Idyllic Tissue

My name is Presley Ziogas. I am a wahine/Maori/mother/dancer/choreographer/artist based in Aotearoa.

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I make things. I write, photograph, design, dance and make dance-work. 

 

When I feel inspired, I let my imagination take over, I'll get stuck in a recurring daydream, and when this daydream nags at me enough, I realise it is time to bring it to life. I've discovered through having a supportive community of friends and family around me, that I have the privilege of bringing forth these worlds into flesh. IDYLLIC TISSUE is a place for these things to exist within.

 

In the mediums I utilise, I reference nostalgic memories and experiences of loss, joy and melancholy. I've grasped tightly onto these feelings/memories, in the understanding they will one day be gone, and so in sharing them, I feel a little less alone and a little less scared. I take inspiration from my childhood obsessions, from music, from popular culture and from mundane everyday experiences that feel inexplicably triumphant. I like to pastiche together elements until it feels disgustingly heart-wrenching, unbearable.

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By referencing my interpretation of pop-cultural references and splicing them in between my own experiences of joy, loss and grief, I hope this means my work may be more accessible to people who may not engage in dance/art often, and that they may find familiarity. 

 

My imagined worlds/aesthetics are heavily influenced by my time of living in an old converted 70's pool room as a child, at this time I was a marching girl. I have vivid memories of laying by the pool, on the hot concrete after marching practice.Pretending I was the main character of a film. Wearing a too-short-short-satin skirt,  calf-high white boots, sugar tights and silky gloves. Blowing my whistle whilst watching the sun create caustic patterns upon the crystal water.  I could best describe my choreographic practice as romanticising the mortality we share as humans. A sort of 'Swimming-pool-dream-pop-prom-scene-set-in-an-80's-music-video' if you will. 

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I will make the same thing over and over again until I die. I can make because others have made before me.