It is time to Slothersize

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a swirl of city lights creating an abstract rainbow.

Reflections on space-time relativity and internal/external human relationships in a Covid era

Sunday 29th March 2020 7.21am (Level 4 Lockdown, Wellington, NZ)

Happy slothy Sunday family. This is an epiphany I had and would like to share with you. I love you all and pray it's snug, safe and warm where you are. Xx. Marika

The Age of the Sloth!!

Remember sloths only poop once a week - climbing down a tree, risking their lives as they are most vulnerable on the forest floor.

Keeping essentials to the bare minimum. Just like we all only go once a week for that essential shop - hunting and gathering food at the supermarket !!!

People always laugh at me but hey, we are now using the #slothmindset on mass as the number one international strategy to beat a virus in a pandemic that is killing thousands of people!

Recommended by medical public health scientists! I am not even making this up. It is all science!!

And people wonder how sloths made it through evolution. Well, I bet they are all having a good old laugh at us Now.

It is Time To Slothersize.

soft tow sloths on a forty gallon drum, on a blue lit stage

A Note for the reader:

This zine is an externalized internal reflection of how my identity and placement in society has functioned during and adjusted to the new social norms in the covid era. It is written in 3 parts to reflect on how music, art, relationships, memories, and landscape shape my identity, inner perceptions of my soul, and compositions. It is written in a philosophical/freethinking/diary-like style. Feel free to skip forward/backwards, as you need, to make sense of it all.

There is an accompanying EP for this zine, It Is Time To Slothersize | Class War On The Dance Floor

a set of soft toy sloths soclial distancing on a double bed

Part 1: It Is Time To Slothersize

Intersectional Marxist reflections on spacetime, humanity and Where I fit in the economy.
(TW discussion of ACC sensitive claims sexual violence trauma/winz)

led lights of a sampler and a full moon in the sky.

Part 2: The Sloth Timezone

Reflections on creative processes, the use value and production of my composition practice outside a capitalist mindset.

(listen to tracks 1-3 of ep)

on a mountain of dirty snow stand two children with sunglasses shaped like stars. Their father holds a baby in his arms.

Part 3: Oriental Bay is the meeting point

Reflections on my parents, siblings and the interconnectivity of the universe, through spacetime and multilocality.

(listen to tracks 4-7)

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to The Pyramid Club and Creative NZ. Jonny Marks, Dan Beban and Nell Thomas.
To Rebel Press, Sasha and Achilles.
To the family, friends, flatmates,artistic peers, acquaintances who have supported my music and art practice over the years. Many thanks to Rohan for providing me space in the Deluge Factory to complete this work

Many thanks to the mental health services and doctors who have been looking after me the last few years.
Many thanks to the slothlings, creatures of the universe, and planet earth, for providing me with psychic sustenance.

Marika Pratley

Marika wearing a cap that says swag, and a leopard print scarf as a mask.

Marika Pratley (she/they/them) is a Queer Greek/Cypriot New Zealander, composer, improviser and performance artist, born and raised in Te Whanganui a tara, Aotearoa. The online launch of It Is Time To Slothersize is timely with the 2021 NZ lockdown for the delta variant, reflecting on lived experience as a working class performance artist/beneficiary activist with mental health issues.

Marika creates both solo and collaboration works across all platforms. Themes of her work include radical relaxation, intersectional feminism/queerness, mental health activism, healing from trauma, anticapitalism and sloths.
Ongoing music projects include Moody V and The Menstrual Cycle (with Madison Van Staden), Reptilian Future Cops (with Matt Hunt), Greek Rembetika band Kali Ora and performing with sister Heleyni Pratley.

Marika's performance art works include multiple collaborations with Virginia Kennard, Mega Pash Action, and Richard Orjis including performances at Queer Pavilion for Auckland Pride Festival 2020. She has also scored installations, dance and theatre works, including Orjis cruising lazing learning for the About Walking series, and the award winning dance works Demi God Half Human (excerpt) and An Unfortunate Willingness To Agree.

Solo work includes avant-garde meditation musical A Symphony of Sloths and deluge project Class War On The Dance Floor. She has performed festivals and live events around Aotearoa and abroad.

In 2021 Marika and sister Heleyni Pratley will be the recipients of the inaugural Pyramid Club and Museums Wellington Thomas King Observatory Residency, extending on sibling collaboration with astrophysicist sibling Dr Luke Pratley. Marika is currently producing an autobiographical documentary, The Healing Power of The Sloth, and intends to release debut Class War On The Dance Floor album this summer.