mette sterre
distorting the human contour through costume based performance and photography
upcoming exhibitions/performances/residency
+ Performance Tent Rotterdam 20th anniversary, Rotterdam, witte de with street. New Performance "Elementary charge" with Paula montecinos, Artemise ploegaerts and Rebecca wijnruit, music by david ko. production assistance Mariana anacleto
+ Rijksakademie open studio 23,23,25th of november, sarphatistraat 470, 1019 gw amsterdam
+ artist in residence at the rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, amsterdam (NL) www.rijksakademie.nl 2019 and 2020
"THE PURPOSE OF A MYTHIC NARRATIVE IS TO MAKE THE WORLD INTELLIGIBLE, USING MAGICAL MEANS TO RESOLVE THE CONTRADICTIONS OF LIFE. “ - Claude LEVI-STRAUSS
My work deals with the grotesque: the world of topsy-turvy, the uncanny and the paradox. Inspired by bio-mimicry, trans-humanism, the carnivalesque, folklore and horror. I research how far we can contort and skew the ‘natural’ human body in order to construct a new form of ‘ethics’. I translate social-political issues into costume based performances, parades, and club or theatre shows.
These sculptural costumes, give birth to new forms of living beings, some say that I'm like doctor frankenstein, sewing body parts together. By the de-identification of the human body, I address the stigmatization of difference by blurring the boundaries between the inanimate and the animate, artifice and object and subject.
During the making process it's about experimenting, intuitively playing around with various materials through trial and error. Music is an important element as it functions as a sonic set, by linking and timing the movement, actions and different scenes of the characters performing. By using music to orchestrate an environment between audience and performers everyone is invited so we coalesce. I believe there's a strong connection with the manual labour and the experience of becoming these meta-bodies, to perform another worldly being.
I hold an MA in performance design and practice from Central Saint Martins and I work internationally. My work has been shown in the Watermill Center New York, the Trienale design museum in Milan, Birmingham Art Weekender, COBRA Museum in Amstelveen and at David Roberts Art Foundation, London Design Festival and Glasgow International and the Migros Museum in Zurich. my work has been published in Vogue, Wallstreet Journal, Hollywood Reporter, the Catlin Guide, the Volkskrant Magazine.
PERFORMING THE OCCULT: Magick, Rituals and the Monstrous in Live Art
@ Queen Mary University, organised by deep trash . #performingoccult
Moderated by Giulia Casalini and Diana Georgiou (co-directors at Arts Feminism Queer)
Presentations by FoxGlove, Ivan Monteiro, Mette Sterre, Martin O’Brien and keynote lecture by Professor of Continental Philosophy Patricia MacCormack (Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge). www.cuntemporary.org/performing-the-occult/
