunity to research beyond my previous limits and habits. Giving me the opportunity to feel in the skin of something that I could not even describe myself. In order to give me the space to research limitless inside of this matter. To define this vehicle through the time of discovery. It gave me a lot of freedom and a non-judgmental approach of movement.

I came to the conclusion to define myself as human but with a larger body vocabulary.

I wanted this research to have an impact on the meaning of my creation. The process of definition of the matter to be as important as the result. I decided to include this process into my final work.

 

To not provoke any potential assumption from the audience, I decided to present this being through anonymous visualization. I wore a combination of completely black in order to delete myself. Deleting all the characteristics that could define me as Tiffany – a woman, white skin, two eyes and brown hair. The black body on a black floor between black walls became a minimalist frame, without anything else to look at other than my particular way of moving.

In order to guide the audience on the importance of the details I was producing, (for example: smelling the floor or caressing my head on it), it had to be obvious to follow the meaning of the work. For this purpose, I didn’t show them a video in the background at this moment.

This lack of identity was allowing more imagination from the audience. To wonder and discover with me the identity of this creature through a process of actions. This was my way to demand the attention of my audience. From my part, it allowed me to be anything and to not feel sorry for being honest in the awkwardness, or to feel ashamed.

 

Giving space to my ideas and the center of interest to take in maturity, without any borders, guided me naturally to know stronger what inspired me and what I wasn’t looking for. This first concept of defining myself through a procedure of discovering my being with my senses (the touch, the smell, the listening, the view – after the first mask putting off. With evidence, the taste as well had to be explored to evocate the fifth senses of Human).

IMG_8989_edited.jpg
IMG_8995_edited.jpg

          All of these elements directly made me thought about the Genesis of the Lord God.

How the Lord God had created the first human after having created the Earth.

This process of evolution of the being became Adam. But to continue this evolution,

it was Eve who first made the original sin. The original sin was to eat the apple from the tree of knowledge…

So the fifth sense of the taste was finally founded. Everything appeared very clearly in my head and took shape. I was going to work about the way humans evolved by getting inspiration from the Bible and relating to the facts of the present.

To perform the original sin connected to its consequences, I had denounced all the other sins. I had to show Human as an actual sinner in its nature. I got a little bit concerned about the fact that I could offend a part of the audience defining all of us as sinners and showing atrocities making them feel guilty for crimes done by other human beings. That is why I decided to write « […] the consequences of an individual conscience at the expense of our community. » in my synopsis.

 

          The Bible was supporting the idea of the Human as a sinner. Then the connection became logical: I had to show these facts on a video. Real videos from documentary or information TV Channels.

This was « obviously » after the original sin.

Firstly, I needed to mention the sentences of Genesis 2 and 3, (the apple from the tree of knowledge), to arrive « in medias res » into the conceptualization of the original sin.

 

It was obvious to me that I was going to represent this storytime in a frame with the support of the paint

The Garden of delights (1510) of Jerôme Bosch. A paint in triptych (frame on three panels) representing three states of the world: the first panel representing Adam and Eve around the tree of knowledge with the Lord God in the Eden Garden. The second panel (and the bigger) is representing the actual world of pleasure, sin, and human tendencies. The third panel representing the end of the world, the terror and chaos.

We could easily juggle between these three panels and that the non-active black body on the floor was referring to the darkness of the third panel. I correlated the black (clothes and paint) as the color of the sins.

Suddenly, I became the future, during a performance shared in the present, performing the past.

That is why the analespe of the original sin was essential considering the process of the performance.

 

          Nevertheless, I didn’t want my performance to be as dramatic as it apparently looked like. I didn’t mean to choke the audience or to make them feel depressed after the performance. So I took the decision to change the end and to not perform the third panel of the paint. It was already enough to see it at the beginning. I decided to create an end which was matching with my aspiration for a better future through a metaphor.

Becoming the future in the present had to be symbolized by the original sin already done: « The apple is already on the ground. Fallen from the tree of knowledge. »

Moreover, performing the original sin, what would be the sentence « for when you eat from it you will certainly die.» of the Lord God if it would figuratively happen? Would I die?

 

One beginning, one end. Between: something to denounce, and something to hope for. My hope was the reaction, the awakeness of consciousness because we forget the truth behind our routine.

 

          Then, I thought about the fall of this story. Instead of the death, the process of purification of the Human, and healing of its soul. It is represented as an emergency to survive on the top of the short movie of atrocities that already happened. The past and the future are crossing each other. The crossing of these times is to emphasize the correlations between acts and consequences. Using the water as Holy water and as a ‘first mirror’ that its reflection was only the reflection of a face, covered by sins was referring to Adam. He saw himself in the reflection of the water of a river in the Eden Garden, then the Lord God said to him that he was the reflection of the Lord God. When I am looking at this water, my reaction is to clean myself from all of these sins, because I do not recognize myself as I am supposed to (compared to the first reflection.)

 

          Nevertheless, we use to do something in our contemporary lives: looking at our physical appearance in a mirror. But not really looking at who we are and what we have become. This is the reason why I have decided to put one mirror at the entrance of the room and one at the exit. People will not experience their own reflection the same way at the beginning, that at the end of the performance. They suddenly become actors in my performance. They become more than the audience when I face the mirror towards them for the final part of the performance. The audience is a spectator of our evolution and actions, but they are also collaborators of the sins, as much as me.

 

          I decided to stick to the title « AnOther » to define all of us. The idea that anyone could be in the center of this performance under the black uniform. The lack of identity becomes « everyone », the community.

I had for goal to invite the audience to this intrigue, to create questions in themselves.  suspense, fascination, and astonishment. I wanted this time to be worth it for me and for them. I was wondering how my work could have value,  have depth and meaning, and still be pleasant to watch.

 

I guide the audience to see clearly through the meaning of symbols. I invite them to truly feel their emotions, to stop acting as programs every day, and to remember that nothing is ever completely achieved. That we are not going to last forever. To shift the lack of humanity in life. We used to define ourselves as being creators of « mistakes » but we are smart enough to tend to define ourselves as better beings for a better future.

 Il n’est que le fruit de ses actes. Le passé de son espèce est venu s’accumuler sur sa peau.

Il est venu temps d’ouvrir les yeux. D’ouvrir ses sens. De regarder et de se regarder au-delà de la matière.

Purification de la souillure pour se redéfinir sous une nouvelle chance.

Analepse de son pêché originel. La Genèse. Retour sur le temps révolu de ce contemporain. 

La pomme est déjà au sol. Tomber de l’arbre de la connaissance.

Qui étions nous et que sommes-nous devenu ?

Il n’est pas bon d’oublier les conséquences d’une conscience individuelle au dépend de notre collectivité.

Another n’est autre que l’un des 7,60 milliard d’être sur la planète bleue, dont le passage n’est que temporel.

bottom of page