OTHERNESS is an ongoing collaborative body of work between seventy nine year old actress, playwright and traditional storyteller Jean Small and thirty-three year old visual artist Olivia McGilchrist which attempts to deconstruct the physicality of post-colonial bodies through video and live performance.
Initially created in the Caribbean, this work can become relevant in the wider Diasporic context of the Americas.
Since 2013, Jean and Olivia have been working together, exploring the re-appropriation of the foreign other body through physical gesture and sound. The conflicted idea of an 'appeased' re-discovery of the foreign other body has been driving Jean and Olivia to collaborate.
Inspired by Jean Paul Sartre's 'Huis Clos'(No Exit) the performance embodies contested cultural narratives which are troubled and re-invented in real time by juxtaposing a series of short mimed; multi-layered clips, and original sound recordings by musicians M'Bala and Andre France (Jamaica).
