Tag: Fotini Efstathiou

Considering Our Performance

Lacey Cole / / Cultural Terrorists, Evaluation

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

Last Minute Considerations

Lacey Cole / / Cultural Terrorists, Development

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

Completion of The Big Ben!

Fotini Efstathiou / / Cultural Terrorists

The Big Ben has finally been completed. After many trails and error of how to fix the newspaper to the structure we decided on double sided sticky tape and duct tape around the edges for a neater finish. We  firstly used staples but we decided it looked extremely messy and ruined the professional look we are aiming for to create the big impact we want. The use of the black duct tape around the edges frames the newspaper emphasising it’s importance and the cosmopolitan lifestyle of London. We decided on the use of The Daily Telegraph as it is published in London and has been running since 1855 only a few years before The Big Ben was built in 1858. We now need to practise constructing the tower in a timely manner, smoothly and professionally.

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Author: Fotini Efstathiou

Theatre & Museums

Jade Nicholls / / Audience, Cultural Terrorists, Space

After studying Susan Bennetts work into the use of theatre in museums it made us more positive about working in the museum and gallery. At first the site was daunting as museums and galleries are usually seen as places for people to relax and take in the art and artefacts without being disturbed, which is why we did not think putting on a drama performance in the Usher Gallery would appeal to the public. This was a main reason we did not decide to do a very long durational piece, we did not want the members of public to become frustrated we were in the way of what they wanted to see. However after reading Bennetts ‘Theatre and Museums’ it began to make a lot more sense as to why we were given this particular site. Performances are contemporarily performed in theatres, if you compare theatres and museums they have many similarities, ‘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’. A lot of research has gone into whether or not performances should be brought into museums on a regular basis, John Faulk also wrote a book called, ‘The Museum Experience’, which goes into very specific details about what happens in the museums and the type of people who visit them. He found out during his research that, ‘Demographic analyses of cultural activity show that people who go to the theatre, concerts and movies are also museum visitors’, this also proves that using the museum as a site for our performance would not disrupt the members of public but actually intrigue them and may make their museum visit more enjoyable. Overall both Bennett and Faulk’s work gave us a more positive outlook on our ideas, instead of holding back so that we did not interrupt the gallery we believed the public would enjoy the performance more if we done something fast, loud and disruptive as it draws their attention and from the studies the people who visit museums also like to visit theatres meaning they must like drama performances.

The Pleasure of Treasure

Lacey Cole / / Cultural Terrorists, Development, Inspiration

With our sculpture continuing to be built, I thought I’d take some time to consider other parts of the performance. I was interested to read an article recently on the Pleasure of Treasure, a site specific piece based in London which gave people the opportunity to follow clues on a city-wide scavenger hunt. Since the piece was based in London, it was thought-provoking to read and in fact has some similar elements to the performance piece we are now creating. The Artangel group, initiated by Kathy Battista, recreated maps from 1868 merged with contemporary maps for those taking part. Our initial idea bore some relevance to this, as we discussed the idea that previously where the Usher Gallery stood it was just woodland, and the bringing together of what used to stand and what now does stand in the space was considered. We also had a chance to look at some older maps of Lincoln in the Lincolnshire Archives, which may have added an interesting element, as we discussed covering Big Ben with maps of London or Lincoln. This idea has evolved and we are now looking at incorporating both the history of the site and modern elements.

Another part we found struck a chord with us was the final effect the Artangel group wanted to produce with the walk. As we want the audience to consider their personal attachments to a city, the group wanted people to question ‘what they thought they already knew about… inner-city London’ (Battista et al. 2005, p.431). This idea of wanting people to query where they live and what they know about their roots and the city they feel comfortable in is prevalent in both site specific pieces. Along with this we also wanted to consider the ‘overlapping histories that make up urban space’ (Battista et al. 2005, p.439), in accordance with both London and Lincoln, with the idea that we’d be able to overlap both cities to create our own version. I feel this is somewhat close to what we are working towards, two intersections of historical places overlapped in order to become our own personal culture.

Although not much is documented about this particular site specific performance, other pieces by the Artangel group can be found on their website at www.artangel.org.uk.

References: Battista, Kathy et al (2005) ‘Exploring ‘an area of unnatural beauty’: a treasure hunt around King’s Cross, London’, Cultural Geographies, 12: 429-462.

Author: Lacey Cole