Embodying Homescapes: Biocostume as a mode of more-than-human encounter with place

Abstract

This interview with costume designer Ingvill Fossheim explores notions of home as a relational and embodied experience where more-than-human places are entangled with ecosomatic perception, materiality, performativity and belonging. It builds on the idea of relational materialities embedded in ecoscenography—a philosophical and practical approach to theatre and performance design which embraces ecological ways of thinking and doing both within and beyond the performing arts. The conversation explores how biobased costume design can be explored as a relational act of embodying home where more-than-human actants are co-entangled and co-complicit in each other’s making. Using Fossheim’s design for Muohtadivggažat (The Sound of Snow) by Ferske Scener and The Sámi National Theatre Beaivváš (premiere 23.6.2021, Sápmi/Norway) as a case study, the interview examines biocostume as a relational praxis that fosters a sense of kin with our co-extensive selves. Subarctic mountain birches and pine trees from Fossheim’s childhood home in Sápmi/Norway provided bark and cones for dyeing and mordanting the costumes and the fishbone pearls, while woollen costumes were coloured with locally foraged Cortinarius mushrooms. These explorations in material co-entanglement promote new considerations of performance design, where embodying home becomes one of partnering with place to uncover the abundance and complexity of more-than-human possibilities.