Tag: Fotini Efstathiou

Problem’s occurring with our performance.

Fotini Efstathiou / / Cultural Terrorists, Development

A vital part of our performance is the drinking of afternoon tea after our hectic construction of The Big Ben in the gallery, as previously stated this is showing us inhabiting the space and also entwining the galleries history within our performance and cultural smuggling of London. Unfortunately when asking for permission to eat or drink in the gallery this was denied, so now we are stuck as to what to do during this part of the performance as we feel it is important to keep it in as it adds such a contrast to the first part of our performance, thus adding another dimension. We don’t feel pretending or miming will have the same impact, we feel if we are going to do it we should do it properly.

I have thought of other ideas such as sitting down and reading a piece of literature from the twenties, simply just listening to the music and lounge or perhaps do a bit of embroidery..what are your opinions?  Any comments or ideas would be really helpful. We really feel that having this contrast within the performance will make it more interesting and dynamic to the audience.

 

Author: Fotini Efstathiou

Part of our inspiration…

Jade Nicholls / / Cultural Terrorists, Development, Inspiration

After the gallery had a re-hanging the painting we were basing our performance around had been taken down. We at first thought this maybe a problem, however the new paintings in the gallery are very useful to our piece. The paintings of the cathedral in the corner of the room is where we are going to put up our model as it highlights the significance of the cathedral in Lincoln and how it is an iconic building in this city. This will mirror how the Big Ben is iconic for London. Another inspiration for us was the dress which is downstairs in the Usher gallery, it is covered in an atlas. We at first thought of covering our model in an atlas or map of London and Lincoln to show the differences between the two cities. However it looked extremely messy and was not as eye-pleasing as the newspapers are.

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The construction stage…

Jade Nicholls / / Cultural Terrorists, Development, Experimentation

Over the last week as a group we have been constructing our model. This has been very hard and taken a lot of patience and time but it has been worth it giving our end result. We have decided to cover the model in newspaper, using The Telegraph, as this is a London based newspaper and is more relevant. By the end of this week our aim is to have drawn the clock face on the tower and also have it fully covered in newspaper. Also our practice rehearsal in front of the whole class has improved our confidence on the overall piece as the tower made a huge impact in the gallery and even members of the public seemed interested to question what we were doing. The whole group gave us helpful feed back and we have taken the comments on board to make our piece the best it can be.

Here are some more photos of the building process:

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The Construction Process

Lacey Cole / / Cultural Terrorists, Development, Experimentation

Having attempted our first go at creating a sculptural model using polystyrene, and failing miserably, we decided to go in search of other materials. We researched the types of material commonly used for smaller scale models, such as very thin wood known as balsa wood. However, due to the size we want to attempt, balsa wood was too flimsy and brittle. We eventually ended up in B&Q, and found a product known as ‘Selitac’, thin foam sheets with metallic covering that clip together to form boxes.  After buying the Selitac boards we realised it was an extremely useful material for the type of sculpture we are making. It is very easy to carve and does not flake easily like the polystyrene we experimented with previously. It is also similar to a material known as ‘grey board’ which had a considered as it is a well known modelling material with a thin layer of foam. The tools we are using to carve the sculpture are scalpels, we researched into many different tools such as craft knives and Stanley knives but we decided the scalpels were the best and cheapest option, mainly because they have a smaller and more precise blade making it easier to work with.

We have decided to make the sculpture as large as possible in order to make it stand out, we decided rather than making our Big Ben half-heartedly we wanted to make an impact in the gallery so not only people watching our performance will be shocked but the passers-by will also be intrigued. Whilst carving the sculpture we have decided to make slots in the material so it is easier to put the sculpture together. In addition to making the performance smoother and faster, this will also increase the impact upon our audience as we will (hopefully) have managed to create a impressive sculpture and place it in the Usher gallery in a small amount of time. So far with the material we have made the base of the Big Ben and it is coming together nicely and staying stable. The photos below are from the first time we have carved the material and how the sculpture has started to come together.

 

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Author: Lacey Cole

 

Inhabiting the space.

Fotini Efstathiou / / Cultural Terrorists, Inspiration

Our performance is focused around smuggling London culture into Lincoln by placing a large sculpture of Big Big in the room of the Usher Gallery filled with paintings of Lincoln from different eras. We want to create quite a disruptive and energetic piece and in a sense take over the gallery for the thirty minutes we will be performing. During the construction of the Big Ben (which will be hectic) there will be a tea break where afternoon tea will be served, including scones, little cakes and sandwiches emphasising the typically English architecture of the building as well as the era it was built (1920’s). This will bring down the hectic nature of the performance and completely contrast with the constructing as the balaclavas will be removed and we will look like respectable 1920’s women enjoying a spot of tea on their lunch break.

In a sense we are creating a ‘lived-in’ space as we take over the gallery and when we leave after the performance is finished our afternoon tea will be left to show that someone has been there and lived in it. The Reckless Sleepers who were formed in Nottingham in 1989 have frequently undertaken this notion of a ‘lived-in’ space, most prominently with their performance of ‘The Last Supper’ in 2003 where thirty-nine audience members were invited to dinner. We have been inspired by this idea of getting the audience involved so therefore, during our afternoon tea we will be inviting some audience members to join us, thus emphasising this notion of a ‘lived-in’ space and hopefully increasing the entertainment value.

 

Author: Fotini Efstathiou

Works Cited:  Govan, Emma, Helen Nicholson and Katie Normington (2007) Making a Performance: Devising Histories and Contemporary Practices, Oxon: Routledge, p. 115.