Guerrilla Girls

After our performance we received feedback and it was interesting that our performance was interpreted from a feminist view and this brought a cause for thought. It seemed that we channelled a similar message to that of the Guerrilla Girls through our costume and powerful impact of our performance. The femininity of our 1920’s costume, through the use of stockings, elegant dresses, pearls and the red lipstick made it clear to our audience that we were women while the balaclavas hid our true identity. In a sense we were women disrupting a mans territory as The Usher Gallery was named and built for James Usher who was a man and a vast amount of the art displayed have been created by men, it could be said we were making a feminist statement against the over whelming amount of men who control , create and are praised for art.  The Guerrilla Girls are similar in the fact that they hide their identity through the use of gorilla masks and disrupt galleries just the way we did in our performance.

As Kathe Kollwitz explains how the Guerrilla Girls began: ‘In 1985, The Museum of Modern Art in New York opened an exhibition titled An International Survey of Painting and Sculpture. It was supposed to be an up-to-the minute summary of the most significant contemporary art in the world. Out of 169 artists, only 13 were women. All the artists were white, either from Europe or the US. That was bad enough, but the curator, Kynaston McShine, said any artist who wasn’t in the show should rethink “his” career. And that really annoyed a lot of artists because obviously the guy was completely prejudiced. Women demonstrated in front of the museum with the usual placards and picket line.’ (Guerrilla Girls 1995) It is evident from the statement that the reasoning behind the Guerrilla Girls is to protest against the lack of praise for women and the sexism in art, politics and pop culture. In a way us disrupting the gallery in the way we did and creating such an impact to the point where passers by would stop to see our performance shows how we raised a similar message through our use of costume but aggressive stature, focus and movement.

What perhaps diminished the feminist message from our performance  is the fact we smuggled in The Big Ben which could be seen as quite a phallic symbol due to it’s shape but also it’s association with Westminster which has a higher ratio of men to women. The reason behind smuggling The Big Ben into the gallery was not in relation to a feminist message but to smuggle a different cities culture into Lincoln and as The Big Ben is symbolic of London we thought it would befit the site.

If we were to do the performance again we would definitely look at it from more of a feminist point of view. The costume we had chosen and the use of sound scape were affective and had great impact on the gallery and our audience but we would have to re-think the object we would smuggle and if we’d smuggle anything in at all. I was thinking perhaps posters with a feminine message on them that could be stuck around a gallery, or perhaps a sculpture that was created by a woman of power, maybe one of Joan of Ark? It would be interesting to look into Guerrilla Girls as a source of inspiration  Even so we feel that our performance was a success and had the impact that we intended to create from the moment we sped up to the gallery in our get away car to us leaving the gallery as elegant ladies of the 1920’s.

Works Cited:

Girls,Guerilla (2011) Guerilla Girls, Online:

http://www.guerrillagirls.com/interview/index.shtml (assessed 10 May 2013).

 

Considering Our Performance

We have finally performed our site specific piece, after months of development and discussion. Naturally, there are some elements that we consider less successful, and if we were to perform this piece again, it is likely we would want to be able to alter these elements. I felt our performance fell into two sections essentially, the first half in which we smuggled the Big Ben sculpture into the Usher Gallery and the second half, which seemingly began as soon as we took our balaclavas off. The difference in these two sections in terms of pace gave a much more durational feel to the piece I think, despite the 25 minute run time. This was achieved by slowing down the performance once the instillation had been built. I think this was a very successful way to stage the performance as it gave the audience time to consider our actions of ‘terrorism’ in the first part, compared to the leisurely elements of jazz music and books introduced in the second section.

However, we found a few things that could have been improved. Due to the nature of the site, we were not allowed to eat or drink in our performance area, and thus our original idea of having a quintessentially British tea party once our sculpture had been completed became obsolete. Instead, we reapplied lipstick and read leather bound books. It seems a shame that our tea party idea had to be scrapped, as the variances between the first and second sections could have been much greater and more focused on the differences in class levels traditionally found.  The ladylike nature of our 1920’s costumes could also have been emphasised through this tea party, although after some discussion it was noted that our costumes had a significant impact, especially the dissimilarity between the dainty stockings and lipstick worn with black balaclavas.

It has also been discussed in depth if in fact Big Ben was an appropriate sculptural model to create; given the feminine styling we gave the performance, as it is clearly a phallic object. However, we maintain that our focus was not meant to be on the femininity versus masculinity of the Gallery or its creator, but rather on our own personal history relating to that object. Given that Big Ben is a widely recognised building, we found inspiration in the way Janet Cardiff’s 1999 ‘Missing Voice’ piece ‘seeks to alter viewing conventions more traditionally associated with tourist’ spots (Gorman 2003, p.168). Instead of our audience seeing Big Ben as London, we wanted them to look past that and see their own roots in whichever city or town they feel closest to. The feminist take is of course, another way of looking at our performance, and an interesting one at that, which we would very much like to explore should we have the opportunity to create anything similar to this piece again.

missing voice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Missing Voice, Audio Tour (1999)

 

References: Gorman, Sarah (2003) ‘Wandering and Wondering: Following Janet Cardiff’s Missing Voice’, Performance Research 8, no.1.

Author: Lacey Cole

Overall Thoughts

Our performance was on Saturday 4th May 2013 at 3:30pm, overall it went extremely well and we had many positive comments afterwards. I believe the use of us using our own car to speed up to the gallery and speed away from the gallery really startled the audience who were gathered outside and I overheard one audience member say ‘oh wow its started’, this really highlighted we were smuggling something into the gallery and it needed to happen quickly. The audience then followed us into the gallery which worked really well as it drew the attention from many members of the public who seemed to be extremely confused and worried about what was going on. The music was already playing when we went into the room which had already meant there were some members of the public waiting to see what was going to happen. The construction of ‘The Big Ben’ went incredibly smoothly and all of our practicing has really paid off. Once the Big Ben started to chime on our soundscape we took of our balaclavas and began acting completely differently like sophisticated ladies from the 1920s and walking around the clock as if we had no idea how it had got there. I believe this would have brought comedic elements to the audience members who were there the whole time, but for the audience members who had not seen how the sculpture had got there it may have led to confusion which is what we wanted to happen. Once we had given away our balaclavas to get ‘rid of any evidence’ we then left the gallery slowly and as if we had done nothing wrong. We left the ‘Big Ben’ standing and did not return until the gallery had closed to create more of an impact. This was our aim to let members of the audience and public have a proper look at the ‘Big Ben’ we had created and to leave them wondering if anything else was going to happen. Furthermore our costumes looked shocking as the outfit was a huge contrast, we had flapper like dresses on which women wore during the 1920s, with big work boots and balaclavas. It worked really well as it again added to the ‘shock’ factor of what was going on and once we had taken of our balaclavas we were able to play completely different characters. Overall as a group we were really happy with our piece and the reviews we received after, the idea worked very well and the ‘Big Ben’ looked remarkable once it all came together. Below are some photos from the performance and rehearsals.

 

 

Jade, Lacey and Fotini next to the completed Big Ben

Jade with The Big Ben  973391_10151621118630943_1797115983_n 975568_10151621118600943_200027381_n

 

 

During rehearsals, practicing putting up the Big Ben was a struggle at times when we did not have very high ceilings.

 

973414_10151621118605943_1214928505_n  972750_10151621118620943_446305138_n

 

One of the four clock faces

975845_10151621118650943_1980567793_n

Last Minute Considerations

As with any drama performance, we have had a few last minute things to consider in relation to our piece. Firstly, costume. Although we have organised our 1920’s costume and props, the question of shoes still remains. Having come to the conclusion that heels would probably not be feasible, we have decided that boots will be our footwear of choice. Whilst they clash with our costume, the balaclavas will also do this, and we feel make more of a statement considering the nature of our performance and the idea of ‘terrorism’.

Secondly, our means of transport. Whilst our London iconography is an obvious theme throughout the piece, it seems impractical to have a black taxi as we originally wanted. Having spoken to various taxi companies, it seems we cannot guarantee we will have a car waiting outside once our performance has finished, and we feel it is necessary to have our performance framed by the arrival and departure of a car. Therefore we will be using Fotini’s car instead. Although it is silver, we hope this will have more of an impact as we will be able to drive faster and it may have more of an element of a get-away car.

Despite these elements, it seems our performance is coming together nicely, and will hopefully have the impact we desire.

Author: Lacey Cole

The message and affect we hope to create.

As we have previously stated the reasoning behind our performance is to smuggle the culture and cosmopolitan nature of London in the shape of the Big Ben into Lincoln. The reason we have chosen the Big Ben is due to it’s recognisable image and an instant association with London. The clock has become a symbol of London, particularly in the visual media and this factor also incorporates our use of newspaper as it emphasises the importance of the media in such a cosmopolitan city. Another reason we have chosen the Big Ben is that it is also a clock tower and so incorporates the history of The Usher Gallery itself as James Usher was a clock maker and if you walk around the gallery there is an abundance of clocks dotted around. The Big Ben sculpture we have created is of a vast scale and the reason we have made such a large object is because we want to make a big statement, if the sculpture was small we would not capture the attention of the audience as much or make such an impact. We want people in the gallery to stop and take interest in our performance even if they were not there intentionally wanting to watch but get enticed in.

Another factor that will entice the passers by is our use of soundscape. We have asked a fellow member of our class to begin the track ten mintues before our intended arrival and we have decided this so that the impact we are intending to create has a chance to build, hopefully the audience will begin to wonder why the soundscape is playing and it’s significance. We have decided on the idea of arriving in a speeding get away car to emphasise the idea of smuggling and cultural terrorism, this as well will hopefully entice passers by to come into the gallery to see what is going on. The soundscape is busy London traffic followed by the chimes of The Big Ben…it then begins playing music from the 1920’s and this brings us to the second part of our performance.

Susan Bennet states in her book ‘Theatre and Museums’ that ‘the use of live performance by museums to provide an encounter with a past that is brought to life'(Bennett p7, 2013). and in a sense this is what is created in the second part of our performance as the balaclavas are removed. It is evident that we are women from the 1920’s due to our costume which is quite authentic with a flapper style, stockings and pearls. Our posture and style of movement will change to capture the elegant woman of the 20’s whilst reading our leather bound books and observing the art of the gallery as the 1920’s Jazz fills the room. In a way we are capturing the history of The Usher Gallery as that was built in the 1920’s and so we are reacting a typical scene expected from women from the era. This calm, elegant demeanour will continue until we leave the gallery to capture the history of The Usher Gallery but to also emphasise the contrast between the two parts of our performance.

Works Cited:

Bennett, Susan (2013) Theatre and Museums, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan

Author: Fotini Efstathiou