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.
