About the final work “I’m Doing Fine”

The covid-19 lockdown hit Astrid Muijderman harder then she thought it would. During this time at home she had trouble finding a way to express her scenograpic needs. During the meetings with her tutors one phrase kept coming up: I’m doing fine. A phrase know to have a double meaning. Two month later the opportunity to work in ‘het Huis Utrecht’ came along and helped Astrid to finally express her feelings. The ‘vergaderzaal’ in where Astrid’s work was made, is normally used as a conference room. However the structures inside the space shared similarity with her own living space and therefore triggered a need to create a translation of her time locked inside her house. In the video preview on this page you can see the end of act one of Astrid’s “I’m Doing Fine” performance. The repeating of the words ‘I’m doing fine’ expresses the pressure that Astrid put on herself. Throughout the performance a chair is moved in and out of screen. The two live screens show the different mindset of Astrid during the lockdown, while the third screen shows a constant continuation of time with the use of time lapses made in the vergaderzaal.

Making this work has created a new way for Astrid to show stories that happen all around us every day but might go unseen. She feels that these stories are as important as the ones that are in the news every day.  While this period in time was a though one, the learning and growing that Astrid has gone though made for a final performance that she is excited to share. The restrictions of presenting through zoom was a new tool, however Astrid is looking forward to create new works where she can interact with her audience in the actual space.