Portrait of a Mime

This project is an extension of my self portrait project. That other project is looking at myself and how I uphold certain personas in different spaces. In this project I collaborate with my friend and fellow artist Orr to document then as they develop and build this mime persona.

A Mime is a subset of clown that mainly uses non verbal communication in their performance. Not being able to communicate via language forces the mime to communicate in a very physical and gestural way making theatrical movements and exaggerated faces. My friend uses miming as a fun outlet to perform in a minimalist way. Making simple movements to convey story

Miming  for me is an interesting performance. The use of a constructed identity or persona for the soul purpose of communicating story to people. I liken a mime persona to a drag persona or any constructed persona. You use it as an escape and in being another person you feel more free to present yourself. Mime is a way to present yourself in a particular way. But instead of focusing on aesthetic choices to convey meaning like with drag or clown performance. A mime is like a blank canvas ready to become anything they want or see. My friend uses their mime performance as a way to mirror other individuals and In this they take on, for a brief moment, another person’s persona.