Fast Five Megan Payne – Hi-Viz 2020
What feels alive about your practice right now?
This is a really interesting question, and one I will respond to with a resounding ‘yes! my practice still feels alive’, which is, in itself, a relief – especially during this time. It feels alive because I (hope I) am managing this honest and regular commitment and relationship to my actual practicing, instead of my practicing being predominantly driven by output or product. Or, I am still focused on where my practices are going – for example, I’m really enjoying being busy with working on a fiction book during lockdown, and a book is certainly a product – but the timelines feel so much more stretched, so I get to really sink into the time, and space, and just do the work, the practice. When I write this it sounds more trippy/wanky than it feels. In short, what feels alive about my practice right now is the practicing!
Are there any particular sounds you’ve been noticing in lockdown?
I’m not a sound artist (or I’m an emerging one, somehow) so sound is one of the senses that I am least tuned in to. But I notice rhythm everywhere. Patterns of sound. So my main answer is words. I’m also noticing and love love love bird calls, lawn mowers, the post-person’s bike motor, pop music on repeat, breathing.
How have you been experiencing time in recent months?
In less of a rush – slower fuller days, which move fast as a whole thread because each day is also similar to all the others.
Can you evoke the concept for your Hi-Viz Short Work Commission in a few words?
Textural shared-open intimacies.
What’s one thing you do to keep stimulated and engaged as an artist?
Three in one: Read books, do somatic work, tend to friendships.
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