A five-day adults’ arts intensive combining puppet-sculpting, somatic movement and ritual in nature, in collaboration with Gemma Mallol. These took place in October 2023 & 2024.

‘Unmasking the Body, Sculpting the Mask’ is a series of experimental and experiential five-day arts intensives for adults, developed with the movement researcher and somatic artist Gemma Mallol. By combining our individual practices within a collaborative workshop for adults, we aimed to offer our participants the opportunity to engage deeply with the natural landscapes of Ibiza via a multi-faceted immersion – based on somatic movement in nature, and puppet-sculpting with natural materials.

As a group we underwent a five-day collective voyage into our inner landscapes, and the outer landscapes of Eivissa. During the five days we ventured into wild locations of the island for outdoor somatic movement sessions, as we spent our afternoons sculpting giant puppets using natural, biodegradable and reclaimed materials. Our beings became sacred deities of Ibiza, birthed from the land itself. On our final day we brought our beings to life and marked their transient existence with a collective ritual at a body of water… before allowing them to dissolve back into the land.

Feedback:
(From an account written by one of our 2023 participants)

“Physically touching, smoothing, tucking sticking, smearing in the final phases of the mask making connected me to its embodiment into a being… dancing my own ritual… spontaneously collecting artefacts that became sacred charged objects seemed like an important precursor/ rehearsal for the real ritual, though I didn’t realise it at the time. I was performing a permission seeking ritual to nature.

I did not know that my sculpture would embody as the Widow of Mother Nature until Thursday evening. When the name came, everything that I felt in the morning practices… then had a reason, which I’d not been able to articulate during the morning sharing sessions.

During the final act in the water, letting the Widow go was more reverential as an individual moment. Felt very intensely aware of the presence & intimacy with her. Felt responsible & wanted to reassure the Widow that her journey was inevitable and she’d fulfilled her purpose because she was inside me now…

Walking barefoot through brambles to the water hurt, but was a necessary precursor to the final act. I felt if I was suffering it would alleviate the puppet’s suffering. It also was symbolic to experience physical pain before the letting go. Like I was offering my physical suffering in exchange for the Widow & her wisdom embodying with me... thank you, thank you, thank you.”