We Bend, We Don't Break

By: Tankiso Mamabolo

Shot in a single bedroom over the course of a few hours, We Bend, We Don't Break uses a single body, projection, music and the performance of everyday mundane activities like cleaning, writing and exercising to explore the anxiety that comes with isolation and uncertainty and how the meaning of these activities changes over time. It explores how bedrooms change form to suit all the needs that have sprung up with the emergence of Covid-19. The use of the bedroom by the single body goes from being a place of rest to an office, gym, medical recovery space and a place of weeping and mourning. The performance piece also explores time and how a change in circumstances affects how time is experienced, our attempt to fill it and our subsequent attempt to survive it. During the performance, a self written and performed song titled "Don't break" acts as a dark sound scape. Through tone, tempo and repetition we explore how the music affects, contradicts and comforts in the space.