Holly Rudd – Page 2 – The Collection Of…

The gallery, first encounter…

Holly Rudd / February 5, 2013May 12, 2013 / People, Space

During my first look at The Collection Gallery I was more intrigued by the architecture of the building than the works contained within it. I liked the idea of using the building to formulate a piece from just looking at the way in which the building was held together. I want to look more into the way that the architecture affects the uses of the building and how the public view the collection gallery as it stands next to the less modern usher gallery. Does it look out of place? An eyesore? Or is it a beauty in its own right?

To document my appreciation of the architecture of the gallery I have started to recreate the collection gallery building using cardboard, this allows me to look into the detail of the gallery a lot further in my attempt to recreate it. This will also help with our future ideas as we can use it to build models of our set therefore trying our ideas out before we set off to do it on a much larger scale.

‘Barbara Kirschenblatt-Gimblett makes an even more explicit comparison: ‘exhibitions are fundamentally theatrical, for they are how museums perform the knowledge to create’ (Destination Culture, 1998, p. 3). Traditionally, of course, museums arranged their collections in predictable, linear narratives, committed to organizational categories intended to be definitive’ (Bennett, 2013, pg 4) This quote from Theatre and Museums shows how museums can be seen as theatre as well as exhibits. I agree with this, that an art gallery is theatrical in concept. Performer’s present work, a gallery does exactly the same. I like the idea of a gallery being theatre, I believe it give the visitors a chance to become an audience and view the piece and infer it’s meaning. Art is open to interpretation similar to many Site-Specific performances, this itself is an interesting observation and this has now given me a new view of the gallery and I now feel that I will look at the exhibitions differently upon my next visit to the gallery.

I was particularly interested with the cafe, the architecture within it is beautiful with lots of different layers and levels using different materials to contrast and complement one another. I would like to base a performance in this area as it has natural frames to the place. The windows in the cafe are like big frames to the outside world connecting the frames of the gallery artwork to the space in the cafe. There is one big window that points up towards the cathedral and frames it up on steep hill. I think using the architecture to frame the piece would be a nice way to get the beauty of the building in with the idea of Site-Specific performance.

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

Looking at a ‘New City’

Holly Rudd / January 24, 2013May 9, 2013 / People, Research

When we first approached the subject of site specific we walked around the city of Lincoln trying to explore the environment in a way that we had never before. We were asked to look for specific places, such as; the best place to find an old couple holding hands, the worst place to pass wind, the best place to build a tree house and so on. To begin with we walked into the centre of the city, but then our course took us on another direction. We ended up somewhere that neither of us had been before. When we were in the areas that we had experienced before it was as though we were looking at them differently because we were, because we were looking for something in particular we paid more attention to the city that we so often pass by in an unfamiliar manner. ‘It’s that city, or one like it – this city, but not this one’ (Etchells, 1999, pg 76) Etchells quote from his book certain fragments sums up our feelings towards our new discoveries whilst wandering around Lincoln.

During our exploration I discovered a new love for the city itself, it developed deeper meaning and created new experiences. Whilst exploring new areas of the city I felt and excitement to uncover something I did not know before.

We found the best place to go sledding

The best place to discover true beauty

The best place to find yourself

The quote from Etchells is from an article within which he looks at the relationship between creative process and the practices of everyday life. This is what we were doing during our tour of the city; we were exploring the possibilities of performance whilst also looking into everyday situations, finding creativity from pedestrian actions. By looking for specific criteria we discovered creativity within each act. The worst place to sleep rough; we discussed where this might be, if there is anywhere that is the best place to sleep rough, why you would and what your circumstances might be to get to this point, from this discussion in our pair we decided upon performance concepts and ethical points. We then realised that this had never really been a topic that either of us had overly thought, it wasn’t until looking deeper into the city that we discovered these ideas.

Our journey took us on a 3 mile walk around the city, I found potential in a few of the sites for performance and for new discovery, it would have been interesting to explore these options further if we could have chosen a site but this exercise really opened my eyes into looking at things differently and so I feel that when we visit our site I hope I will be able to be open minded about it and look at it from a performance perspective, the same way that Etchells can view a city as a new city entirely.

Etchells, Tim (1999) Certain Fragments, New York: Routledge

Explanation of Site-Specific

Holly Rudd / January 20, 2013May 13, 2013 / People, Research, Uncategorized

So what would I call Site-Specific?

Dictionary definitions;

Site: ‘The area or exact plot of ground on which anything is, has been, or is to be located’

Specific: ‘Having a special application, bearing, or reference’

Site-Specific in our case refers to that of a space in which we are creating performance that links back to the site. When looking for performance ideas we are creating it around the site specifically.

Our site is The Collection and Usher Galleries on Danes Terrace in Lincoln. But first we went to explore the city, I will talk about this in a later post but before that I want to talk about other practitioner’s definitions of site performance and how they relate to their sites.

‘how different types of spatial arrangements affect our understanding of and relationships with performance: specifically, the particularities of ‘place’ and its capacity to recontextualize performance’ (Tompkins, 2012, pg 1) this quote from Tompkins really intrigued me as it talks about how ‘place’ can change the relationships of performance. I like the idea of creating a piece where the audience don’t relate to it as a performance. The freedom that site-specific performance gives us as performers is really daunting but at the same time it’s very exciting as we can create what we want in response to the site itself.

(Subltlemob, 2009)

The subtlemob video shows the practical effect of the Tompkins quote. Subtlemob use city spaces that are frequently inhabited by people and use a soundscape to change the way they see the site. As if it were the last time is a performance of Subtlemob’s work, from the video you can see people’s reactions to the piece and the space they are occupying. I like the idea of changing an audience perspective as it seems like an interesting concept to explore. I hope that in our final performance our group can incorporate some of these ideas.

I am looking forward to visiting our site for the first time and seeing what it has to offer us as performers.

Subtlemob (2009) OFFICIAL “as if it were the last time” – 2009 subtlemob Video, Online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY6S4GkCZ9c (accessed: 19 january 2013)

Tompkins, Joanne (2012) ‘The ‘place’ and practice of site-specific theatre’, Anna Birch and Joanne Tompkins (ed) Performing Site Specific Theatre, New York: Palgrave Macmillan