Untitled #1 from the series Agency
by Celia Walmsley and Gretchen Steimle (collaborators)
Agency meaning - the ability to make decisions and act independently.
More specifically, Untitled #1 from the series Agency, is an exploration of the balance of agency between subject and photographer, sitter and painter, dancer and audience.
When you commission a photographer to create your portrait, you make the decision, you pay the fee and you are in charge, you have the agency. Or so it seems. When you arrive at the photographer's studio, you enter the photographer's space. Who, then, has the agency?
This series explores the balance of power and decision making in artistic creation. The process was as, if not more, important than the final work. The process of the work questioned and explored the back and forth, the balance of power and decision making between two (or more) artists in the creation of a collaborative artwork.
In this work each of us contributed our ideas and decided outcomes together, from the setting to costume, lighting to pose, meaning to exhibition format.
This shared approach is seen more and more in the creation of dance works, where dancers increasingly contribute to the making of the work. However the choreographer usually still has the final say.
Untitled #1 challenges the sole 'adventurer'/creator trope common in visual art.
The series Agency is jointly authored and owned by both of us.
The work is printed on high gloss aluminium by Cory Marshall @southernalpsimagery
Gretchen Steimle
As a dancer I am inspired by expressing music, story and emotion through physicality. My body is the medium and I typically work in live performance. This connection between myself and the audience is my biggest inspiration. The precious nature of sharing one live experience with thousands is such a gift.
I grew up in Austin, Texas and trained in all forms of dance. At age 15, I focused my training towards ballet and moved to join Boston Ballet School. After two years, I moved again for a spot with Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Professional Division in Seattle. Within my first year, I guested for three months with Dresden Semperoper Ballett, performing in their production of La Bayadere. In the final months of my second year with Pacific Northwest Ballet I was offered a position with Grand Rapids Ballet. After five wonderful seasons with GRB, I was offered a contract across the world, joining the Royal New Zealand Ballet.
I am currently in my second year (2022) with the Royal New Zealand Ballet and am so very grateful for the opportunity to live and dance in Aotearoa. Recent RNZB roles include Virginia Woolf in Woman of Words, several roles in Venus Rising and Cinderella, the Nurse and Harlot in Romeo and Juliet and the Rose in Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Requiem for a Rose.
As well as being a performer, I also enjoy creating through choreographing, intersecting art forms and incorporating social justice. These projects have included live performances in traditional theatre spaces, art festivals and even dance film.
Working in ‘performative’ photography and visual art exhibition is a new medium for me. I am thrilled to collaborate with fellow artist and friend, Celia Walmsley. We share a personal dynamic and it is wonderful to bring that, and our art forms together to create.
Celia Walmsley
As a photographer my artwork primarily centres on collaboration with dancers and choreographers and explores the oxymoronic relationship between stillness and movement, photography and dance.
This collaboration with friend and artist extraordinaire, Gretchen Steimle is particularly special as we share a personal dynamic and is the 2nd collaborative art piece together.
Untitled #1 from the series Agency artwork is not a recording of a performance that will be repeated. The choreography and performance occur only for the purpose of creating the images and exist only in the resulting ‘performative’ photographic work. ‘Performative’ photographic work breaks with the traditional style of dance photography, and with the conventional role of ‘still’ photography in relation to dance, as the ‘revelatory authority’ (the power of the camera to show what has been) of other artists’ work.
