Researchers speculate that before early humans made meaningful representational art, there would have been a ritual culture of rhythmic sound and movement. As a result of prolonged periods of participation our ancestors would have become immersed in a state of trance where they would have perceived internally experienced, geometric visions, including grid and point patterns known as entoptic forms. These images are believed to have a direct relationship to the architecture of the human brain and may be the source of inspiration for the oldest human marks that we know of
Exploring the notion of the body as a drawing device - thinking out into the world through physical engagement with material - the performers in Bassline reference a trance like state in their movement. Lit solely by stroboscopic light which accentuates a sense of relocation into an altered state of consciousness, the performers generate rhythmic sound through controlled breathing and use their bodies to make marks that form grid and point networks in red, iron-rich earth from the Cradle of Humankind
Rather than referencing a specific culture, this work focuses on exploring what we all share as a species. Every human being has the capacity to experience the fundamental geometries of their perceptual make-up. Bassline references aspects of both traditional and contemporary trance dance culture - collapsing millennia of human evolution into a brief moment in time