BOUNDproductions

HELENE KAZAN and GILLIAN DAWSON

“The old woman sighed sympathetically. ‘My pretty,
dear’ she said, ‘you must be cheerful and stop worrying
about dreams. The dreams that come in daylight are not
to be trusted, everyone knows that, and even night-
dreams go by contraries…….now let me tell you a fairy
tale or two to make you feel a little better,’”
Apuleius

Helene Kazan, graduated in BA (Hons) Fine Art Painting at Wimbledon School of Art 2004, specialised in site specific multi-media art installation. Moved from Beirut at the age of nine, to live in that very same with her brother, sister, mum and bad tempered Arabic dad.

Gillian Dawson, graduated in BA (Hons) Theatre Design at Wimbledon School of Art 2004, specialised in site specific theatre and installation. Lived all of her life in the same town, with mum, dad, three sisters and brother.

There are things in life to which we are bound; family, friends, the community you grow up in .There is a particular connection to the house you picture in your first memory, certain things that are instilled within you, to which you are bound, be it voluntarily or not. Collaboratively we want to explore these ties, how they might have been changed or destroyed, and how they might manifest through the art of storytelling. Since the dawn of civilisation storytelling has been a way of bringing groups of people together, be it by a camp fire to pass away the time, or as a form of spreading news, folk lore, or gossip. Which ever way we look at it story telling has played a part in all our lives, and would have gone some way in helping to build the community in which live in. We look to concentrate on the forgotten qualities of story telling, to try and develop and use them as part of a process that will evolve into a project.

We aim to look at our environment and community, and how it has dealt with the effects of war, natural disaster, technology, economics and a shifting tide of people created as a result. In particular, to decide on how the need for redefinition of our culture as a consequence of all these changes, is allowing a development in the arts and the creative use of them in our society. Our sense of community and origin has had to shift and change, whether we have had to move continent, or welcome the changes made to our own culture. However we have been affected by these changes, each one of us will have a story to tell.

In telling a story a performance is created. Perhaps; the seemingly mundane setting of a living room becomes the theatre, the arm chair the stage and the imagination becomes the set. We want to explore how potentially the mundane becomes the magical, how an ordinary forgotten space can be transformed. Providing a culmination of: the real, the mundane, the fantastical, the magical, creating the all together extra-ordinary.

But is it possible to create a community? Is it unnatural to try and create a community? And what has it got to do with man’s innate need to hear and tell a story?
Focusing on the effect the montage device will have on the spectator. The experience, and the stories he will take away with him, in comparison to others. What are the similarities and differences in the way a person is affected by the same thing? And does it create a comment on the community in question?

‘The happy endings of fairy tales are only the beginning of the larger story,
and any study which attempts to encompass it wholly must stumble and
fall before any kind of ending can be made: the story of storytelling is a
tale that will never be done. As one traditional closing formula implies,
the story is made by both together:
“This is my story, I’ve told it, and in your hands I leave it.”’

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