Emergency bed-in tour
I have had the predictable dip, mentally pulling the work apart but no time for procrastination as I need to focus on new work for upcoming events. I was pleased to be asked to put in a proposal for the ‘Bed-in’ project happening at the Bluecoat in Liverpool if you would like to make a proposal follow this link:
www.thebluecoat.org.uk/content/view/276/15/
The project pays homage to John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s week-long bed-in protest. I am particularly interested in people helping me with stuff, as this is what makes me feel most at ‘peace’. As a visual artist I work mostly in isolation and often find it hard to ask for help and can procrastinate over this particular action, which makes the act of asking even worst. For this project I propose to have a list of things I need help with and my aim is to achieve as many as possible in the time frame. I will ask the audience to:
Help me document this
Help me write a blog
Help me use my camera
Help me decide what to have for tea
Help me get lunch
Help me get a drink
Help me with my anxiety
Help me I’m bored
Help me make money
Help me have a ciggy
Help me go to toilette
Help me with my career
*I must stay in bed or be carried to a destination using part of the bed
This Friday Emergency kicks off at the Greenroom in Manchester and I am trying to construct a triangular net for my emergency balloon drop (http://emergencymcr.posterous.com/). I have spent £50 on football netting which I hope will be delivered today and I intend to fold it in half to create a triangular shape. Money is a bit tight at the moment so I hope I wont need more than 150 balloons it’s amazing how expensive good quality balloons are. If you would like to participate in my emergency balloon drop then please come along this Friday to the Greenroom, 54/56 Whitworth Street no later than 5.15pm, the event is free.
On Wednesday night I went to the opening of ‘Association’ exhibition at Castlefield gallery. The artists collective had situated themselves in the gallery space and sent out open invitations to artists to collaborate with them. The exhibition is a developing visual archive of this process. Phil Davenport whom I will be working with had participated in this and it was great to see him at the show. For me it was nice to see more of his work and talk about how we could use it in our tour at the Chinese Arts Centre. He was showing A1 black and white spreadsheets that had written descriptions of extinct birds in contrast to headline set text that flowed between statement and nonsense. We spoke about enlarging the prints so people could actually walk on them making them more interactive and that the text could be used as part of the tour script. We both agreed how difficult it is to communicate our individual experience of China to other people but how we could also play with this on our tour.
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The end of the eventé
I felt happy with how my performance played out including the happy mistakes that happened along the way. I did feel a little nervous however I had rehearsed a number of times, which made me feel more in control of them during the performance. When I entered the room people seemed to watch me but keep their distance hanging to the edges of the space. As I turned around to start it seemed like everyone was so far away from me, although I used this as a way to connect with the audience. I kept asking them to ‘come closer’, ‘closer’ which they followed very cautiously. When I asked for assistance on the stage only one person put their hand up but this just added to the tension of how this partnership was going to play out. Although I had run through the piece I was always aware of the unpredictability of crowd participation. This came up then I asked people to say ‘Guttenta’ as my lovely assistant held up the name card, which the audience didn’t really follow. I saw this as an opportunity to air my disappointment with them and how they were not following my instruction, on repeating the action they responded. This interaction with the audience was a way of lightly laying down the rules of engagement. A particular high in the piece was when I asked people to throw confetti over me at the end of my dance as I lay on the floor. When the time came it felt like an age I was sitting on the floor and then each person slowly approached me, threw confetti over me. It’s as if everything had suddenly gone into slow motion and this section of the performance was out of synch. Throughout the piece there was a regular light rumble of laughter although I could feel the tension in the room. The climax of the show worked really well people were happy to take the party poppers, move closer to me and follow my final instructions. As the party poppers went off and the balloon drop failed we all stood in silence for a few minutes. Eventually I stood up, positioned my cardboard cutout and left.
Back soon photo shoot
On Friday I had a mini photo shoot in my living room to produce an image to go onto my cardboard cut-out. Originally my husband tried to do the photography but it just wasn’t working, luckily though he did arrange for a friend to help me. It was great working with Scott the photographer and I felt more relaxed during the shoot as I trusted his technical expertise. It was quite bazaar having a photo shoot in my living room and I like how in the background you can see power sockets, a speaker and the roll of paper I am standing on. I think I might use one of the original shots as a print for my promotion at the show I could even use it as a large print to exhibit in the future. I ordered my cardboard cut-out online Friday morning and I should receive it on Monday. I had to pay a bit extra for the cut-out to be a whole, flat piece and delivered ASAP I just hope the cardboard structure is as good as the image. My main focus for Monday is to take all my materials through to Liverpool and to test the sound equipment. I am starting to believe more in the work now and to have fun with it. The piece is very tongue and cheek about the idea of event culture and internationalism and I hope the work comes across with a sense of humour.
MA Fine Art show at Liverpool JMU Art & Design Academy, Duckinfield Street, L3 5RD opens on Saturday 18th September. The Liverpool Biennial Touched conference is happening in the same building from 11am til 5pm and our show opens at 5.30pm were I will be doing a performance titled ‘The Eventé’. No invitation required, it will be a fun evening with some interesting work and drink!
Link to book a place at the Touched conference:
https://www.patronbase.com/_LB/Productions
I hope to see you there
Miss Eventé
Mini meltdown eventé
My anxiety has been simmering away all week and finally came to the surface on Sunday evening after a diversion on my way to work, someone being short with me, finally getting home to find out that the so called ‘mobile mic equipment’ I bought off the Internet isn’t so mobile after all. My anxiety is triggered by the pre-performance ritual I go through every time I make a piece of work, the stress of juggling money to pay for materials and technically not really knowing what im doing desperately makes me want a magic fairy to help me. A large Bacardi breezer, twenty Marlboro lights and a little cry later sorted me out. I just sometimes feel very alone and unsure about new work and get frustrated that I don’t know more techy things. I should really be getting some support from the university with my MA piece but they are so unhelpful, which is why I wanted to avoid dealing with them and resolve the work myself. I have booked out space at the studio this week and it was such a relief to move my materials out of the spare room and really have a good look at them in a white space. I felt solace entering the studio and have had a sense of moving the work on which is difficult for me to feel when I am working at home. This is part of my process I need to start the grain of my idea at home to freely experiment but then the work reaches a stage were I have to physically move it to the studio to take it to the next stage. The balloon drop is bigger than I expected so I have made it shorter to make it more in proportion with the length of the display board. This week I need to get my artwork ready for my cardboard cut-out which again worries me as I need to order it on the Internet so who knows what it will look like until it is delivered, fingers crossed.
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