Performing Motherhood

During the middle of her artistic and academic career, Ülfet Sevdi, a PhD candidate in the INDI program, became a mother. They say having a child changes your life, but you do not understand how until it happens. It is a deep, highly rewarding, but also very demanding existential state. 

How does one continue when the body has changed and there are physical, sytemic, and psychological constraints everywhere? When will the artist, and now mother, regain their normal artistic life and performer’s body? 

The artist-mother cannot return to artistic practice without part of them remaining with the baby. The artist-mother is stuck, losing the freedom of time to create and perform on stage. The artist-mother must make peace with this new body, finding ways to continue. As an artist, your financial well-being depends on your performance, and to create you need time and space. Without time to create, you have nothing to perform. 

In this talk-performance, moderated by Patrick Leroux, Ülfet and invited artist Joy Ross-Jones will present a short performance based on her technique called “Performative Acting”, a technique that involves tasks as well as dramaturgically framed open structures. Ülfet will discuss the aspects of the technique and research questions that animate her Research-Creation process, followed by a Q&A session. 

How can you participate? Join us in person or online by registering for the Zoom Meeting or watching live on YouTube.

Have questions? Send them to info.4@concordia.ca