A stunning collaboration between Louise Potiki Bryant, dance artist, and Paerau Corneal, clay worker, on the subject of skin, the whakapapa of clay itself and the creation story of Maoridom's first woman, Hine-ahu-one, opens Tempo 2014 in great style.
Kiri means skin.
The audience files in to find a circle of dappled light already containing the motionless body of Bryant, camouflaged, lizard-like, in a coating of white clay. The potential sculptor sits in shadow nearby. The action all takes place in this small, illuminated arena, Bryant's lithe, beautiful and deeply expressive body tracing the evolution of rock, through water, to clay and, in Corneal's strong hands, the female form. She perfectly embodies a host of ancient spirits and totems throughout her one-hour movement marathon, and when Corneal steps forward to coat her in another layer of, this time, reddish clay, surrenders but still exquisitely articulates the subtle intent of the unmitigated substance itself.
Paddy Free's score adds an immeasurable meaning to the action, gurgling and flowing, crashing and cracking in what becomes a mesmerising and inseparable dance between the ever-changing light patterns, designed by Bryant, the sound and the physical arts of two women.
