Photographer unknown
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Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP)
In 2021, Geraldine was awarded an ACE, Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP) grant to “discover the operatic form”, as a development of her non-text based, site-specific practice. With the grant, Geraldine sought to explore the traditional operatic form; where it comes from, and how it works structurally, with the aim of creating her own language using sung voice and live music in her work. |
Through her DYCP, Gerladine sat in on rehearsals, talked to directors and designers, been taken on backstage tours of opera houses by their production managers, and experienced productions at La Scala Milan, Holland Park Opera, Opera Bastille Paris, Royal Opera House, The Linbury Studio, The Albany, and Glyndebourne.
In July 2021 Festival d'Aix- en- Provence awarded Geraldine a place on an ENOA workshop for "...theatre practitioners who are interested in the form but have no experience of Opera..." but due to the pandemic was unable to attend and the timeframe for her DYCP funding was extended.
Season of Sorrow – A DYCP Workshop
For the last two years Geraldine obtained permission from the Peabody Trust for her MA site- specific student's final performances to take place in the empty former Holloway Prison. She became increasingly inspired by the sense of the memories of the women once imprisoned there.
Last year, one of Geraldine's students created a performance inspired by Oscar Wilde’s time as a remand prisoner in Holloway and quoted from “De Profundis” the letter he wrote whilst in jail which describes amongst many things the emotions of being incarcerated.
Moved by this letter, she created an image to explore in a workshop for her DYCP, inspired by the history of Holloway Prison and the memory of the women imprisoned there; especially women of colour whose voices and stories have not been heard.
Extracts of the text of De Profundis form two verses and a chorus, set to music by the composer Felix Cross, written for cello, played by Lucas Robson and mezzo soprano- Ophelia Charlesworth. Initially, the workshop was to take place at Holloway Prison but due to the scheduled demolition, has been moved to Shoreditch Town Hall’s Ditch in August.
Geraldine describes the nature of the experimental workshop image below:
“I want to create a very simple image of a contemporary female prisoner incarcerated in her cell, imagining herself free and singing accompanied by a live cello. At the end of the first verse the music fades into the subtle sound of the sea and gradually a video of herself singing liberated on a beach will be seen projected on the wall of the cell, and there will be a duet between herself imprisoned in her cell, and her liberated self on film.”
In July 2021 Festival d'Aix- en- Provence awarded Geraldine a place on an ENOA workshop for "...theatre practitioners who are interested in the form but have no experience of Opera..." but due to the pandemic was unable to attend and the timeframe for her DYCP funding was extended.
Season of Sorrow – A DYCP Workshop
For the last two years Geraldine obtained permission from the Peabody Trust for her MA site- specific student's final performances to take place in the empty former Holloway Prison. She became increasingly inspired by the sense of the memories of the women once imprisoned there.
Last year, one of Geraldine's students created a performance inspired by Oscar Wilde’s time as a remand prisoner in Holloway and quoted from “De Profundis” the letter he wrote whilst in jail which describes amongst many things the emotions of being incarcerated.
Moved by this letter, she created an image to explore in a workshop for her DYCP, inspired by the history of Holloway Prison and the memory of the women imprisoned there; especially women of colour whose voices and stories have not been heard.
Extracts of the text of De Profundis form two verses and a chorus, set to music by the composer Felix Cross, written for cello, played by Lucas Robson and mezzo soprano- Ophelia Charlesworth. Initially, the workshop was to take place at Holloway Prison but due to the scheduled demolition, has been moved to Shoreditch Town Hall’s Ditch in August.
Geraldine describes the nature of the experimental workshop image below:
“I want to create a very simple image of a contemporary female prisoner incarcerated in her cell, imagining herself free and singing accompanied by a live cello. At the end of the first verse the music fades into the subtle sound of the sea and gradually a video of herself singing liberated on a beach will be seen projected on the wall of the cell, and there will be a duet between herself imprisoned in her cell, and her liberated self on film.”
Tattoo working image credit: Joseph Marshall
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TATTOO
Rooted Festival | Kew 7 July - 17 September 2023 TATTOO is a Geraldine Pilgrim installation that explores the “dynamics of carbon” with an ancient oak tree - created from recycled fallen branches sourced from the grounds at Hatfield House, emerging from a circle of limestone boulders. The installation aims to make ‘the invisible visible’ with its shadows of absent oak leaves reflected on its trunk and branches. |
These shadows of the invisible are created from carbon black ink; inspired by the discovery of the 5,300-year-old tattoos on Ötzi the Iceman’s mummified remains and in between the shadows of the absent oak leaves, are glimpses of the patterns of these original tattoos. Three constellations; Orion’s Belt, The Plough and Cassiopeia, are etched onto the limestone boulders and embedded with Swarovski crystals where the stars are.
Rooted Festival | Kew:
7 July - 17 September 2023
10:00am - 6:00 pm (last entry 5:30 pm)
Kew Gardens
Wakehurst
Ardingly
Haywards Heath
Sussex
RH17 6TN
01444 894 066
Rooted Festival | Kew:
7 July - 17 September 2023
10:00am - 6:00 pm (last entry 5:30 pm)
Kew Gardens
Wakehurst
Ardingly
Haywards Heath
Sussex
RH17 6TN
01444 894 066
Pieter Claes: Vanitas with Violin and Glass Ball
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Memento Mori – remember you must die
Geraldine has been awarded an ACE Research and Development grant for Memento Mori – remember you must die a site-specific performance/installation journey - integrating visual and performance imagery with sung voice and live music - of remembrance, grief, and resolution, in partnership with Highgate Cemetery. |
Inspired by 17th century Memento Mori and Vanitas still life allegorical artworks, which included symbolic objects designed to remind the viewer of their mortality and of the worthlessness of worldly goods and pleasures, this performance aims to explore and contemporises this genre creating animated 3D life size Vanitas installations that are relevant to today.
Memento Mori address’s themes common to all humankind, ‘a reminder that we must die’ and will resonate with everyone; people of all ages, cultures, of faiths or none, (including atheists, humanists, and agnostics) as will the opportunity that it will provide for all those who mourn those they have lost, especially post covid.
The underlying theme also aims to confront the most confusing element of death – someone is there and then they are not – true presence and absence.
The resulting ideas from the research period will aim for a full -scale project planned to initially be reimagined to tour London’s ‘7 Magnificent Cemeteries’ and then to tour nationally and internationally. It will be a work imagined site -specifically for each different cemetery in which it takes place.
Inspired by personal loss, the history of the cemeteries, and our changing attitudes to death and grief, Memento Mori, most importantly explores different cultures rituals of death, burial, and grief; resonates within the common chord of loss and allows an audience space to contemplate their own personal resolution.
A five-part requiem composed by Felix Cross sung by recruited participatory choirs local to each cemetery, (the word requiem is used in its non - religious definition which is “requiem: an act of remembrance) - provides the infrastructure exploring with performers and dancers, musicians and singers how psychologist’s Kubler Ross’s 5 stages of Grief - Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance can lead to resolution and acceptance for both the grieving and the dying.
Memento Mori address’s themes common to all humankind, ‘a reminder that we must die’ and will resonate with everyone; people of all ages, cultures, of faiths or none, (including atheists, humanists, and agnostics) as will the opportunity that it will provide for all those who mourn those they have lost, especially post covid.
The underlying theme also aims to confront the most confusing element of death – someone is there and then they are not – true presence and absence.
The resulting ideas from the research period will aim for a full -scale project planned to initially be reimagined to tour London’s ‘7 Magnificent Cemeteries’ and then to tour nationally and internationally. It will be a work imagined site -specifically for each different cemetery in which it takes place.
Inspired by personal loss, the history of the cemeteries, and our changing attitudes to death and grief, Memento Mori, most importantly explores different cultures rituals of death, burial, and grief; resonates within the common chord of loss and allows an audience space to contemplate their own personal resolution.
A five-part requiem composed by Felix Cross sung by recruited participatory choirs local to each cemetery, (the word requiem is used in its non - religious definition which is “requiem: an act of remembrance) - provides the infrastructure exploring with performers and dancers, musicians and singers how psychologist’s Kubler Ross’s 5 stages of Grief - Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance can lead to resolution and acceptance for both the grieving and the dying.
Photo credit, Bob Van Danzig: Goodnight Ladies - Hesitate and Demonstrate
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Geraldine Pilgrim to appear at symposium.
Feminist Theatre: Documenting The Past, Inspiring The Future Sat 30 Nov 2024 10am – 6pm GMT London Performance Studios Penarth Street London SE15 1TR A symposium bringing together theatre makers, artists, thinkers, and archivists to explore the women’s and feminist theatre movement, from the 1960s through to the 1990s and into the present day. A panel of talks will explore the Unfinished Histories archive, legacies of women’s and feminist practices in British alternative theatre, and key concerns around documenting and archiving fringe theatre. This will be followed by a soft launch for the new Radical Rediscoveries publication, a long table discussion, and will culminate with a drinks reception. Guest speakers will include Professor Anna Furse; Paula Brown, producer of Women Live and Katrina Duncan of Women In Entertainment in the 80s; writer and performer Rose Collis; experimental theatre-maker Natasha Morgan and site-specific theatre artist Geraldine Pilgrim, with more to be announced soon. Contact & booking: Email: [email protected] Click here for website Phone: 02038 597 271 |
Photographer Unknown
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Two in the Hand
Geraldine’s light installation, last seen in Stourhead in December 2021, is taking flight again in November this year. There will be an update of where to find later this month. |
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Photographer Unknown
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Two in the Hand
The birds are took flight again, this time at at Kew. Geraldine reimagined her Stourhead installation Two in the Hand specifically for Christmas at Kew 2022. |
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Geraldine recently completed her ACE: Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP) - Discovering the Operatic Form – resulting in a sung voice and live music exercise Season of Sorrow in The Ditch at Shoreditch Town Hall.
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Geraldine says:
After 2 years working with students in the empty former Holloway Prison and inspired by a sense of the memories of the women once imprisoned there especially women of colour whose voices and stories have not been heard; I extracted text from Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis, forming two verses and a chorus, creating an image exploring a contemporary female prisoner incarcerated in her cell imagining herself free and singing accompanied by a live cello to music composed by Felix Cross.
After 2 years working with students in the empty former Holloway Prison and inspired by a sense of the memories of the women once imprisoned there especially women of colour whose voices and stories have not been heard; I extracted text from Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis, forming two verses and a chorus, creating an image exploring a contemporary female prisoner incarcerated in her cell imagining herself free and singing accompanied by a live cello to music composed by Felix Cross.