El portrait sitting
A durational performance, with live, video and sound installation elements, which investigates the female bodys response to the act of sitting for a portrait. The space contains a series of frames, which invite the audience to observe two slowly transforming portraits: one live, one on video.
The work initially explores the difference between Spanish and English representations of the female body. As the performance progresses these become complex, cross cultural, hybrid portraits.
The live performance draws on the restraint and oppression within 19th century Spanish portrait painting, while the video performance focuses on the abundant flamboyance of the leisured classes in 17th century English portraits. Through the durational stages of the installation performance the audience witnesses the Spanish sitters struggle to maintain her pose and her gradual imaginings of herself as the subject of the adjacent 17th century video portrait.
Cayetana graduated in Dance and Visual Arts at the University of Brighton where El portrait sitting was nominated for the Burt Brill and Carden Student Prize. Two work placements at Glyndebourne Opera House in the props and costumes department gave the artist the opportunity to develop her skills in working with historical material. She also worked with Corridor as a performer and installation maker on the site-specific project Spa (see talks Sited Recited).