Upon arriving at our final idea, our group are now starting to begin questioning the integrate details of our piece. How will the audience react? How will we lead the audience to the piece? What will our integral roles be? Mike Pearson sums up our creative process at this time by saying “Performance involves an activity, an audience and a place, then creative opportunities reside in the multiple creative articulations of us, them and there.” (2010, P19). From this we need to identify and narrow down our key ideas to finalise our project.
This said, our idea has taken shape over the last week. We have explored more into the concept of masking. As stated by Sam, about the idealisation of many paintings to create a more perfected visual. From this we decided to have ourselves masked but on reflection, we thought that conventional theatre mask would make our site specific performance more theatrical. So we decided to develop the idea of masking but not in a literal sense.
An idea was suggested within our group by Kirsty to have a half make up; have one side what would be deemed as ‘perfect’ and the other side make up free and then during the performance the make-up would be blurred and smudged together to overlap the two showing the idealisation.
I then saw this image:
What if the ‘perfected’ side of the make-up was an idealised face or rather a painting of our own face?
Our project is constantly evolving. We had dual projections in both galleries we have now decided to just have the one, above the picture in the Usher gallery. The projection will consist of a video which will subliminally inform the audience of the idealised creativity of painters, and the difference between modern day art and historical art.
This idea was later scrapped as our performance was changing it didn’t fit in with the main theme. We steered away from paintings coming to life and concentrated more on idealisation. Not to mention that very soon we were to uncover that the Brayford painting was to disappear…
Works Cited
Pearson, Mike (2010) Site Specific Performance, Palgrave: Macmillan.
As with all practical performances and projects, we have been experimenting with ideas to see what works and can be used in our final piece. Trial and error is an important part of our practical development.
We watched footage of fruit decomposing, and liked the idea of how time can effect an object very visually, with photography and media as a means of recording time itself. The next stage of this was having to decide how we could do this ourselves in the simplest and most practical way. We discussed leaving a pineapple in a shed or somewhere uninterrupted, where we could focus a camera on it and film its decomposition. The significance of the pineapple is that it is a feature of our chosen performance space of Gallery 3.
However, this caused us practical concerns, and raised many questions over how long it would take to decompose and whether we could get a camera for that amount of time.
Instead we decided to cut a pineapple in half and see what would happen if we left it in a cupboard for a few days and took a few photos over the duration.
Would it change its appearance over one weekend? Or would it take weeks for any effects to take place?
This is the experiment I am recording so far. And this is the result after 3 days of a pineapple in my cupboard…….
This is a simple stop-frame style animation I have created of the decomposition process so far. As you can see, the pineapple has started to change texture and colour. Something visual such as this, could be used as an aid in our final performance piece to show the effects that time can have.
Initially we discussed the idea of simply dressing head-to-toe in white, this was due to the fact that we wanted to look somewhat conformed, like part of a machine. By identifying ourselves as the same through the use of costumes, we were putting forth the idea that we were all of the same practicality, becoming arguable similar to that of a clocks cogs. If we were to settle on this idea, it would not have been just for aesthetic purposes, but practicality also. Due to the fact that we have planned for a number of projections to play throughout our piece, we experimented with the idea of projecting them onto ourselves, which lead us to the colour white.
After careful consideration, we decided against this idea. Rather than projecting onto ourselves, we were given the opportunity to close off the gallery next door to the one in which we are working in, meaning we now have a solid flat surface to project our ideas onto. Unfortunately the closed door is in keeping with Gallery 3’s colour scheme, along with the carpet it is a midnight blue. This leaves us with the options of covering it and projecting onto either tracing paper or a white bed sheet/blind. As we have a reasonably large surface area to cover, it will be much more practical to use one bed sheet opposed to multiple pieces of tracing paper.
As our piece began to develop our ideas on costumes changed to accommodate the structure which we set ourselves. As many of you already know, we are doing a 6 hour duration piece (during the galleries opening hours 10-4pm), within this we will be performing a ‘micro-day.’ Each hour will represent a different part of the day in which we use repetitive actions to the ticking of a clock, to represent the key moments in everyday life (see previous post ‘A Micro Day’ for more details), this will show our process of experimentation with the use of time manipulation. Each ‘actor’ will be wearing a different level of clothing:
1. Underwear 2. Pyjamas 3. Overalls (work clothes) 4. Suit (again, work attire) 5. Casual/Lounge outfit 6. Dressed up/Going out
This choice, in itself, demonstrates an element of time. During the duration of a standard day, the average person will at some point make a transition through the clothing I have listed above. As we have also incorporated each costume with a set time of day, it will become clear to the spectators that although the actors may look out of place for the majority of the performance, they will fit perfectly into at least one set time. Our choice of performance space (gallery 3) features cases full of crockery and pocket watches, which can be considered to be domesticated applied art. By dressing ourselves in ‘domesticated’ outfits, we are attempting to transform ourselves into a part of that already present art, in keeping with both the themes of time and the domestic.
We have decided to condense a 24-hour working day into a 6-hour performance that incorporates a typical everyday routine. We aim to highlight how time can be both an abstract and physical concept by which we are controlled. On the other hand, we cannot help but manipulate time in this piece as measurements of time are a human invention (e.g. seconds, minutes.)
The performance begins with us inert in a sleeping position for the duration of the first hour; we then are individually awoken by a series of alarms to perform our morning routines in a mechanical manner and in time to the sound of a ticking clock. Each member of the group stands in front of a section of the glass cabinets to perform their own daily routine as if the glass is a mirror. In three pairs, we reflect actions of each other brushing our teeth, washing our face and eating breakfast for 15 minutes per action, each pair performs the actions in various tempo’s but making sure to keep in time with the clock ticking sound still. We have included three videos displaying an example of the various tempos that each pair will use.
The first, shows the slowest speed whilst keeping to the ticking of the clock and the last video displays the fastest speed which still keeping to the beat.
Through the manner of miming, we display how a lot of our daily actions are mechanical and we perform them without thinking about the amount of time it consumes. By the end of the second hour, we will portray the walk to work by using an exercise we previously created as a warm-up. It incorporates using the space in Gallery 3 and moving in a mechanised style.
In the third and fourth hours, we will be aiming to represent a working day through the medium of constructing the puzzle of a clock made from carpet tiles. This serves to act as a reminder of the works of James Usher and how clocks were a key feature of both his public and private life. Between these hours, we will be including a 15 minute lunch break eating pineapple related foods, which is part of the performance, reflecting the exhibition of the ‘Pineapple Dish’ currently housed in the gallery. At the end of the fourth hour we will perform the walk through the space exercise previously used as the ‘walk to work’ but changing it to represent the walk home.
For the final hour, we will represent the evening period of a typical day which will display dinner time, relaxation or recreation time (working as a group to incorporate a game into the performance e.g. a passing ball game) and finally finishing the performance in the position by which we began, sleeping. This position will not be held as long as it was at the beginning of the performance as it is just a brief representation of the end of a typical day.
‘Clocks slay time; only when the clock stops does time come to life.’ ~William Faulkner
Time. It’s all around us. We can’t escape it. We can’t ignore it. It constricts, dictates and ages us as humans, but time is just a concept.
This is at the root of our performance, as we develop our piece in a gallery which is surrounded by instruments of time. We are presenting a whole working day in 6 hours, and our development has led us into ideas of routine and the repetition which time brings. The routine of our daily lives; sleeping, waking up, eating, going to work, going out, all in a cycle which continues as the clocks progress into each hour.
What do you expect to see when you walk into any Gallery? Paintings, artefacts and displays. Certainly not a group of people asleep on the floor, or doing their daily routine! Our work is going to be pushing the boundaries of expectation and the abstract element of time.
Our chosen space is Gallery 3, within our given site of the Usher Gallery. We were drawn to this as artists because of the aesthetics of the room which contrast those of the spaces around the building. The building’s stunning architecture reflects that of a Manor House, both exterior and interior, with the winding staircase and stone floors. However, this totally changes when the public enter Gallery 3. Carpeted floors and walls and a dramatic change to a colour midnight blue, makes you question whether you have wandered into a completely different building. As we develop and explore our work, it is clear that subtle things become enlarged and exaggerated because of this confined environment.
This leads me onto discussing what the terms of ‘site’, ‘space’ and ‘place’ really mean- concepts which have been scrutinised by the many practitioners of site specific studies. Joanne Tompkins and Anna Birch, state ‘place’ under 3 critical concepts:
‘place as geographical site, place which situates social or historical position and the place or location of performance’.
A space can be described in terms of being a ‘practised place’, as Jayne Rendell describes in her work Art and Architecture: A Place Between. Rendell uses the work of Michael Landy as an example of performance and its relationship between place and space. Landy performed a bold piece of performative work in 2001, with ‘Breakdown’, which took place in a vacant shop along Oxford Street in London, where he divested himself of all his possessions. A conveyor belt was installed on a circuit, overseen by men and women in blue overalls, including Landy himself. Over a durational period, every possession was circulated on this belt under categorized headings such as ‘clothing’ ‘electrical’ etc. This undoubtedly was a statement on capitalism due to the position of Oxford Street as being one of the busiest shopping locations in the country. But most importantly, Landy transformed a place using art intervention;
‘his work provided a ‘space’ of critical engagement in the ‘place’ of commodity consumption.’
(Jane Rendell, Art and Architecture: A Place Between, IB Tauris & Co, 2006)
With work such as this to inspire us, we too will be using art intervention to transform our place into a space; using Gallery 3 as a spatial practise to explore the concepts of time. Our work is also exploring the historical and cultural context of the artefacts that the room holds. The clocks are integral to the site as a whole, as they are to our piece. In its early origins, clock making was the most technically advanced job around, and during the 1800s and 1900s, was a means of flaunting wealth and status. Clockmakers would usually also be involved in making scientific instruments, due to their technical skills and knowledge. Focus, concentration and perseverance were needed in the art of clock making and these are traits which we will have to bring to our piece as performers, as our piece is durational and will be both mentally and physically exhausting.
The work we have been developing in workshops has led me to research further into other site specific performances by other companies. One that specifically interested me was a work entitled ‘Stop the Clocks’ by Tin Box theatre.
Tin Box theatre is a relatively newly established company, who performed a site specific work called ‘Stop the Clocks’ in 2011. Their piece took place in a disused coffin fitting factory in the centre of Birmingham, and presented the story of a fictional woman called Mary, at different stages of her life until her death. The work was inspired by the history of the factory and the testimonies of ex-employees. I think their chosen site is similar to the Collection and Usher Gallery due to its rich history.
