Jan Baker-Finch

I have before me the image of a woman in Afghanistan standing shrouded in a rich red burqua, her face invisible behind the mesh, the pleated fabric loosely outlining her form, a small wood and wire cage balanced on her head. In the cage are two song birds, one with its beak protruding through the wires, the other at rest. In my mind I have another image of a young woman holding a jar of her own blood. Into this she rhythmically dips a paint brush with which she writes 'thoughts on war' onto large canvases. As she writes she moves through a sea of spent rifle cartridges which make an oddly musical clatter in response. The cartridges are cheerfully coloured red, blue, green.... Peaceful Space: To achieve it we can carefully design, shape and construct, shut out and include, restore and improve... But the heart can find it even in the contemplation of a chance juxtaposition of incongruous and unsettling elements.

Bio: An experienced proponent of the movement art of eurythmy, performer and teacher Jan Baker-Finch has long been fascinated with the relationship between movement and sound in the natural environment, and the movement underlying those most human of attributes- the capacity to speak and to create music. As a teacher she works with kindergarten, primary and secondary students in a Rudolf Steiner school, and tertiary level music students at QCGU. As a performer she moves between the interpretation of classical and contemporary music and poetry, and the exploration of space-sound-movement as a continuum.