Zoe Jordan
.image gallery
Pronouns
she/her
Location
Vancouver,
BC -
Canada
Links
Status
Active
I am a movement and performance artist from Vancouver, Canada. I am interested in exploring the nexus — and sometimes merging — between the human body (usually mine) and the landscape, natural or built, sensorially and aesthetically, and the ‘duets’ that these explorations produce. I am specifically passionate about improvisational work, a literal ‘meeting the moment’ which bypasses the intellect, relying on some other, embodied sensibility.
Having returned to my hometown of Vancouver after over a decade abroad, I am in the process of adapting my work to the local context: nature, society, art ecosystem. My creative training and focus lie in performance, movement improvisation, clowning, and soft sculpture, though I have also been a doula, a literary translator, an archivist…
Lately, my practice deals with themes of belonging, place, and materiality, and is mostly site-specific, engaging with my immediate surroundings in a kind of duet. This has been the basis of Forest Work, my nature-based movement explorations which approach a particular spot (mossy tree or stump or log) from a place of curiosity, inquiry and mutuality, seeing what it evokes physically, aesthetically, intellectually.
In another, parallel approach to materiality, I also craft work-suits (“costumes”) for my body-based inquiry. For instance, in Limbo, I worked with a velcro-covered chair and velcro bonnet and pants to explore the physical possibilities, limitations, and vocabulary of such a duet.
An additional aspect of my practice includes teaching somatic and improvisational movement in community. This challenges me to articulate forms and ideas that defy the limits of words. It is also an opportunity to share with others (anyone who is interested — if you are reading this, come dance!) from my own, ongoing learning, regarding embodiment, nonverbal communication and the pleasure of movement.
My inspirations are broad: improvisation (in many forms, particularly the likes of David Zambrano, Ruth Zapporah), flaneurism, fibre and wearable art, land art, Yoko Ono, Theo Jansen, Bat Sheva, and many more. I see my work as a dialogue between my own life-affirming, embodied curiosity and the reality of the physical and temporal world I inhabit.
I acknowledge that the lands where I live, work and explore are the traditional, unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples; the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
I am a movement and performance artist from Vancouver, Canada. I am interested in exploring the nexus — and sometimes merging — between the human body (usually mine) and the landscape, natural or built, sensorially and aesthetically, and the ‘duets’ that these explorations produce. I am specifically passionate about improvisational work, a literal ‘meeting the moment’ which bypasses the intellect, relying on some other, embodied sensibility.
Having returned to my hometown of Vancouver after over a decade abroad, I am in the process of adapting my work to the local context: nature, society, art ecosystem. My creative training and focus lie in performance, movement improvisation, clowning, and soft sculpture, though I have also been a doula, a literary translator, an archivist…
Lately, my practice deals with themes of belonging, place, and materiality, and is mostly site-specific, engaging with my immediate surroundings in a kind of duet. This has been the basis of Forest Work, my nature-based movement explorations which approach a particular spot (mossy tree or stump or log) from a place of curiosity, inquiry and mutuality, seeing what it evokes physically, aesthetically, intellectually.
In another, parallel approach to materiality, I also craft work-suits (“costumes”) for my body-based inquiry. For instance, in Limbo, I worked with a velcro-covered chair and velcro bonnet and pants to explore the physical possibilities, limitations, and vocabulary of such a duet.
An additional aspect of my practice includes teaching somatic and improvisational movement in community. This challenges me to articulate forms and ideas that defy the limits of words. It is also an opportunity to share with others (anyone who is interested — if you are reading this, come dance!) from my own, ongoing learning, regarding embodiment, nonverbal communication and the pleasure of movement.
My inspirations are broad: improvisation (in many forms, particularly the likes of David Zambrano, Ruth Zapporah), flaneurism, fibre and wearable art, land art, Yoko Ono, Theo Jansen, Bat Sheva, and many more. I see my work as a dialogue between my own life-affirming, embodied curiosity and the reality of the physical and temporal world I inhabit.
I acknowledge that the lands where I live, work and explore are the traditional, unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples; the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
