Flower V

Maureen Fleming

2021

Limited edition photograph: Signed, dated and titled by artist

Giclee ink on archival print

Dimensions vary

"A traumatic childhood event unexpectedly propelled me into dance. My father was a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy, and I was born on a military base near Yokohama, Japan. When I was two years old, while my mother was driving, a man on a bicycle stopped abruptly in front of the car. My mother slammed on the breaks, and I was sent through the windshield, causing the shattering of the disc between my fourth and fifth vertebrae. Although this was an injury the doctors said could have rendered me disabled, through an intuitive sense in subsequent years, I began creating dances with slow, sinuous movements: the twisting and untwisting of joints increased blood flow, and in time this became a method of regeneration. This in turn allowed my body to retain its childlike flexibility. This has become my choreography."