Tomorrow I will present a live art work in the studio theatre at AUCB that has been developed from an improvised performance at Polymer Culture Factory.
It’s been cut down and reformed and is quite far removed from what happened in the first event. The main focus of the event was tearing paper and this has remained the focus of this event but with so much stripped down will it still work?
Since the beginning of the new academic year I have been running Peer Critiques every Wednesday. I’ve been using these sessions to learn about other people’s work and to discuss why had how I am presenting this work. On one occasion whilst we were discussing the use of sounds for the piece a loud debate broke out. I sat and observed and then one student turned to me a quietly asked about the importance of the ‘party’ atmosphere that the music was intending to create.
It was like someone had opened the window and let fresh air in. What about silence? What about allowing the sound create itself? By adding music at the first event it created an energy. It was completely improvised; I asked Tanel to put on some music and he chose Bille Jean. This was great for the event but at the same time the connotations of this song, this artist added another level to the event.
I expect that the absence of this baseline will have a dramatic effect on the event. The fact that the venue is an art college and that about half the attendees will be people I know and who know about my work will also change it. The studio, professional lighting, HD camera, the planning and the fact that it exists outside of a festival and is in fact a research project will make everything about the experience very different.
What I need to decide is what I want from this experience. Just like the previous experience I am nervous. I have no idea how the attendees will react to the situation. I want to see what happens without time constraints and without random additions. How does the idea and the process stand up by itself? How do people engage? How do I direct and manage the experience?
At the back of my mind I feel that the lack of sound will create tension, which hopefully will be released and transformed into giddiness and excitement and an atmosphere for play. This is the key thing for this activity; a group of people coming together to play this is the artwork, to create a situation where the public have a shared experience of playfulness. Whether they understand that the destruction of rejected materials as part of a process to create whiteness or as Kenya Hara describes it itoshiroshi ‘that extreme form of purity that is ladled out of chaos and which appears to us both potentially and actually’
i’ve done a lot of talking this week already. i feel better about my work. i promised to write my blog but i’ve mainly been writing in my sketchbook and reflecting on tutorials by typing them up and adding notes so i’m all worded out for now.
It’s Monday or Non-day for me.
Last night, as every Sunday night I listened to Ivor Cutler on BBC Radio 4Extra.
Today I watched Marnia Abramovic on Channel Tate and the Gustav Metzer.
I tidied the study room and made curry then slumped in front of Apprentice with a jar of Nutella.
Tomorrow I will cycle to the sea.
And get frames.
word for the day : Covert
Today I played a character in Laura (http://lauraeldret.com/index.htm) Eldrets film Power and Service.
Set on site in Swanage, Dorset the cast was a group of volunteers who had created a character with the theme of power and service.
I came up with my character after a dream I had whilst staying with a friend in London. When I woke up I tried to explain but then resorted to drawing the image I’d dreamt of.
That day I went looking for the costume to match my drawing. I started by looking for the right material. I thought I might make it from scratch, but then whilst browsing the vintage shops on Brick Lane I came across THE dress.
It was more amazing than what I had or could have dreamt of. I tried it on and as I did up the buttons it felt like it was made for my body. I did a deal and handed over the plastic. It was mine!
Today it came together, the dress, the quill tattoo, the gloves, the paper mask and a skull. Slick! It attracted attention – as planned.
Is there a name for this character? Not just yet. She has been formed maybe now she should get out more.
Sally O’Reilly (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_O%27Reilly) will watch the finished film and create a script. Maybe I should write a script for this character I have created. She has been quiet I don’t know if she can speak and her action is limited. Maybe she is present and silent?
Yesterday I was thinking and discussing intellect, emotion and instinct. I was asked where does instinct come from and does it evolve?
I’ve started to do a bit of research into this. I’ve re-checked out Performing the Body, Performing the Text which gives a good background into performance within art history. I’ve also been watching the BBC documentary Born to Survive which attempts to explain where our instincts come from.
I’ve not finished either because most of today I have spent with the 1st Year Fine Art students in a workshop titled Stitch as part of their ‘possibilities and process’ assignment. I asked to be involved because I have no idea about Fine Art training at degree level and I was terribly nosey to find out.
Julia Faltman who was running the course invited me to be part of the workshop because I’d mentioned that my degree was in textiles. This made todays workshop interesting from the point of view of how the idea of using textiles was presented to a group of Fine Art students.
As a textile student the emphasis was on technique. Understanding the history and mechanics of the machines we were using and the various ways to adapt them to our design. First we had to show that we had mastered the tecnique then we could explore applications of it. At the time I fould this difficult I always wanted to push the limits of the process not necessarily with an outcome in mind.
It seemed like todays presentation of stitch in art was much more open to exploration and discovery rather than mastering a craft. each of the students reponded differently. Some were comfortable with basic processes and were confident with getting on and making. Some needed more guidance and inspiration and some had signed up believing it to be Sketch not Stitch and were begrudgingly sewing plain stitch onto calico and waiting for the day to end.
In a way I could sympathise with them. During the Textile Craft degree I began to feel that this wasn’t what I thought I’d signed up to. Everyone else seemed confident and able to produce functional outcomes. I thought about it too much and got confused in the endless strands of possibilities my mind offered. I wanted to make something different. I wanted to ask questions. Often I would make hideous failures that were neither pretty or ugly enough to be desirable to the eye. But still I got through it and I’ve learned a lot about the practicalities of making. Sometimes you have to try even when it is likely that it is over ambitious.
Another thing I came accross today was the book Hand+Made, The performative Impulse of Art and Craft. In it is a quote by Glenn Adamson (V and A) ‘Craft only exists in motion’
Is this why I have been drawn to performance? Is it that craft by it’s nature is performative? It is a process using the body to create…
