Many Mes

Many Mes by Rocio Dominguez. Image, Patricio Cassinoni

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When it comes to Artspeak, like Newspeak or Doublespeak, your instinct is to immediately distrust it. Especially when it appears to contradict what’s right before your eyes. Which is not to say the real life inspirations for Argentinian artist, Rocio Dominguez’s Many Mes are not without their personal validity to the artist. It’s their framing, no matter how hauntingly beautiful, that feels like a hard sell and contrary to the production’s expressed purposes. "The unending quest for the completion of a rite of passage" says nothing whilst trying to suggest everything. Talk of immersion in a liminal space sounding off when the forty minute production is solidly centred from beginning to end. Along with the dubious notion of many mes when it’s abundantly clear there is only ever one; Dominguez.

Not that Many Mes doesn’t aspire towards splintering and fracture. Dominguez emerging from Gearóid O’Hallmhuráin’s transparent dark towards Patricio Cassinoni’s superb videos on a stand-alone screen establishing a foundational dichotomy. Images of Dominguez scooping water and washing her hands from a basin, back naked and to the audience, offset and often mirrored by a basin of water onstage around which the live Dominguez moves. But though image and body are divided, it’s their similarities that establish cohesion. Same dancer, same body, same hair cut, same white trousers and vest top, same gestures, same movements. No evidence of many unique mes, just identical reflections mirroring more of the same.

In Cassinoni’s video sequences, accompanied by Ingrid Boeck’s sound design, the opposition of body and image are often impressively synchronised. Evident in an orgy of dancer, silhouette and faded images executing identical patterns like a James Bond movie's opening sequence. The effect a multiverse of marginal differences. In which a single dancer defined by grace, poise, and exacting precision executes movements instilled with undercurrents of power.

Throughout, Dominguez’s choreography evokes the rigour of a Zen Tea Ceremony. Simple, repeated sequences defined by precision and exactitude. Deep squats, wide stances, arms extended like sun salutations reinforce the kata-like structure. Even pulses, or allowing arms to naturally sway look controlled and measured. A whirling circular pattern of movement, a crawling sequence in conversation with a chair, the endlessly repeated washing motions soon become mildly durational. The whole speaking to ritual. But a ritual that never redeems, and rarely transcends to anything other than a self-conscious ritual. Many Mes Artspeak pushing a pull door and trying to sound reasonable. You could spend your entire life doing that, the door still won’t open. The truth far simpler. And more direct. Glimpsed in nuggets scattered throughout, articulated by a single body in motion.

Many Mes by Rocio Dominguez, ran at The Project Arts Centre, Feb 18.

For more information visit Project Arts Centre.