Writing as performative: Making poetry out of spam and news articles in a text/messaging epoch

These two pieces of writing, while not directly performance writing, embody my current interest in the territory of the performativity of writing for me and how writing has very much taken over our world through the internet, through our use of texting and messaging. The conversational function of writing is to me performative. In the first piece I took 3 spam emails and turned them into 'poetry'... for the second I took 2 news articles online from within Germany where I am currently living and did the same. I'm interested in how different trajectories of language take on a direct or indirect performative function of manipulating our senses and perceptions, playing on our emotions, appealing to our humanity and trying to sell an idea or political ideology to us. I am also interested in the poetry of actions, as suggested by Alejandro Jodorowsky's notion of Psychomagic.

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German flags over their breasts after stabbing himself security ushered protesting for a knife, but they cannot be ripped up,” she added hundreds of tourists. Passersby notified setting himself on fire where women have regularly watched for ten minutes In the toilets entered the furniture store ruled the case a suicide,to boycott the company's products. 30 minutes for the world community A 32-year-old man daubed feminist messages at Reichstag on the Femen website. a statement cutting women out at the Hamburg branch Man dies and equality for Ikea," graphic designer Irina, 32, told the paper. repression and violence, after finding a goodbye letter It added that activists colours because the Berliner first Police ruled early Saturday afternoon. “Our bodies are painted like posters, then poured a flammable liquid topless fully clothed. Taking a stand chest with a knife,“You can remove us because we are protesting for women,” “Allah made me visible,” to resuscitate the man, said another.Saudi Arabian catalogue,scene from his injuries. The reasons "Islamist dollars are more important according to the Ikea police over himself and lit himself on fire. aged 32, 23 and 22, said a placards. were personal, liberty and equality for Passersby in Ukraine, they removed their tops in Germany's newspaper products.Man dies Staff and shoppers have regularly staged nude protests.

Personal public social network/critique: The space between narcissism and artistic critique

It's been brought to my attention lately after many years (shall we say 8?) of online reviewing of the arts in NZ and the intermingling of social media and blogging that the space between personal and political, public and private, art, critique, experience and expression has been transgressed. What are the consequences of this?

On the one hand we have online reviewing sites for the arts theatreview, and social public political sites like Public Address and and then we have facebook, twitter, myspace and so on as well as blogspots being used as creative, entertainment or social political websites, which open up the possibility for dialogue not available on ordinary websites. The space of personal opinion and artistic expression has broadened in these social media sites to include concept, political topics, heated debates, sharing of information (cut and pasting urls and links), questioning and critiquing the hierarchies of power. This is the deleuzian 'rhizome' effect (#1), changes and voices uniting from across the globe via the internet with the metaphor of grass growing, incorporating the notion of 'grass roots' movements.

Because the authority of voice has been in some ways broken down over the past years as a result of post-modern questions around authorship, power etc and the idea that nothing is really objective (Foucault among many) we find the the voice of so called authority becoming increasingly 'subjective' on internet reviewing sites or atleast transparently succumbing to the idea that this is just this reviewer's opinion. We've seen it in magazines for many years, the reviewer opens an article about a star with 'i am waiting in the hotel room expectantly for .. to appear' and we're included in the writer's experience of meeting a star. In the same vain good documentary making and interviewing is meant to indicate that the subject is not being 'objectively' shown, that the voice of the maker is present, hence we see the interviewer, we hear them. There is no meta-narrative and no 'voice of god' in such documentary making, which is rather an old school ethnographic/anthropological western notion.

Naturally this is a trend, with its own flaws and contradictions, it can be as conceited as claiming to have authority over a subject, it can veil its own power craftfully in the process to achieve the opposite of what it intends. It can also come across as narcissistic, which in recent times has become a hot topic and a dirty word – incriminating facebook among all social media for encouraging public/private 'self obsession.' A great place for social networking, a brilliant scheme for free advertising particularly amongst sub cultures of the arts, environmental and political factions who don't often have financial backing, to reach cross cultural transgloblal audiences which is pitched against an increasingly polarised economic structure between the haves and the have nots, we see the voice of the arts, culture and politics compete with and at times dominate, the voice of the everyday person gossiping, sharing clips of animals and uploading photos of their children. Of course, all the while Facebook makes mega bucks and rumours have it, well not even rumours anymore, its pretty public knowledge, authorities are monitoring people in order to catch 'criminals' just like in the Stasi days in former East Germany.

Then we have blogging, a step removed from a website or a political site like Public Address in which official topics are initiated and debated throughout the country, which is again a democratic and free site anyone can create about anything and have followers, links, videos, photos, debates and can act like a website that is interactive. Because it can be so personal, anything goes on a blog, and anything does go. From fashion to erotic writing, film opinions, political conspiracy theories to personal artist pages and alter egos the space for blogging has nearly replaced traditional websites among up and coming generations, precisely because it is interactive, generative and creative. There is no limit on the information so a lot of recent information about Fukushima among many examples can be passed as fact on blogs, when infact it is merely speculation. Because it provides an alternative voice to mainstream news and science it can sit in a dangerous place sometimes between fabrication and fact, (creating fear and outrage), which are becoming increasingly difficult to discern anyway given the amount of censorship over the media and information that currently occurs with regard to large scale, particularly health and environmental issues.

So then we have the space between, which interests me as the liminal, fertile and problematic space between personal and political/public expression and debate. A space in which boundaries are questionable, as they so often are on the internet.

I take as an example, because this effectively triggered my consideration for this article, a recent post on facebook by a NZ contemporary dance choreographer in Atamira, Jack Gray, who's recent show Kaha (2012) appeared on 'Good morning', a breakfast tv show in NZ to promote their season at Q Theatre. Atamira, a maori run dance company, after 12 years has recently secured a handsome amount of infrastructural funding and this is the first year their work has sold out and had big advertising and big production. Jack Gray is a public figure about to present works and he writes on facebook a long generic statement- clearly angry about someone/something said about his/their work- about how some people need to get a life and that making art is about uplifting and living with love and respect are the changes humanity needs to make. It's brought to my attention by a collegue because she indicates there is a public debate coming out of this post. His post has 120 people 'like' it. Skimming through the thread I notice there is a mix of personal comments like 'cuppa tea? What's happened?' and 'you're the best' to long political rants about the state of the arts in NZ and Atamira's role, standard and success or not within NZ and internationally. Its a chaotic thread and it sums up what I'm musing on.

For a start most people don't know what Jack Gray is refering to and so he appeals to his friends on a personal emotional level, its a cry for help. I'm not dissing him here by the way, I do the same thing myself when I get upset by something publicly, and find it interesting what happened consequentially. But intertwined with this is a mixture of opinions and voices, some soothing, most soothing infact and supportive, and then one stands out as the cause of the discomfort. Peter Takapuna is effectively saying that Atamira's work is not up to scratch after the amount of years they have been in motion, that all that has changed in Maori dance in 20 years is the venue and that they have not followed in the footsteps of internationally esteemed Mau Dance (Samoan choreographer  Lemi Ponifasio) and so on because their work is average. He speaks to and for Maori, he engages with a discourse which addresses colonisation and the company's place in decolonising and we deduce from his final comments that he has publicly dismissed their appearance on 'Good morning' as looking like 'performing monkeys', hence the original post on facebook by Jack Gray. We then presume that Peter Takapuna has also made his comments on facebook to begin with, to which Jack Gray is responding.

So in this space between public and private facebook as an example of social media networks has created the murky space for personal expression, which are generic, with specific political and creative critique. Some people call this behaviour 'trolling'. The strict definition of trolling is when someone attacks others opinions usually in a public address type political debate thread repeatedly without much reasoning and turns the debate into a nasty down ward spiral of ad hominems. It is incredibly 'toxic'. In this case I would not say that Peter Takapuna was trolling, though perhaps 'toxic', but the case is borderline considering the unspecified nature of facebook as a 'social' networking site. What he has done is generated discussion to and for Atamira, in which several people present rational and considered arguments for 'Good morning' as a good platform for artists and not a reflection of mediocrity, and Sarah Knox argues that 'success' is a limited view in NZ dance, which always tends toward valuing the international, when success to her is working with children in NZ and changing lives here amongst our own people with our own stories. Takapuna comes back with- take it to the playgrounds of Whangarei and then the playgrounds of Paris, Atamira is aiming small and playing insular. Whether anyone agrees or disagrees the point is that discussion is going, on the misplaced forum of Jack Gray's facebook page.

The debate is interesting, and it is to the detriment of Jack Gray's initial post I suspect, however the space has been opened up by him in making his comment public in the first place, ON FACEBOOK. It got me thinking, as someone who (subjectively speaking here) also makes broad sweeping accusations and such comments on facebook about my supposed injustices in NZ dance/arts, what comes from this? Because facebook as an example is about social popularity essentially, we see someone who is socially popular being defended and supported and the voice of a genuine critique being ostracised. While it is 'inappropriate' within this forum to present such attacks on another artist because it is 'anti-social' what Takapuna presents is valid as commentary, yet it is perhaps misplaced because there is no other platform for his expression and it is harsh.

Furthermore, when critical debates are taken personally, or even intended personally (and Takapuna retracts his statement that they looked like 'performing monkeys' later in the thread realising it is harsh and offers to have a hui in which he will provide the hangi, but i suspect that by now it is too late, the damage has been done) there is no open space for genuine listening or discussion. The space is closed down. There are also no 'rules' which makes the space somewhat 'unsafe'. The question really then becomes about self-regulation in these cases as it is a public and PERSONAL platform, and also generating a space for critique and for expression to actually be safe to do- on either side, in a more political sense. They have made all of this public, therefore it IS public discussion, abeit on facebook.

Peter Takapuna saying that it is 'not personal' when on a facebook thread seems inaccurate. However, he is also right. It is very difficult for artists to take any sort of criticism because our artmaking IS personal for us. For others not making art, it seems like it is not personal and yet it probably very likely is and reflective of once again subjective interests and personal motivations. The space between objective and subjective is indeed an interesting one, played out here, including by me as a bystander also invested in personal and political debates such as these. Which are valid, but they may skewed. I actually valued Takapuna's response, it is an alternative opinion, perhaps marginalised, which has a point and addresses genuine concerns often not faced by companies in NZ dance. So what IS the right space for critique which may be useful instead of alienating and damaging? Is there a space at all or is it because there is no space for it that it comes out like this, in toxic ways?

I would like to propose that NZ in general (broad sweeping generalisation) is not very experienced at public critique or debate, discussion, particularly not in public live forums, but the speed with which discussions online become 'out of control' also suggests that maturity and openess to multiple voices/alternative voices online needs to happen as well.

Many debates have occurred on the performance reviewing website Theatreview, which have gone deep into fractured opinions and arguments, which open a space for public discussion in dance, which being NZ, and not so experienced at this, have often caused grave offence or had comments removed and barred by editors. I have been in such discussions, I have been on both sides of them, initiating them and having them launched at my own work. What does this do for the artists? For the culture? For the medium of performance and the medium of writing/critique?

The clearest example for me of such conduct is Celine Sumich's review of my CNZ funded show and residency with Mau at Corban Estate, Toxic White Elephant Shock, in which the reviewer, who I had personally fallen out with a year prior. Already this is a loaded review right? Perhaps this reviewer should not be reviewing?

You can see what's coming of course. So the review of my first properly funded work after several years which also received the Tup Lang Award, which most people found provocative and powerful, some found overwhelming and chaotic, was underhandedly dismissive and labelling the work essentially futile. Please note that this is quite common of experimental NZ dance work for a reviewer to not understand the work or like it because it is sitting outside the usual confines of what 'dance should be' particularly in NZ. So what preceeded was a 30 response thread of people mostly in defence of the work and the few that were in support of the reviewer, Celine Sumich, had not seen the show. What was noticable about the thread was the narcissism shall we say of the reviewer, who would continually implicate herself personally in the thread so that the conversation ended up being about her. This once again blurs the line between public and private, personal and political and we may question the voice of authority as not having honest motivations.

On the one hand we have a post from Jack Gray in which it is a personal response to a comment on facebook, a social media network, by Peter Takapuna on his own page, who then makes no further comment on the thread upon which a debate rages amidst general comforting posts from friends. On the other hand we have a formal review on a public and esteemed reviewing website in which the reviewer Celine Sumich not only already has a personal issue with me, the choreographer in question, aside from anything, but continues to comment throughout the discussion so that the debate turns into being about her sexuality with the final poignant comment from someone anonymous saying 'wait, what does celine's sexuality have to do with the show?'in which both Celine Sumich the reviewer and I, Alexa Wilson, are barred by the editor from making any further comments.

I have chosen a personal example, among so many unrelated ones on theatreview throughout the years to follow the trend of 'subjective' writings as a non-authoritarian stance to reveal my humanity, but in which I also feel that because of the hands on nature of the experience there IS authority to speak upon the matter from an experiential perspective. Which relates to the topic at hand. Also the authority of the topic is transparent, my motivations are entirely revealed in this moment, although there has been distance from the event of 3 and a half years unlike the recent debate about Atamira.

Are there uses in being a little step removed? This is my point. While I do value facebook and I am also posting this subjective and objective musing on my own blogspot! To then share with facebook! I also see the use of a one step removed platform or forum for discussion. I am at once questioning the personal and subjective transgressing of facebook as a platform for personal/social critique and encouraging a more considered or 'safe' dialogue or platform for open discussion of alternative perspectives, though I do not know what this is. I do not find academic forums useful but alienating for community debates, although perhaps a bit more mediation here would be beneficial. I am questioning the open unregulated nature of reviewing on theatreview and also suggesting that if things start personal then they will end personal, however thinly veiled the authoritive position is. When artists review other artists there is an understanding and an insularity, when we blow open a site like facebook with real opinions and DIFFERENT ones is it democratic to allow freedom of speech, and fascist to lock down alternative voices, or is it un/professional? These are all questions, to which I really have no answers. But what I do know is that when misplaced opinions and personal agendas get mixed with professional critique in the arts it is definitely a quagmire in which defences get solidified and real genuine discussion gets closed down. It can all too easily be assumed that 'tall poppy syndrome' is in action rather than any real and useful critique.

Peter Takapuna says he knows his words will create discord and implies that its time to take the hats and gloves off and stop being so polite. This is a valid point in NZ dance/arts for major companies, who tend to have less scrutiny than experimental works because of some unwritten power position they hold. (My agenda revealed?) However as someone else commented him shouting 'I will not be silenced' is self silencing. It is also narcissistic, as are the artists will to fervently defend their egos against critique in public. When you put art out there its fair game it will be critiqued. Yet, critiqued by who? Do they know what they're talking about in this country? Who are the people critiquing? Do they have their own agendas? Very likely. Celine Sumich's need to defend her opinion in public brought to light the narcissism of the writer infused in today's online/public/private reviewing sites. Where is the line? what are the issues at hand? Can we remove the ego and agenda from the art and the critique of the art in these media? Or have they become so infused, that is it commonplace for no boundaries to be made, no reason expressed, and no authority made? It seems to be a power game in this case, which is dangerous for all involved. It does not benefit the art, the artist, the reviewer or the critic. Especially in this small country/community/communities. Yet the other alternative, the academic model, also has the pitfalls of institutionalised and exclusive power.

In my subjective objective opinion.

Main Question/s: Can experimental NZ works be entered into a written dialogue about without it being by friends/ex friends or resorting to violent misunderstandings and on the other hand is there a safe space for mainstream work to be critiqued without it coming from or being responded to from a defensive 'personal' standpoint within some of these public/private spaces without the space being closed down? A space for discussion which furthers the work and moves it into the world to develop a rich dialogue for exciting art to be fostered, challenged, understood, to honour that it causes affect in a positive way and also a space in which critique and alternative voices are also enriching to largely unchallenged works.

I think NZ is ripe and ready for such a space.

Quote below supplied by Val Smith in regard to online narcissism:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_boundaries
"According to Hotchkiss,[8] narcissists do not recognize that they have boundaries and that others are separate and are not extensions of themselves. Others either exist to meet their needs or may as well not exist at all. Those who provide narcissistic supply to the narcissist will be treated as if they are part of the narcissist and be expected to live up to those expectations. In the mind of a narcissist there is no boundary between self and other.
As one ex put it, “If you had firm boundaries in the face of a narcissist, the relationship wouldn't last”.[9]

1# Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari use the term "rhizome" and "rhizomatic" to describe theory and research that allows for multiple, non-hierarchical entry and exit points in data representation and interpretation. In A Thousand Plateaus, they oppose it to an arborescentconception of knowledge, which works with dualist categories and binary choices. A rhizome works with planar and trans-species connections, while an arborescent model works with vertical and linear connections. Their use of the "orchid and the wasp" is taken from the biological concept of mutualism, in which two different species interact together to form a multiplicity (i.e. a unity that is multiple in itself). Horizontal gene transfer would also be a good illustration.

Post show workshop thoughts to Vincent Riebeek 'Justice' 2012

This is personal feedback requested from the Dutch performance artist visiting NZ to perform 'Justice' at Artspace as part of the curated exhibition by Arron Santry Alienate/demonstrate/edit 2012 and take a workshop on integration of tarot with art/performance
http://artspace.org.nz/exhibitions/2012/default.asp?artwork=1387

Hi Vincent,

 Its been a few weeks since i said i would write to you with my thoughts on your workshop and show in auckland but i've been a bit consumed with preparations for going to berlin/ny and tying up things here too. However I said I would so here goes:

On reflection, both your work and your workshop were very satiating for me but also left me wanting more! Something intriguing and personally appealing about them both, it was interesting to see performance art/dance in artspace for a start, which generally never happens. It it not a performance venue so curious to see it curated to have this and watch a scene of people definitely not used to this intrigued by it! This gallery is very much invite only. A lot of the people in dance who would have appreciated the work did not even know it happened! For me this says a lot about the context here for performance, dance and segregation from fine arts so was nice to see it supported in this space. Enough of local politix!

The work was interestingly playful, both deconstructive and earnest. I was interested in the gender politics toyed with, setting the male body up in this objectifying, posing, satirical, playful paradigm has certain connotations of male sexuality which was offset by a song with your fiance. I liked this confusion, this sense of what is this guy up to? Is he fucking with us? (I love that! I do that!) A new age shrine to male sexuality, mediated erection glitter and orgasm.. playful and satirical of sacredness, the breaking of a lotus flower. Something almost asian fusion about this, the mish mash of popular cultures.

My favourite part was the candid speech and song, which seemed to capture a lot of people. Satire offset by personal disclosure, never taken too seriously is very human and draws people in. I really liked your gentle and inviting tone. Overall it was very fun and I liked how earnestly you gave eye contact with the audience which for me had a genuine sense of humility and vulnerability, playful but with a sweet desire to connect. It was tongue and cheek? I am interested in performance in which you don't really know what truth is, what IS truth? In playing around we can reveal so much, in speaking earnestly we presume it is the truth but it infact may be fiction. I am interested in this because I play with this myself. Like is this song with fiance for real? Is it fiction, satire, is it both or all? And the sudden shifts with no explanation, yes. Good. I like that.

 Did the performance feel vulnerable for you? I am so interested in this.. in this strange country so far away, you don't know if this is a hoax.. ? Who are these people, what are they used to? Are they playing a trick on you? The gallery space is so exposed is it not? So glaring and bright, nothing hidden. Its showtime, yet there is no hiding in the dark shadows of theatre. We are nudes on a plinth in the white box. I wanted to see more.. :)

The workshop was great, it was refreshing as while a few of us here keep the artforms of dance/performance progressing it feels like gods work at times. Again- so many dance people did not even know about the workshop, ones who would've enjoyed it. Mark seemed to keep it very quiet. But was great to have a mix of dance and fine arts people. It was like yay european wind! (so glad i'm going back). The space between body exploration, intuition, creativity, concept, layers of meaning and ideas.. its something I explore and enjoy.

Trance created by shaking, challenge of discipline to stick task amidst somatic body shake up, great. Testing new things, get the synapses going, violently waking the body up. Something autistic about dance for me so often, something obsessive compulsive, repeating 'clock, clock, clock', exit exit .. trancelike, mad. Ritualistic. Great, grotesque. I think it was quite hard core for the fine arts people, not used to embodied work.

 The task of moving another's body for me brought up lots of projection, what we project onto another's body, what our relationship is to that body, how we choose to position our own body. How far can you go objectifying another, or getting them to 'do' something to us. Active and passive is so subjective, how active or passive is the passive one? All experiences, differing with people. And the experience of working with a male or female for me was very different, interesting. Intimate, quietly confronting. Words, text, writing, I have written so much so so much from this place.. love what comes out. In a way it was nice to not be too precious about what words came out, too attached. I can get very very serious about what i am saying.. it all comes out anyway without trying too hard.


I am very interested in tarot and this is what drew me to the workshop, its interesting how synchroncity happens.. I have started doing readings for my friends who seem to get a lot from it and as you say its just one interpreting the cards, the magic is in the space between. And even seeing you perform in artspace as I am moving in a fine arts direction with my performance because dance is largely very conservative here and in europe i got called anarchist. Synchronicity to inspire.

 It would be so interesting to explore tarot on each other as participants, like I had no idea Jodorovsky (who is also my favourite director btw!) gave physical interpretations and administered magical rituals for people to do according to their reading. I really appreciated what you said about using art/performance for healing as I completely agree and have worked toward this for many years, at times being called shaman. I don't like these labels because they're too culturally specific and static but I like your alignment of art practice with magic at the core, creativity with transformation. These things do not seem to have a place in academic art, which often over rationalises.. and creativity comes second, it over thinks, it becomes obvious, mono conceptual, afraid, deadened. Like live a little! Perhaps that is what i am doing right now! I do like to think, but the space created for genuine creative practice is important and the facilitation toward practice-lead and collective/individual research such as this is fertile. It was a pleasure to do.

I taught a workshop recently where I also got people to continually improvise a performance with objects, a task, not overthinking.. just do something, feel it. It is a wonderful space from which to create and share and very interesting as a process to watch and be involved in. Also with the layer of a tarot card, something I have also been exploring. I was pleased to pull my favourite, The Star. I do think there is space for people to share and talk about what's happened but I do appreciate that you can create more fertile space also from not talking or over sharing.. that each takes something away for themselves which is special and unique. I enjoyed the opportunity to do something like this that was not initiated by me, so thank you. It was exciting to see other people working in this way and facilitated to do so as well. And again I wanted more!! haha .. perhaps i am just starved here.

 Hope that is interesting and helpful!

 Best, Alexa

lexicon

when called a·lex·i·a
/əˈlɛksiə/ Show Spelled[uh-lek-see-uh] Show IPA
noun Pathology .
a neurologic disorder marked by loss of the ability to understand written or printed language, usually resulting from a brain lesion or a congenital defect.

ps one of many reasons i left a small community. "While imagining the childhood of Andy Warhol, Lou Reed once wrote, "There's only one good thing about a small town: you hate it, and you know you have to leave."

Sean Curham initiated 'generative' responses to 'Rainbow Warrior' performed at Love Me and Millionaire PM 2011

This was a generative review idea initiated by Sean Curham in 2011 in which people were forwarded responses to the work by email and asked to add their own written experience of it. It was performed in August in Auckland at Galatos Bar as part of The Live Series: Love Me and at Golden Dawn Bar for Millionaire PM in November 2011.

Sean Curham

"An 'in progress' review.

I would like to invite you to participate in a 'review in progress' of “Rainbow Warrior” by Alexa Wilson. The idea is to write in response to the work and in the process contribute to it and the wider community. Please approach this not as a form judgement or evaluation but as a participation in the ongoing generation of work and exchange. In other words the spirit of the review is to contribute positively to the event.

I’m interested in sharing incomplete or 'in progress' ideas. A dialogue more akin to conversational exchange than written responses. Its my hope that some of this casual intent can occur whereby our individual interests can be voiced and that this may take a messy and imprecise form.

The other idea was that only those who are likely to write will receive the review which might keep it alive?

So if you would like to participate please 'add on' to the review and then pass it on to someone else who attended the performance. Could you also please forward a version to Alexa and the other contributors as you go. Last thing - please do not publish this on a public review site. (It may be published but this will be considered at a later date).

Start.
The work starts and right away there is an increased intensity in the room. I’m watching the audience, the performers and the room, and all are alert. Its exciting, loud and uncertain. People look away.

From the outset there are numerous strands of implication/investigation. Its complex work and I think challenging to 'read.' There’s much to engage with including in no particular order ideas of history(genealogy), exhibit, politics, spectacle, goldfish, Perspex, protest, having a voice, activism, entertainment, craft, aesthetic refinement and on. Its a joyous mix.

In action is a dense repertoire of gesture, of references, devices, and strategies gleaned from familiar and not so familiar places. The invention with this vocabulary of things is playful and funny – and very precise. The components have a relevance and 'meaning' within the shape of the project and I find the investment in these strands of activity most fulfilling and challenging.

I look at these components as being a format for activity – something to do – as providing a familiarity albeit one that may be 'new' in its delivery – but familiar enough to engage the audience.

The joy unfolds through the lively enthusiasm of the work, through the determination to create an event and to fulfil a very particular range of demanding activities. Its generous work - in the ideas, but also as a form of participation with the community and most directly the 'Love Me' project.

In particular I am interested in the variations in intensity. Perhaps these are achieved through the making style and the strict parameters of the work. However they appear its these variations or the constant shifting of pressure that I’m most interested in. In one way I experience the work as human and hopeful. I also experience it as gatherings of non-human forces, a material energy that is actively rearranging and reshaping in ways that are difficult to convey. I don’t view the work as accumulating an experience or message – for me the affect is immediately re-immersed back into the process.

So – am I interested in the particular meaning of each component, and its relevance to my graspable experience or am I more interested in the passing situations that express intensity as regenerating (actualized) ideas/experience?

Next please. And feel free to correct my grammar/sentence structure etc. Sean."


Christina Houghton

"I can start writing from here funnily enough I try to choose a font and I end up with this red type which seems appropriate when writing about ‘The Rainbow Warrior’ by Alexa Wilson, which I also experienced at Galatos the dark grungy venue as part of LOVE ME on August the 30th and 31st 2011. As part of The Live Series curation production team I also experience the lead up to the work which creates a specific experience for me.

I see the spacing, the walk through, the addition of performers/friends at subsequent rehearsals. The holders of the large Perspex sheet, the interpreters and the layering of music red lights and the tech shambles for the dress rehearsal! Which I am partially responsible for, yet wonderfully immersed in as we see Alexa’s projected nude body appearing in a shimmery blue light on the Perspex and on the wall behind and above, projecting recorded memory as it occurs, yesss. I then experience the opening night along with the audience that reveals Alexa’s now rainbow body painted form and the scuba suited assistants who throw a collection of objects at the Perspex body shield in an aggressive or is it in a disinterested way. The work comes alive with the entrance of the solo performer and her entourage of bodily assistants, who not only attack her but feed her and dress her in red lacy knickers, yes these are good friends?

There is a lot going on that flows over me like a musical symphony of concepts and images, I see a shattered anatomy of intertwining identities moving through time. Complex and constantly changing. I love that now familiar experience of my brain trying to make connections from what I see with ideas of love, bodies, social codes, body memories, archetypes and yes also that unknown, did I imagine this? What is the essence of what Alexa is showing? And what we are experiencing? The structure of theatrics/non-theatrics, the screaming, the cultural references, the awkward arm raised in uncertainty like a drowning (Wow) man, are triggers for this essence. This essence being a result of a created community of this shared space (creative communities!), the fact that we are experiencing this woman and her friends in an intellectual and intimate way is thrilling and I am thankful for this generous offering. How can I return the favour?

I am sure this experience is attributed to a highly refined performance presence that recognises the relational activity of performance art of this kind which Alexa refers to in her own writing. The images we see are a real of representation that are totally embodied in the moment. This dualism finds us trying to decipher between the two long after the performance is over and we scramble for things to say to each other in the post show discussion. I love this! At the forum Mark Harvey asks ‘where to now?’ for the works shown this evening and for Alexa I think ‘France’ yet I don’t raise my hand in an awkward manner as I may need rescuing. Christina Houghton"

Sarah Campus

"Love changes

It has been a while since I saw Alexa’s piece ‘The Rainbow Warrior at Galatos’. My memory recalls in snapshot - segments, feelings, characters, vibrations.

As I say ‘we’, I speak for us as 'audience'. As I recall my own feelings and experience, I express these only as mine, claiming to not know what others may think and feel, but what I picked up at my attendance.

I remember in fragments. Funny bits, intense bits. It’s sort of counterintuitive for me to play with words to attempt to ‘try and make meaning' about what I saw. Alexa’s work touches me on a visceral, energetic and psychic level, and often this exchange is more distant from the intellectualising and analytical process that can be dominant when reviewing many contemporary dance performances in New Zealand. My intellect is perked though and never divorced from my experience of watching. I can find myself in the question processing part of my brain as I see the political themes addressed in performance. The relational art aspects of her work enable me to tune into the creative message that is communicated to me as participant and viewer. I am engaged in simultaneous and multiple levels of awareness, both with words and free of them.

I see…….a cascade of images surrounding the woman Alexa and her relationship to the world and to us, spoken to us through her body via the medium of love. Territory explored on experimental grounds, under her creative political thumb. I don't think she cares much about our feelings…..how can she? They are ours to possess. She seeks not to manipulate our own emotional journey and provides a canvas for us to view and write our own script and 'meaning' about what we see - about what we mean to HER and to the world. Alexa shares a platform for us to view, question and relate to our selves in all of our humanity. She IS feeding off us, she aspires to open up the lines of communication with us, and she wants us to join in! Sometimes we are so immersed and enjoying what she is sharing with us, we ‘forget’ ourselves and perhaps ‘forget’ (and miss the opportunity) to respond to her provocations. We are taking in the landscape of love, drinking in the emotional quantum soup, calculated, watery, bomb like love predicament she torpedoes at us. Sometimes it feels like a circus entertainment event - the little girl inside me is alive with glee at the wonder and colour of the spectacle and the mercurial changing speed which feeds my own lightning brain.

In other moments I am tangibly immersed, contemplative, witness and sponge like to the offering. Thoughtful and musing about my own relationship to love. And mostly, I just love watching her move, Goddess qualities hammering the stage.

I never feel annihilated, or excluded, or shocked. I feel included and involved. O yes, I was once, I was surprised. Surprised when fucking turned to birthing. I liked that a lot. The simulated sex on stage was beautifully and inscrutiably embodied. I liked that my male friend had the guts to scream with intensity and the same fever pitch as Alexa did. Brave NZ male. We need more of you here - to contribute to the overall components and relational exchange in Alexa’s work. I have seen many females accompany her on stage when invited and match the empowerment or vulnerability she exudes to gain personal and collective benefit. Men?...not so much ---- they HAVE participated, and I have seem them feel shy and 'defer’ (squander?) under the sunlight of individual and collective female power.

What does this say about NZ men's relationship to their own power and how they interface and co-exist (or not) with female power? It’s sure wonderful to be 'bedazzled' into a female performer's iconic or embodied experience and status, and so expanding when men move beyond being 'overwhelmed' or shy by bedazzlement to step into the space created to honour and experience their humanity. My gut says that the inclusion of sexuality, sensuality and the nude female renders their brain at times a little like liquid pancake batter unable to be cooked. While I recognise that this is an ancient genetic imprint of responding to the speechless qualities inherent in a woman's body, in a performance context I would love to see more men 'step up' and contribute, to, rather than dominate, or submit to, provocations of female artists, including those who work with sexual elements.

I am interested in the ways the satellite perfomers (Alexa’s enablers?) remain unflinching in their pursuit to throw objects at our rainbow warrior. They show almost a kind of disinterested satisfaction at her beingness. Perhaps they are a symbol of the tragedies and banalities that come to all of us on a daily basis, a symbol for the 'rubbish’ that gets hurled our way as we live. For some time I am aware of each breath Alexa takes as she navigates her beautiful body through the space. The colours which ripple down her form come into clarity and then obscurity through the perspex veneer and I enjoy the interplay with my eyes the skewed perspective this creates for me. I am waiting for the 'throwers' to exhibit some emotion - to up the ante towards their target. This never happens. They remain fastidious in their action, giving them a feeling of coldness and a link to forms of human detachment that care not about the object of their attention. It seems their function is only to antagonise.

Alexa's movements behind the perspex are seamless fusion between a type of tai chi, a play with energy as it moves her, and a kind of defence stance. This position not only guards her against what she does not want, but protects her energetically from the onslaught of shit that is hurled at her. The screen also provides a physical, energetic, psychic guard and space that allows her to maintain some positive space and distance and most importantly, to remain untouched by the objects and people that 'seek to destroy' her. Being a 'rainbow warrior', this kind of set up reminds me of the computer battleship game I played as a child, where I had the opportunity to bomb the target of my desire with as much gusto and misplaced ambition.

I am struck, when the perspex screen is dropped, the visceral relief I feel to see her free, undone. Her movements now have the opportunity to creep to all edges into the space, and her cells to commute more directly to us. I feel this is what she wants and as a performer. For me, this is one of her gifts. She wants to touch us, and she wants to feel us. And she wants us to feel her.

There is a peacefulness and a divine feminine grace inside that holds this naked body. She remains calm, centered and clear in the midst of these tyrannical objects. She accepts and deflects, and really, remains delightfully unaffected.

With the screen removed, I see her delicate fingers express their way into the space and am much keenly closer to these distal ends of her frame and aware of their power and vulnerability. I love when she speaks she can feel the roof holding us, with a contradiction to me of also oppressing us, keeping us contained, not letting 'our collective' feelings out. There is tension in the room, as there often is when Alexa performs - a "what will she do next, will she shock us" kind of wondering in the audience.

This is an interesting interplay for me, and I wonder just how much as audience and performer, we play off this dynamic and exploit it for our own egoic interests, or even the quest for spiritual attainment. She knows, as her work is promoted in NZ, that there is a shock, cathartic, edgey label applied to what she shares. How many people are attending so that they may experience such qualities, want to be shocked, are craving to see someone who makes them feel the depth of their guts, hearts and sexual organs. People from many disciplines are drawn to Alexa’s performances, each with their own secret wanting? Perhaps they seek to be titillated by feeling but not having to 'contribute' because after all it's performance and hey! I'm not obligated to! I can just be safe voyeur....or....maybe...please no....she will take 'me/audience' as someone she wants to highlight, invite or provoke. From where I’m sitting, Alexa wants us to support THROUGH contribution, to become another added component to the relational art experience.

Time in this context holds some interest and meaning here for me. The images that rapidly fire have a kaleidoscopic and slightly perspective altering hue to them. I am always fascinated by the parade and juxtaposition of changing media - changing emotions, changing worlds. Alexa is becoming for me more astutely and deliberately aware of creating time space that supports the human need to adjust to new energy, change of focus and state. She gives us a breath to recalibrate in all of our cells, just a moment. Like the pancake batter men who have been invited by her to contribute are all glue with their words, or child-like boyish at best (spare Mike Holland who showed all of his empowered self), I have become so emeshed at times that I would not know what to say - like THINKING it won’t work. Just being in the gut and visceral experience of whatever is coming up in that moment is the perfect response. And, being a sensitive ‘feeler’ myself, I am keenly aware of the audience ‘freeze’ time for such moments occur in the performance. I have also felt the contrast in other countries where this kind of fluidity to participate feels more easeful and I feel seamless with my desire to contribute whatever is happening in the moment.

NZ has much to embrace in terms of ACCEPTANCE.

I remember next a sequence where Alexa appears to be giving birth, pushing out what was the outflow of her improvised presence in the moment. Favourite part!! I relate in all ways to this experience as this is one of my focuses and interest in my own dance and performance practice. I know what it is like come performance time to feel the tension present and the upping of intensity this creates in the body. It's yummy and exhilarating and freeing and scary all at the same time. It is the experience of motion that honours performance sacred space and distributes our humanity towards others.

I am sitting next to Mike as Alexa approaches him to invite him to join her for a round of screaming in multiplying rivulets of emotional movement flow, halt, jerk, and pulsation. I am surprised how loud the both of them are, and how the intensity of the pitch provokes discord within me. It feels cathartic, and at the same time soothing, like a balm to ease over the wounds of what was a battlefield for the Rainbow Warrior.

Other favourite moment. The blah blah blah nonsensical verbal stuff. Perfect accompaniment to what cannot be described in words but is alive in this room and in all of our bodies, all the time. Please, let us not try to make sense of EVERYTHING continuously in performance and in life - who ever said love was sensible!! Sensate, but 'sensible'? Those of us who have had a broken heart know this may have been washed from our idealised consciousness after the first painful breakup, divorce, death of a child, distance from land and/or family, plain ol' disappointment and loss. Speak nonsensical cause it fits with being human. I'm glad the other performers did not speak, barren faced (to my recollection) as the silent predators of self we encounter every day.

In her birthday Rainbow Warrior suit, behind the perspex screen, Alexa mirrored for me the necessity to align with clarity and calm in a 2011 world with ever-changing dynamics and stimulus of personal and global discord amongst people, environment, relationships and self. Elemental and synthetic forces of war, peace, destruction, aggravation, celebration, injustice and humour alluded to aspects of power and self imposed revolution that we all have the opportunity to participate and navigate every day as we live on this wonderful planet.

And we surely, and must continually LOVE.

Baci ed abbracci,

Arohanui

Sarah Gavina Campus"


Mike Holland

"OK, I have written something (or tried too). Please excuse my spelling, grammar, punctuation, and any words i have made up thinking they are real words.

So its been awhile since I beheld Alexa's piece. But there are still some memorable imprints etched into my databank, from her piece. An eclectic showcase of acts were presented in "Love Me" at Galatos.
All pieces shown in the conventional lineal standard format of one act at a time. Giving the audience the leisure of taking in one thing at a time. Giving the performers/choreographers their own time marked slot in which to have their pieces shine in the sun. And a sunny affair it was as I recall.
Life is not always sunny though. In fact it can be very dark and very shitty at times. As an off the cuff overall statement-Alexa's piece highlighted for me the hope of sunshine by not particularly espousing it in any grand display.
From the start, when Alexa and crew entered the space. There was great cacophony of noise. Propeller driven aircraft dive bombing my aural senses.
Into a darkened space shadowy bodies moved. I state this because, there was a light directly opposite me blinding me for the first few moments. A light screaming into my eyes and dive bombers filling my ears.
I'm under attack. Those poor brown folk in the Middle East are getting this dropped on top of them every day (for real and for keeps). Thanks to our brave, heroic soldiers, the rest of us white folk can rest easy at night knowing our nepitistic, croneyistic, sycophantic Western leaders are looking after our freedoms. Eventually I get myself together, it takes me a we while. Making me realize how easily I am thrown making me feel vulnerable.
I start to delineate the ensemble in the performance space, and I see two performers holding a large piece of perspex between them. which is reflecting light that bounces into my vision.
Facing the perspex is Alexa, who has forgotten her costume. but has had a relevant rainbow painted
down her poku.
Ahh, there is the sunshine reference. Light refracting off water droplets, creating the magnificent archway in the sky. which we will all walk through one day, to live on the other side.

The perspex is moved around, with periodic pauses. Alexa follows it around always facing it. Is it a window or her mirror? Neither actually its a barrier. A force field protecting nudey girl from the two other performers, that had been waiting in the space, prior to the start of the piece. They start throwing trash at rainbow/sunshine girl. But the perspex force field repels all attempts, no matter how vigorous.
There is so much trash in the world today. It's on the telly, on the radio, newspapers, magazines...Information overload of the most banal content. Trash talk is what I'm referring too. A form of critical communication between people who have minimal conductivity between their brain and vocal chords.
A trend that has long been in practice in the hallowed halls of parliament. Granted that the administrators, judicators, and executors, speak a slightly more waxed version of trash than the general masses.

Its not the perspex alone that is hindering the vaccination of the trash into our heroines veins. Trying to contaminate her into becoming an establishment compliant, consumer zombie.
For the perspex is being held by the two performers who brought the hero prop in from the beginning. They both show very little emotion...Just going about their job description, not emotionally invested in the political conflict going on around them. I wondered can they withstand the onslaught, will they sell out...As long as they get paid will they hold on. Problem is whose got the bigger cheque book? Whose got the dinky investment portfolio/ Who owns the biggest share in the planets assets. Not artists that for sure.

Does every human being have a price tag on which they will trade their morals, ethics, their integrity? Is their a reserve price to empathy, self responsibility?
Shit I'm rambling a bit, sorry.

Anyhow the trash throwers give up and find Alexa's missing costume. Then proceed to dress her. At one point Alexa starts talking in tongues...I then get the notion, that she is not just playing rainbow/sunshine/nudey/warrior girl.
She is evoking a Jesusetta symbol. Conceived immaculately by some fey faeries off the north western coast of Ireland. The system tried to crucify her on the trash heap for our sins, but she was recycled three days later.
And she ascended onto the stage looking down on us as retreated backwards leaving us while waving hello.

The end.

P.S.
I can tell you one thing,. Screaming has health benefits. there is some dark and shadowy stuff that gets stuck in bends and curves of our internals, and need letting out.
As an audience member-being invited to enter through the invisible wall that delineates the performance space from the rest of the space, is quite terrifying. As an audience member I construct a subconscious protective membrane of anonymity. Not having to worry about being seen, judged, critiqued. How to go from that state, into a full on performance mode. I don't know actually-it just happens, you pass a threshold and you live up to your end of the unstated contract. Boy did i scream some demons outer my pelvic floor. how refreshing did i feel, how empowered did i feel. Hey thanks for the healing Session Alexa.

Mike. H."


Inserted - reviews written in online publications

Carrie Rae, The Live Series, LOVE ME, dancestuff.co.nz

"And just when I think I’ve seen it all… enter Alexa Wilson, the ‘Rainbow Warrior’. She’s naked (duh) and painted with a black face and multi-coloured stripes down the front of her. She’s like some exotic sea creature from space floating through the flotsam and jetsam of a hard-wired wasteland. The perspex barrier protecting her is under attack from a pair of flying track suit pants, a balled-up newspaper, a shoe (?) and all manner of people-rubbish. Alexa the warrior seems to be keeping the evil at bay through a combination of witchcraft and alien kung-fu. Then suddenly she’s putting her panties on and ranting around the space in a sparkledy top, rapping about something over crazy dub music. Then she’s rolling around on the floor giving birth (or at least that’s what it sounds like). Then she breaks into a prayer (a mantra?) of sorts that is translated into both Japanese and German. Her co-horts in art, Georgia Goater, Lydia Zanetti, Natalie Clark, Megan Smith and Karin Hofko, are kind of like her team of midwives, helping things along. It’s way out there. It’s Alexa Wilson. Hell yeah."

Matthew Moore- www.theatreview.org.nz (Millionaire PM version/context)

"Alexa Wilson opens the show up with a mesmerising performance, naked and painted from her knees up to her face. The paint on her face covers her mouth and nose resembling a mask concealing her identity. Two of her fellow performers, wearing protective glasses, look controlling while holding up for her a piece of transparent plastic like a riot shield. Alexa is performing calm tai chi like movements behind the plastic as two other performers proceeded to throw junk at her. She breaks out from her realm of safety to be infected by the restraints of the society attacking her from the other side of the plastic. The movement soon becomes more erratic and vocals are used to ignite the pressure inflicted on her individuality. Some of the audience are at Golden Dawn just having a casual drink after work. Judging by their reactions they are not ready for the sharp edginess of the performance, which I think works well with the nature of the piece".


Rachel Ruckstuhl-mann

A slow turning goddess exposes her naked painted body to the voracity of human's nature – or culture – whatever these urges are to hold dominion over that which is too awesome to behold as a whole, so must be reigned in and made subjugate to our small hands. She will not be broken. Although the perspex shield held by corporate amazonian bodyguards fails from the violent attempts of two French divers to lay waste to her (bombarding her with the detritus of our plastic times), they are subsequently converted by her all encompassing love into attendants, ladies in waiting in wetsuit attire.

A theme is recurring through many performances I have seen lately, love as a healing force, love that is not confined to sexual or familial boundaries, an accepting love that seeks to move us beyond the rhetoric of nations and politics to a space of glorious and messy feeling that we are capable of holding and sharing. Alexa's works ask us to enter into this space with her as she presents performances that make us uncomfortable, bringing to the surface carnal and hidded desires, unacknowledged frustrations. I was told a while ago that I should go and walk beside the ocean and scream. It would be good for me to let go of those pent-up held-in locked-up tears and rages, making sure they don't manifest as physical maladies. Rainbow Warrior Alexa demonstrates this often in the middle section of the work, nonsensical utterances, shouts, screams, practiced (un)controlled spasms of limbs and torso, cathartic releases of tension. We share in her out-rageous expulsions.

There was a t.v. or two. Making love to each other with Alexa in the middle. Blank screens kiss, hump fleshy legs. Has someone already mentioned the revolution will not happen between these thighs, not be televised? No. Now it is streamed live from phones and pads, the technology we consume helping to slow down, show up our consumption...? Here, I feel as though we are being called back to ourselves through and as “technologies of feeling”. This, a term I don't remember hearing before using it in my own research, but through a bit of digging finding it being used in reference to stimulants, caffeine and guarana-based drinks sold in Indonesia as sexual enhancing aids! For me though, the technologies of feeling here are our sensory and perceptive capabilities in conjunction with the space of the performance itself.

As opposed to thinking about technology through an object-based lens, we could think of it as the systems we use and create in order to communicate and manifest our world as we know and experience it. The systems we are asked to engage with in this performance are ourselves, our physical and emotional systems that are capable of experiencing and speaking so much, yet are often taken for granted, silenced or drowned out. Alexa's beautiful hysteria (not a wandering womb, but a vibrating metamorphic woman), articulates this technology perfectly for me. Particularly feminine, this is a frustration of a body with no-where to express its validity of experience in a 'main-stream' of a paternal world. We search instead for those outlets for which the internal organs of desire and joy can be present and celebrated, not othered, not hidden.

The women in this performance are temporarily joined by a male audience member, continuing Alexa's provocation of us as spectators to think as participants. How does this man respond to her request to speak into a mic she hands him? I don't remember much about what he did other than he was nervous, unsure of how to talk to Alexa's presence and the space she was creating. At least we are given a chance to imagine what we might have done in his place, or what we had hoped he had done.

What would I have done? In Dunedin, at another Alexa performance, her requests for participation were more numerous, explicit and challenging, at one point asking us to do something provocative ourselves, put our selves on the line, in the light. My response was to act in an almost violent manner, pulling her 'power' over us as a dictator away (her voice/mic)... Why was it that violence was my instinctual response? Maybe an urge, one of those pent-up rages that should have been expelled into the sea. At the same time, through her provocation to become a part of her work, she allowed a sense of our action as a voice, a question to ourselves and each other. The invitation to participate was a loosening of the controls that we normally feel in the contract of a performance, us, the audience versus them, the performer. Maybe the lack of verbosity from this man was less a reflection of his capacity to speak and more to do with the hierarchy of this specific performance space, contained as it was in a collective show with most other works still operating behind the 'fourth wall'?

Possibly a favourite moment of Rainbow Warrior was the last section of meditated, translated, transformed expression of Alexa's phenomenological experience of the world. Different languages overlaying each other speak to a universality of life as understood and made present through these things we call bodies and mouths. These bodied lives carry and make history, express and know emotions, engage with, extend towards and intertwine with other bodies and lives/energies.

The point for me though is that we acknowledge this aspect of ourselves. We feel. There is no escaping or denying. No running from our bodies to a realm of pure conceptual and numbing bliss. Although a nirvana and enlightened state asks that we leave behind the bodies we exist as in search for a higher truth, for the moment, our reality is otherwise. For me and maybe for Alexa, a life that denies it's own sensation is akin to a death. The bravery of Alexa is not only in her physical nakedness, her hysteria, her exposure to audience whims, but also in the form of an insistent and repeated acknowledgement of ourselves as feeling beings, capable of feeling the world and all it has to throw at you.

My only worry is that we don't make martyrs of ourselves in accepting this onslaught of feeling. A recent conversation with a friend reinforced this danger of feeling too much, becoming overwhelmed in the face of constant negative energy. Even just the constancy of being aware of the ways in which we are affected by our surroundings on subtle levels can be very draining. For those not in the profession of consciously noting and articulating these bodily relations, the questions of feeling are relevant and challenging within an everyday experience of life. For myself and others who are, these questions are both reminders that we are not alone in our understanding and experience of the world, and that the joy as well as the burden of these skills of sensitivity can be shared, through performing them...speaking and acknowledging them. They become gifts of small and wondrous expression.

Chur."

"Hey Alexa, great to keep all the conversations, both about the work and the way in which they have been formed, within the eventual documentation. The pieces weren't written for any specific site, or review kind of deal, but more that conversation style of thing, people responding to others writings... Just wanting this idea of a generative and informal process to become something that people are aware of as another way of creating discussion rather than the review styles..."

Rachel Ruckstuhl-mann

I'd like to thank all the people who contributed to this discussion so generously or wrote a review, including the ones not published. I feel grateful to have had a lot written about my works, particularly in the past year but also in previous years. I feel lucky for the engagement made in writing with my performance work and ideas, particularly this work, as well as last year's 'Weg: A-Way' and also 'Toxic White Elephant Shock' each of which has lengthy, well written reviews and public thoughts. Thanks to Sean for facilitating this particular response to 'Rainbow Warrior', I feel it has been done in a generous spirit in which the work was intended. I hope more discussion of works in NZ comes out of the dance sector in understanding and critique of other experimental performance/dance artists. It is not always a tidy affair and I am not afraid of criticism, though I value support when it comes. This reflects my commitment to activating performance. Many thanks to the writers and readers of this discussion.

Alexa Wilson