Lily Jo Ockwell
I hail from ye olde' Los Angeles CA, and hold a BA in Dance and French from Connecticut College. I'm a performing artist based in Brooklyn, NY. I’m currently the resident director and performing in The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover at the Faena Theater in Miami Beach. I conceived and directed several new immersive experiences at the McKittrick hotel including The Lost Supper, Inferno, Kings Masquerade, Mayfair, and Hitchock Halloween, from 2018-2019 . I’ve been working as a performer with Punchdrunk since 2011 in Sleep No More NYC and Sleep No More Shanghai, The Drowned Man London, and Rihanna’s Anti Diary/Samsung events. In 2015, I collaborated with immersive theater company Third Rail Projects in The Grand Paradise. I have performed, and collaborated with Luke Murphy/ Attic Projects, Adam Barruch/ Anatomiae Occultii, Martha Clark, Vanessa Justice/ Justice Dance, Kyle Abraham AIM, lonely goat dance, David Dorfman Dance, Gibney Dance, and Lisa Race/ Race Dance.
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I’m currently investigating my own work that is for me rather for others. I am intrigued in the merging of fields from music, theater, dance, clowning and visual art/texture/space in a new way in order to tell real stories and encourage positive change.
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DAY 1
I’m currently investigating my own work that is for me rather for others. I am intrigued in the merging of fields from music, theater, dance, clowning and visual art/texture/space in a new way in order to tell real stories and encourage positive change.
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DAY 1
Its a refreshing yet surprisingly difficult task, exploring a new space and not try to put any kind of association on top of it. The question between ambiguity and clarity in site specific work has me considering the scale between abstract work and literal/narrative work. The grey matter where abstract and literal/narrative overlap is where my interest lies.
I was interested in the viewpoints, the unexpected frames and unexpected stages around me. Sometimes with a human passing through, unaware that they were on display as art to my eye. And then the occasional spotting of someone on the same mission as I. At that point, that became choreography to me. Watching individuals on a collective journey in silence, in juxtaposition to those individuals on other collective or unique journeys. We were all playing the role of spies in search of space and story.
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DAY 2:
I like to look at space and see what inevitable story that space tells by taking in the visual and textual factors. I found myself attracted to the in between spaces and private spaces. In a very literal way I felt safe there but also some element of it spoke to the work I do, that is based on the idea that the scene we create is meant to be a scene that would exist whether or not someone was watching. If I am alone in a space, what then comes up narratively seeing my exploration with concrete walls and floors.
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DAY 3
Feeling more and more an attachment to this space. In a way, it reminds me of a jail, a cage at the zoo, a stage with a frame, or a screen (film and phone). It has the ability to tell different stories with all of that.
Its solitary and its confined. Within that, its performative and on exhibition. I feel like I need to be silent actually. Perhaps I use paper and crayons to communicate with people outside and in. When I did the task of asking a stranger "a texture they remember", a lady said, "writing on paper with crayons as a kid". And so I felt that on my feet in the previous improv above.
It feels disconnected. Like a side thought or a forgotten space, a perhaps unnecessary space. And yes perhaps thats why I was drawn to it. I felt safe in it and so I kept coming back.