Caton, S (2016) ‘Rainschemes for Insomniacs’
Marina Abramovic, (1974), ‘Rhythm o‘
In October 2016, I had the opportunity to assist an artist called Shaun Caton present one of his performance works at the Spill Festival in Ipswich. Spill Festival has gained quite a reputation since Robert Pacitti created it in 2007. The festival is held in London and Ipswich, alternating each year. Pacitti originates from Ipswich and is committed to bringing high quality performing arts back to the town. Spill is a festival of ‘Performing Arts’ and features video work and live performance staged both inside and out. Shaun Caton has built a name for himself through creating extremely strange performance art which he generally films and which is then available online. Shaun also paints and at present has a studio in Homerton NHS Hospital in London.
‘Rainschemes for Insomniacs’ was a rehearsed piece of performance art with three shows, but was being performed as a world premiere by Caton with the help of five UCS students (as his assistants). It involved the use of bizarre props that he had made, alongside animal exhibits loaned by Ipswich Museum. The show itself was in a gallery annexed to the museum, which museum staff ran and curated. The work was stated by Caton as being possibly post-apocalyptic, although he is keen not to tie his work down with ‘definite meanings’ and seems to revel in each observer taking away their own impressions and understanding of it. The production had many strange props that he had made himself, including preserved (wax) babies in jars and weird and grotesque masks. The production was also accompanied by his assistants (myself included) playing singing bowls and primitive instruments, and also interacting with some of the objects. See part of this production at https://vimeo.com/189566768.
Taking part in this production was extremely exciting, but it also led me into different areas, that I had not yet touched on in my degree course. There was a level of responsibility in assisting Caton with the project, as it relied upon all involved to make it successful. Generally up until this point, I had been responsible for my own individual art-work; if it in any sense failed, it would only reflect badly on me as the artist and no one else would suffer. As this work was reliant on all of us, there was quite a responsibility to Caton and the group. There were also some minor issues with the ‘dynamics’ within the group and although I hadn’t expected there to be issues, there were some obvious differences between us that began to emerge over the few days we were together. Generally, this did not impact on the production over all, but it was interesting to personally reflect on this element later, after the event.
I consider the piece performed, as an example of ‘outsider art’, and Shaun Caton himself refers to it as possibly having prehistoric and ancient influences. He discusses it in terms of having possible connections to a, “parallel world in which reality is distorted…” and states that although the performance is practiced and there is no script, that it “osmotically” works (Caton, S, 2016 / https://vimeo.com/189566768 ).
There are many examples of performance art and performance artists, and Marina Abramovic is a well-known female example who was born in Yugoslavia in 1946.Abramovic’s performance art is very different from Shaun Catons, in that where Caton’s art can imply violence and danger, Abamovic will actually put herself in extremely threatening and dangerous situations. Her Rhythm works in 1974 were an example of this and in Rhythm 0 Abramovic laid out various items on a table and invited the audience to interact with her using the items. Particular items included a functioning gun and a live bullet. In this performance piece, Abamovic ended up having the gun pointed at her head. The Artstory website states that,
In Rhythm 0, the audience divided itself into those who sought to harm Abramović (holding the loaded gun to her head) and those who tried to protect her (wiping away her tears). Artstory, (n.d)
(Available at: http://www.theartstory.org/artist-abramovic-marina-artworks)
(Accessed: 23 March 2017)
Reflecting on the area of performance art, I feel that I gained a great deal by working with Shaun Caton. It was a fairly difficult experience at times, as I wore a hot mask for hours during scriptless rehearsals and also for the shows. But, I was not in danger at any point and my participation was purely as an assistant. I am unsure how I feel about creating performance art myself, although I think it is something I would like to do at some point. The nearest I have come so far to a performance piece has been to walk around Ipswich with a very large painted ball made by myself (see my blog entry: Balls Project: Painted Ball Walk).
