Abstract:

I propose to present a performative lecture about Orchids  as related to conservation, imperialism, sexuality and notions of becoming and  dormancy. This lecture will be a prologue for a longer performance about orchids  presented later in the summer outdoors. The performative lecture will integrate video,  vocal looping, dance and straight up reading from a paper. Through a lecture, I am  interested in how information can be shared through historical facts, questioning,  symbolism, visual signs, and embodied knowledge 

I am interested in how plants themselves are active participants, how they are bodies in  site and are performing and not performing constantly. In the lecture, I will speak about  this through ideas in new materialism, Shintoism as well as indigenous knowledge. 

There are 736 genera of Orchids, but only two are commonly cultivated; Phalaenopsis  and Vanilla. Phalaenopsis, also known as Moth Orchid, is the most common household  orchid, sold cheaply because of the reproduction often through cloning. Most people  who purchase orchids throw them out after their few months of blossoming. This stage  of non-blooming is dormancy. Many of us are in this stage of dormancy during this  pandemic, seeking to survive, and none of us thriving. Half the orchids in the wild are  endangered because of loss of habitat and deforestation. Wild orchids are an indicator  it’s overall surroundings and our environment. Many orchids need fungi in order to come  out dormancy as well as to grow. Many forests no longer have the nutrients or habitat to  support these fungi. Fungi is a network where plants can communicate with one  another. In the performance community, networks are needed in order to bloom again. 

The lecture will begin about the history of orchids, such as the Orchidelirium in England  during the 19th century, linked to the need to possess the “other” in terms of taking from  newly “discovered” countries. It would also look at dormancy, cloning, and Darwin. The  piece would then explore notions of becoming as in the writing of the orchid and wasp  by Deleuze/ Guattari as well as connected to Kazuo Ohno's philosophy of Butoh dance.  The piece would break from these lectures and modes to then look at the orchid's  embodiment through movement, voice, and presence. 

This project is supported through the Chicago Dancemaker's Lab Artist Grant and residency through Sitka Center for Art and Ecology.