Category: Uncategorized

Trying it out..

Samantha Mckenzie / / Concealed Illusions, Development, Experimentation, Public Responses, Uncategorized

‘People had a real familiarity with the space that was being worked with yet they were invited to experience the environment from a new perspective due to the performance that was enacted within it.’ (Govan 2006, p.122)

On 18th March, after many weeks of experimentation and development of our ideas, we were given the opportnity to test out a section of our performance in front of members of the class and any other members of the public who happened to be visiting the Usher Gallery. It was vital for us to get some feeback from our peers so we could be assured we were moving in the right direction, see that our performance communicates as we hoped or learn where/what we were lacking. There were particular areas in which we felt may not reflect the ideas behind them accuratley. For example, during our experimentation process with makeup, we were fascinated by the appearance of a dirty make up wipe and how something which appears so perfect initially, eventually descends into a filthy rag.

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To reflect this in our performance we came up with an idea which would also decide our choice of costume. We wanted to show side by side the result we are looking for by applying makeup and also the substance that is left afterwards. This resulted in our desicion to wear white clothing during our piece and use this to remove the makeup rather than the conventional products; metaphorically becoming giant makeup wipes. What we hoped would become clear after this was our intention to reveal the negativity behind masking the real thing or becoming something idealised; which you are not. When we tried this out on the day we were pleased with the feedback we recieved and also how our audience began to think over what we hoped they would. For example they were struck by the duration of time in which it took us to apply the makeup and we were happy they picked up on this because our general approach is to show something real and everyday using the real time scale. We felt successful in delivering the message we intended to.

We are now trying to push our piece to the right standard leading up to the performance day which will mean more experimentation in the Usher Gallery ensuring we are happy with what we are revealing and where we are doing it. Ideally we would love for our audience to enjoy seeing something new and different in the art gallery but also appreciate its coherance with the rest of the art work.

 

Work cited

Govan, E., et al (2006) Making a Performance:
Devising Histories and Contemporary Practices, London and New York: Routledge

 

 

Initial ideas, Bound

Holly Rudd / / People, Research, Uncategorized

To begin with we liked the idea of using the painting ‘Bound by Love’. I noticed that the painting itself had a similarity to the shape of The Collection gallery. This interested me as I thought about the idea of creating the painting on a larger scale on the outside walls of The Collection building.

Bound by Love

 

(Grigoriev, 1997)

I like this idea as we would be bringing the painting outside into the courtyard for people to see it as they walk by.

This led us to think about the connection of the two sides of the building at the gallery. We noticed how they are mirroring each other, the cafe and the gallery education rooms, they reminded me of the two lovers in the painting and I wanted to explore that idea further.

We then started thinking about how we could recreate the painting on the building we thought about stringing the two together like the threads in the painting to show the connection between the two buildings and we had the idea of putting up white sheets at the end of the building to show the people in the painting. These are ideas that we are hoping to try out in the next few weeks but we need to get health and safety checks first on the ladders.

Alexei Grigoriev (1997) Bound by love, painting, 52 x 43cm, Lincoln: Usher Gallery

Explanation of Site-Specific

Holly Rudd / / 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