PIXERCISE: PICCOLO PERFORMANCE PRACTICE, EXERCISE AND FEMALE BODY IMAGE

Abstract

AbstractPIXERCISE (2017–) is an open-ended collaborative work written by Kathryn Williams and Annie Hui-Hsin Hsieh. The piece involves an ongoing process of physical training, and in performance combines specially tailored physical exercises with piccolo performance. This article describes the unusual composition, preparation, and performance of this work and is concerned with exploring the shifting collaborative relationship. It also explores some of the aesthetic and social ideas that motivated the piece and have emerged through critical reflection and have been further incorporated, including the process of self-improvement and overcoming expressed as a performance artwork; entanglements between physical transformation through exercise; attitudes to female-body image and exercise; and how this piece connects with a growing tradition of experimental musical performance practice and performance art.