'Bearing Our Teeth' (in development).
I completed a one-week research residency at Battersea Arts Centre and now have a much more secure idea of the concept, form and themes.
I am exploring the notion of human insideness, the space within, the physiological and psychological interior. I am conceptualizing the mouth as a holding receptacle for one’s individual life history.
The teeth evidence that which has not been overcome; the teeth never absolve us of past sins. The teeth record and remain as the longest surviving part of the human skeleton.
The dentist’s gaze and dental records provide a means of expressing what lies beneath the visible but is only ever expressed into constructed public health language. Our mouths are revealed to us and interpreted back to us via the gaze of another. That gaze, in turn, quantifies what is seen into ‘good’ or ‘bad’ dental hygiene. The fact of the mouth being an orifice for entrance rather than exit supports the sense of the gaze seeing not only our teeth but also our very core being.
Using both public health records and a form of life history interview, I would like to unearth the unknown stories that teeth hold for people and return them back through a performance and exhibition.
I will draw on interviews held in the Mass Observation Library on the subject of dentistry and also undertake my own. I will be working with the Centre for Life History and Life Writing on this aspect of the project.
Bearing Our Teeth is a mixed media piece and I will be collaborating with a visual artist (sculptor) and also investigating the appropriate setting for the performance and exhibition.