Has Museum Theatre Emulsified the Two?

During most museum visits you meander through the exhibits occasionally reading a thing or two and possibly even have a chat about what you have seen however this is changing. Catherine Hughes believes that ‘museums are theatres, rich with stories of human spirit and activity and the natural forces of life… both museums and theatre present us with ourselves in different contexts, holding the mirror up and showing us what we have done and what we might do (Hughes 1998, P. 10).

Performances in museums by actors are becoming increasingly popular, with our piece Possessed Time being an example of this. The parallels have always existed between museums and theatre, the whole idea that an audience goes to see something that they will hopefully find engaging, but now the two have become to merge and the distinctions between the two may be obvious although at a small number.

Susan Bennett observes, ‘… theatres and museums have increasingly become symbolic and actual neighbours, sharing the task of providing entertaining and educational experiences that draw people to a district, a city, a region, and even a nation’(2013 p. 3). They both serve a similar purpose and both work together to create a culture that is symbolic of the area in which they are situated. Moreover, ‘exhibitions are fundamentally theatrical, for they are how museums perform the knowledge they create’ (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1998, p. 3). The parallels are clear, they both serve the same purpose they just have always done it in different ways, and now that live action is happening in museums theatre has bled a new dynamic into them. When performing Possessed Time people stared and looked at us and try to understand what we were saying and what our purpose was as if we were a painting or a sculpture.

As well as differences between the two buildings, such as the audience in a theatre being on one side as they sit and watch the actors on the other, there are also differences between theatre on the stage and a performance in a museum. In a theatre ‘the subject matter of the play bears no relationship to the premises in which the play is performed’, whereas in a museum, ‘the subject matter is related to the museum as a whole or the exhibit’ (Bridal 2004, p. 9). If we performed our piece in a theatre, it would have had half the impact compared to Gallery 3 because all our influences and process were based on the things we discovered in that space. Furthermore, ‘museums traffic mostly in material designated as representing the past, while theatrical performance takes place resolutely in the present, ephemeral, resistant to collection’ (Bennett 2013, p. 5).

I believe that although they will forever be separate entities now that theatre has started to become part of the museum experience, the two will become ever more indistinguishable.

 

Written by Shane Humberstone.

Works Cited
Bennett, Susan (2013) Theatre and Museums, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bridal, Tessa (2004) Exploring Museum Theatre Oxford: AltaMira.
Hughes, Catherine (1998) Museum Theatre: Communicating with Visitors Through Drama, Portsmouth: Heinemann.
Kirschenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara (1998) Destination Culture, London and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

 

Relatable Sources

“All rooted in an interest to make work that brings together theatre and the visual arts in a single unified vision” (Station House Opera, 2013).

Station House Opera are a site specific orientated theatre company based in the United Kingdom. When looking over their archived work, the thing which I found the most intriguing was their extensive use of multi-media, as it was something which we experimented within our piece. The pieces of work which I found particularly fascinating when comparing them to ours were that of their Ultramundane, Snakes and Ladders and Backwards.

ultramundane-01-c Ultramudane (1983).

Ultramundane’s intention was to present the public with an “inversion of the world” (Station House Opera, 1983) which they know so well. They intended for their performers to be “physically together yet dramatically separate, for they belonged to different parts of the landscape” (1983). This is something which we experimented with within our site specific performance. Although we were all close in proximity, we were apart in terms of aesthetical ease. The costumes we used represented a specific part of the day, so each ‘character’ would make sense at one point during the day, whilst the remaining five would continue to look out of place until they had found their specific ‘setting’. This parallels Station House Opera’s idea of characters belonging to different parts of the landscape.

snakes-and-ladders-01-bob-c Snakes and Ladders (1998).

Their use of multimedia appears to be most present in their 1998 production Snakes and Ladders. Snakes and Ladders “traced the external signs of an invisible dialogue between mind and matter” (Station House Opera, 1998). The performers on stage were accompanied by doubles of themselves presented in a video projection format. This is similar to the fact that we used ourselves to create our human clock projection, as we are essentially removing the ‘characters’ from world, into another. By mixing the virtual world with the actual you see two different interpretations of a person. In the recreated image you see a person who can not experience emotion or danger, but in the actual world you see the aftermath, the effects on the performers.

snakes-and-ladders-01-bob-c Backwards (2010).

One of their more recent works Backwards (2010) explores the notion of time, with a particularly strong focus on the notion of the distorted. “Do we believe in progress? Do we have evidence that humans improve? Evolution may operate in time, but our sensibilities do not. We must no longer see the world as one damn thing after another” (Station House Opera, 2010). We explored a similar issue within our performance, hoping that watching us would cause the audience to ask themselves similar questions to those seen above. Backwards starts at the end of a day and reverses back to the start whereas in our piece, we start at the beginning of a day but speed it up, condensing it into 6 hours opposed to 24.

Another piece of work which I found to be inspiring is Christian Marclay’s The Clock. “A 24-hour montage of thousands of film and television clips with glimpses of clocks, watches, and snatches of people saying what time it is” (Bradshaw, 2011). The interesting thing about this installation is that whenever the time is shown on screen, it is in fact accurate.

“When I first arrived, I found myself giving a little amused laugh at each appearance of the time. Then the novelty wore off and I became silent” (Bradshaw, 2011). A similar process happened with our installation piece, at first it may have seemed vaguely amusing as the audience had not yet grasped the concept of what we were creating. But, after a short time in the space, much like what Bradshaw has stated, you become mesmerised by the notion and do indeed fall to silence. Throughout Marclay’s The Clock, the image of a clock was not always blindingly present all of the time, sometimes it appeared as a background shot or even an afterthought. This is comparable to the use of the human clock and decomposing pineapple in our performance. Although it is the visuals that draw you in initially, they become a part of the background as the action develops. Another interesting point which Bradshaw makes is that the longer he spent in the space the more fictional the clock became, “I stopped noticing that they were telling me exactly what the time actually was” (2011). Having spoken to audience members about our piece post-production, our use of the concept of time appeared to have a very similar effect. Once you accept that you are embarking on a journey with the actors, much as they do, you lose your grasp on both time and reality.

Author: Chloe Doherty

Work Cited:
– Station House Opera (2012) Station House Opera (online) Available at: http://www.stationhouseopera.com/ (Accessed on 12 May 2013).
– Bradshaw, P (2011) Christian Marclay’s The Clock: a masterpiece of our times (online) Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/apr/07/christian-marclay-the-clock (Accessed 12 May 2013).

Another angle..

After some group evaluation of our process so far, we started to discuss the first things we think the audience will pick up on when they enter the space. We wondered whether we needed to add anything else. Is our piece too static? Too silent? We asked. We began to think of all the different perspectives of our piece. One thing we have discussed as part of the process has been the links we can make between our piece and Sexism. As Tom is drawing us while we apply the makeup, aesthetically you could say it appears as though the application of make up is for him, or for all men in fact. Perhaps we should question why any girl puts on makeup and ‘improves’ her usual look. Is it for men? Or Is it for everyone in society as a general? There are so many pressures coming from a variety of different places to be this idea of perfect, The ‘ideal’. Something idealistic is in my opinion something which does not exist, it is a false expectation.

Further discussion led us to wonder whether we should have any audio playing during our piece. The idea was to play something which would encourage the audience to question all of the things we have been questioning through the whole process. However, we did not want to tell them exactly what we wanted them to think, we wanted there to be some freedom for them. It was a last minute desicion for us to do some voice recordings of ourselves reading out passages from fashion magasines which contain makeup advice and instructions on how to apply make up.

‘If you want a dewy, fresh-faced finish then a light, liquid formula is best.  Look for words such as sheer and illuminating and you’re set for a glowing  complexion. I find these liquid bases give a wonderfully moist, glowing look to  the skin which immediately revs up a tired, dry looking complexion.’

We felt this would emphasise how many women place such importance on makeup and looking their best. We were also fascninated with the similiarty between instructions on how to apply makeup and instructions on how to paint. By recording and playing  instructions for both we thought how fitting to reiterate the ever growing links between art and the human form.

After more exploration into how we wanted to place ourselves when applying the makeup, we decided on a gradual change of position throughout the piece. As we wanted to show how this is something which is false but also a routine. Each time after removing our makeup we were to sit in another position, each time something less formal and more comfortable. By the end we aimed to either be laying on the floor or across the benches, expressing boredom. We would also be making a little less effort during each application so that by the end we were simply smearing foundation on our bodies aimlessly. We hoped this would communicate the message of how it is not something enjoyable but a chore; something we feel we need to do. Also, we thought how lovely to have this abstract image of bodies smeared in foundation whilst playing out is precise instructions on how to get the perfect cheek bones or skin tone.

 

Online source

http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/beauty-hair/news/trends/how-to-find-the-right-foundation_for_flawless_skin

“And finally – putting pencil to paper…”

My role in the performance was to draw the live art in front of me. I was using different shades of pencils and ordinary paper. In an extreme case it is possible that to say that I am drawing a ‘life drawing’. “The representation of a life-model – and the particular choice of a female model – generates socially and culturally specific associations” (Roberts 2012, p70). In this instant Amanda Roberts suggests that having a female model has significance in society. It certainly does in our piece. As I have said before I am the only male in my group and I am drawing a group of girls. Does this have some sort of patriarchal view on society? Or is it men’s eyes that I represent observing beauty and drawing it – similarly to what the artist did when he drew the Venus de Milo.

 

Here are the selection of drawings from past rehearsals and the final performance:

 

DSC_0061

It is clear that as the performance progressed the drawings became more erratic. These drawings are shown at the bottom of the photo. This happened as the girls became more frantic with their make-up. This could show men’s dominance over women or a power in art through live drawings or It could show elements of females able to exploit men’s need for a woman. But of course literally similarly to the artist who drew the Venus de Milo they are copies of beauty. Whether my drawings are accurate is irrelevant because it is quite possible the artist’s drawings at as accurate to the Venus de Milo statue; and of course the statue itself it a copy of the Ancient Greek goddess Aphrodite. How did the creator of the statue, Alexandros of Antioch, know that was what she looked like? The drawings themselves were they drawings of ‘true beauty’?  Or were they drawings of what was there? This of course leaves our project open as said before what is idealisation, the romantic era of paintings where it was painting for aesthetic sake, and what is true nowadays?…

 

 

Works Cited

 

Roberts, Amanda and Howard Riley (2012) ‘The social semiotic potential of gestural drawing’, Journal of Visual Art Practice, 11 (1) 63-73

“Late additions…”

Sound was a late addition into our piece and we believed it would help with the ambience of the room and the piece overall.  It was a sound collage consisting of statements written by ‘experts’ on the application of make-up as well as experts on painting. It was interesting how the two were very similar in how they were spoken and the techniques being used.

 

This is the clip:       site voice complete (1)

 

“immersive audio techniques that are often used in artistic sound disciplines offer complex multichannel solutions to enhance the listening environment for an audience” (Lauke 2010, pg1). This point by Lauke beautifully sums up why we added sound to our piece. It gives a depth to the performance space.  As the piece progresses and the make-up application becomes less ‘perfect’ it is an interesting contrast between that and the sound clip of the ‘correct’ application of make-up. It also breaks the silence within the room and allows for the contemporary to be brought into the old fashioned art gallery. It also a nice addition to the contemporary room opposite which is also using an interesting sound collage and our clip, I think, adds to the sound of the upstairs gallery as a whole.  It also adds to the video as of course the primary image of it is a painting and it is interesting how indistinguishable both make-up and paint application is.

 

Works Cited

 

Lauke, Karen (2010) ‘The placement of sound in artistic contexts’ Body, Space & Technology, 9(1) 1-10