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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One-woman show
I have been doing some research on the Internet in-between shifts at work looking at one-woman shows. I found many female comedians on You Tube, however I found the most funny performances by drag acts particularly Anna Conda who like most drag artists mime to songs and dance around a bit, which is exactly what I’m looking for! I particularly liked this piece a spin on the famous Tiffany track, I think were alone now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LURFNo94daE
I love the simple stage set design with the focus on the performer. Why is it so funny watching men dressed as women prancing around like children? I know why, because its ‘funny’ something you rarely see in the art world. To get some feedback on my first draft for my performance ‘The Event’ I have sent a rough script to some of my friends to see what they think and get references to other peoples work. One of my friends suggested looking at Miss World speeches which again I had a right laugh watching videos on You Tube of these beautiful women talking absolute nonsense all in aid of saving the children and ending world poverty. Reading through my script I have been developing my foreign accent, which has improved since watching videos of Zsa Zsa Gabor and Ivana Trump, I think I will call myself Miss Eventé. I booked a tour for next week at the Cornerhouse with Amy Rudolph around the Unrealised Potential exhibition, which will be ideal to research her hosting skills please follow link to show info:
http://www.cornerhouse.org/events/info.aspx?ID=1752&page=0
I have visited the show already so I am interested to compare and contrast the experience of being led through the space by someone else. My initial feelings of the exhibition was that it looked well designed although it felt like a series of deconstructed parts and that something was missing. Maybe this was because a different artist made the proposal for the exhibition on level 2. I do think that knowing before I entered the space that tours were planned to happen on this particular floor influenced my experience of it.
If anyone has any suggestions of artists to look at, and tips on hostessing skills please let me know, thanks again Andrew for your comments.
Event Culture
My intervention work is a reaction to large-scale organised events, which this country is saturated with particularly art events such as the Liverpool Biennial, Manchester International Art Festival, and Frieze Art Fair. Such events predominantly show established high profile International contemporary artists who make these stages seem unattainable to new and emerging artists like myself. It seems that in this day and age we are only allowed or controlled to engage with each other in public by attending official cultural events. I am tired of seeing the same art and artists doing the circuit and see the potential of down sizing, which can create an intimate experience between the artist and the viewer. In my work I want to create my own mini event which pushes back to the organized art ‘spectacle’ by showing myself as un-spectacular.
The phenomenon of Tate Modern with its record-breaking visitor numbers could be criticised for creating a shopping mall like viewing experience of art. This way of funneling people through the space could be considered similar to an airport experience fills me with anxiety and concerns me whether people are capable of engaging with anything for longer than two minutes. The Tate Modern aim is to give the audience an ‘experience’ when they visit. However, are they merely just creating shallow encounters or a real opportunity for people to connect on a deeper level with art? The experience is a fleeting moment and once passed can feel like it never actually happened. As an artist this is an ongoing challenge and motivation for my work.
At the 2010 International Arts Festival in Manchester, Marina Abramovic curated a group show of Live Art and led a group initiation before entering the space at the Whitworth gallery. I attended this event and felt the most effective part of the performance was the group initiation which lasted around an hour, this involved the audience wearing white lab coats then sitting with around 200 people and being taken through a series of actions. For example we all had to drink a small cup of water in 7 minutes, another action required sitting in front of the person next to you and staring into their eyes for 5 minutes. The aim of the performance was to slow people down, bring them into the moment, make the audience more aware of their surroundings.
