Blue tangents inspired by “bluets,” by Maggie Nelson

 

"Suppose I were to begin by saying that I had fallen in love with a color.”

 

“For many years, I have been moved by the blue at the far edge of what can be seen, that color of horizons, of remote mountain ranges, of anything far away. The color of that distance is the color of an emotion, the color of solitude and of desire, the color of there seen from here, the color of where you are not. And the color of where you can never go.”

 

 

We mainly suppose the experiential quality to be an intrinsic quality of the physical object'-this is the so-called systematic illusion of color. Perhaps it is also that of love.

 

Why is the sky blue? -A fair enough question, and one I have learned the answer to several times. Yet every time I try to explain it to someone or remember it to myself, it eludes me. Now I like to remember the question alone, as it reminds me that my mind is essentially a sieve, that I am mortal.

 

 

The part I do remember: that the blue of the sky depends on the darkness of empty space behind it. As one optics journal puts it, "The color of any planetary atmosphere viewed against the black of space and illuminated by a sunlike star will also be blue."

 

In which case blue is something of an ecstatic accident produced by void and fire.”

The half-circle of blinding turquoise ocean is this love’s primal scene.

 

That this blue exists makes my life a remarkable one, just to have seen it. To have seen such beautiful things. To find oneself placed in their midst. Choiceless. I returned there yesterday and stood again upon the mountain."

 

 

 

Blue tangents

(inspried by the above writing by Maggie Nelson)

At a slant

 

 

 

[we will either have blue wigs or white…trying to decipher based on the composition of the space]

 

 

Setting:

Room with blue led lights lining bottom and top of the walls.

A black square box with a silver 50’s style fan rotates and makes a humming sound. 

[possibly] An old red 50’s radio plays static, or the beach boys in a very static interrupted way. 

2 metal basins, with 2 large blocks of ice lit blue and dripping with blue ink are situated in the space.

 

ACT 1:

 

Four girls enter from outside of the building, wearing long white nightgowns. They are also wearing long blue wigs. They have just emerged from the ocean and are dripping wet. They walk towards the building, arms interlocked, heads facing down. 

 

They enter through the door and walk down the hall with their heads tilted downward, their blue hair falling over their faces. They are humming quietly together. 

 

They steadily make their way to the ice space lit in blue. Oranges float inside the metal basins. They wander the space in a ghostly, slow manner. 

 

A small metal shelf sits between the two metal basin. A metal fan, rotates and hums. 

 

The girls enter the space and each take an orange from the basins. (Once we get to the space, I will choreograph your body placement and where you remain eating your orange).

 

The girls sit here do this for about 20 minutes. The music plays, the fan rotates.

 

The girls then get up. One turns off the radio.

 

They exit the space the way in which they arrived — interlocking arms, heads down. 

 

ACT 2: 

 

The four girls stand on the balcony. Jaun Pablo announces, “Act 2 will begin now.”

As he announces this, the girls turn slowly to face the audience from the balcony. They then begin to walk down the stairs, repeating the words “I was there,” over and over again as they walk. The girls wear tuxedo kind of apparel. Hair is still long and blue or white. Each girl gently holds a white rag. Their fingers grasp the rag lightly, allowing it to drape downward.

 

They walk through the space cleaning, rubbing and scrubbing as they repeat these words. There is a humor in this. This is not done in an aggressive way but more of a subtle and light-hearted way. They clean and search, as though they are looking for dirt but there is none to be found. They are looking for something – maybe a memory, maybe their thoughts.

 

They arrive to the ice space lit in blue. They continue cleaning and rubbing and scrubbing. Once arriving to the space, they repeat, “I am here.” They rub and scrub the ice and dip their rags in the blue water. They scrub their bodies lightly.

 

There are chairs that have been placed accordingly in the space. The girls each take their position and begin a conversation about blue, memory, and dreams --- this is appropriated from each girl’s own personal narrative, understanding or connection with this color or idea. The voices may be pre-recorded so the girls do not actually talk but listen to their voices as a means to signify memory and the act of listening to ones thoughts. The girls may move their bodies and hands as a way to embody these words while listening.

 

The conversation ends.

 

They wring out the rags and place them on the sides of the metal basins, so they hang over the edges.

 

The exit the space. 

 

 

 

Act 3:

 

The 4 girls enter the building, wearing white nightgowns, their blue hair now pulled back in braids. Some have a long braid behind their back, others have two behind their ears. 

They walk into the space in a line, holding the back of each hand. Their heads face up. They softly repeat a nursery rhyme, or a lulluaby.

 

They walk to the blue lit space. Two girls lay down together so that one is on her back, the other gently rests her head on the other girl’s belly. They slowly fall asleep, as one gently strokes the other’s head and hair. Meanwhile, the other two girls continue wandering through the space, talking softly to themselves. After about 5 minutes, ones finds a space and lays down in a fetal position and slowly falls a sleep. The girls lightly snore and cough.

 

Nathalie then leans against the wall and slowly slides down. She folds her knees into her chest, wrapping her arms around her knees. She softly leans her head on her knees and drifts off to sleep.

 

The girls rest and sleep for another 20 minutes. After 20 minutes a person who has not been in the play until now will walk through the space with a bell and quietly rouse the girls saying, “wake up! wake up!” 

 

They will then slowly get up stretching their arms, and walk out of the building holding hands and smiling.

 

END

 

 

Cinderella / sing sweet nightingale

Cleaning as a way to distract self