Conversation with Tricia Opstad
Directed, Produced and Performed by Tricia Opstad Buried Treasure - a postmodern dance spectacle, 2019. An evening performance with live music and dance, Photography by Sara Diggins
How was your art practice impacted by the pandemic?
The pandemic has opened me up to changes I never would have expected, which certainly flooded in at the start and continues to move and show me new ways of being alive. Some of these shifts and changes include: slowing down, unplugging, simplifying, developing a tolerance for discomfort/pain, stillness/meditation practices, somatic psychology, and incorporating art as not a work to show or exhibit necessarily, but to use as a resource or a place for refuge from this exhilarating, disruptive and strange pandemic free fall. A weekly gathering of 2-4 people in nature settings with and without earbuds/music for improvisation dance and experimenting with somatic dance practices is an ongoing practice I cherish.
The work I share is through social media platforms of unrefined improvisation dances in nature, hip hop music videos and process photos as a way to connect with people and be social during this isolated time. During summer months, nearly every Friday at sunset, I joined a group of experimental musicians and video installation artists in downtown Missoula for a lab/studio space to make sounds, performance and dance in the street. I continue to submit work to a non-fiction writing group consisting of 6 women where I share my work in process. In October, at the Zootown Arts Community Center (ZACC) in Missoula, I was part of a group exhibition where I showed a collection of new paintings.
What was your experience like collaborating with another artist(s)?
It was a lighthearted pleasure to meet each month with Jonah Senzel, an artist living in Athens, Greece, to collaborate on our Zine project. I enjoyed our process starting with a mountain of ideas and narrowing it down to a volume of zines. This was a generous way to come together to create something. I appreciate how it moved in a direction where we could find common ground in an area that was new to us yet we also could incorporate our talent, knowledge, experience and current creative interests/topics.
Homeostasis, Acrylic on canvas, 2020
What was a success to come from the CoLab project?
In this isolated, strange and treacherous time, embarking on a creative adventure with someone living across the world was a beacon of hope, connection and joy for me. It was a reminder of the goodness and humanity very much alive in the world.
How would you describe your work?
My work comes from a visceral and cathartic and sometimes taboo place often using improvisation and experimental techniques. My work incorporates the body, emotion, humor, delight, darkness and relationship. Currently, I am interested in the human paradox dilemma, the pleasure/pain phenomena, and responding to sounds, the body’s impulses, sensations and different environments that provoke, enliven and stimulate it. I enjoy making solo and group dances using improvisational scores, costume and familiar themes with live musicians. I look for opportunities to make a performance come to life through video projects in a variety of public or nature locations. I make large-scale abstract paintings or small works on paper.
Space Between, Acrylic on canvas, 2020
BIO: Tricia Opstad is a dance improvisation artist, experimental/abstract painter, writer, performer and maker. Her making is a discovery, an opening, and sometimes a strange storytelling. She revels in the somatic experience of the body and the aliveness, awareness and pleasure available through improvisational or experimental art-making.
She develops and experiments with dance scores to make performances or videos with other artists or musicians. Her work embraces a range of emotion, individuality, authenticity and curiosity that is palpable, relatable and refreshing. Her work invites the possibility to provoke or stimulate and evoke new thoughts, energy or excitement in the audience/viewer.