I first saw Ivo Dimchev’s ‘Lili Handel’ at Central St Martins theater as a young student.
This one human show, challenged the audience, visually and through the senses. I came out shaking, like I had just sat through a horror movie or been on a roller coaster.
Lili appears on stage, pale skinned and bald headed. Feminine and masculine, teetering in heels with a strong muscular physique. Aged, yet like a baby. Human… yet so uninhibited it feels animalistic. The juxtapositions presented in this form on stage are curious, confusing, slightly horrifying but ultimately fascinating.
The next hour of performance was playful, provocative, malicious and needy. I swung from laughing, to wanting to shut my eyes and stop whatever was unfolding in front of me.
The performance culminates in Dimchev, drawing their own blood and selling it to the highest bidder in the audience. On the evening I watched £150 in cash was given for a bag of Dimchev’s blood. Definitely a comment on the audience and performer relationship.
However, why am I writing and thinking of this performance when I am asked what inspires me in my interior design work?
Creatively, this show unlocked possibilities for me in creative and performance practices as it gave me permission to break free of beauty aesthetics. It had been drummed into me for years, as a blond female, who did ballet to be good I must be praised for beauty and aesthetic excellence. The pursuit of perfection within my physical body and my movement was the goal. I was also taught to be quiet.
Ivo Dimchev gave me the permission to explore the ugly, the abject and the raw that spilled out of me. If I wanted to roll around a dance studio covered and smeared in blood, I could. This led to me creating a Medea, full of fury painting herself red and screaming at the audience and world around her as she endured her pain. If I wanted to sing and scream I could…. This led to me warbling and murdering Dido’s lament from Purcells’ Dido and Anaes whilst dissecting the ridiculousness of Dido’s suscidal feeelings. It was not beautiful in any way… but I hope it was powerful.
The lessons I learned from Ivo Dimchev… can I bring them into my work as I create spaces? Perhaps a pursuit of beauty is not always the goal in a space. How can design be taken to a place which affects a human visceral. To elate, to inspire, to feel safe, to feel sick, to feel horrified? Perhaps a visceral feeling can be created through design…. Maybe this is a place where art and interior design can meet?
Or maybe it is simply the permission to explore the ugly as I create…. And see what possibilities are held in the darker thoughts and places of my mind and what creative avenues can be opened by going there.
Another monster who has inspired me……..