Post Ghost, Part 2
On the opening night we had around 25 people whom we crammed into the space. On reflection it was probably too many as later performances with fewer people in worked best. Again I am still always surprised at how the audience, want to follow direction even though I said little although I used a lot of physical gestures. As I ushered the golden ticket holders through the glass doorway a wall of people met me. I have read somewhere that a group of 8 and under in a meeting situation will express their own feelings or views. However, if the group is larger individuals will tend to go with the crowd. I don’t know what it is but I do feel that the fine art audience is harder to please or get a reaction from. The audience laughed at my dancing and even commented on it while I was moving around. At the end I held my pose and they nervously clapped, paused and then clapped again almost trying to make me move through their actions.
I do find it interesting why people clap or laugh in this situation, which isn’t really funny, and my performance is pretty ordinary. It’s as if the audience are trying to gain some control of the situation and move me along. I was aware of this during the performance and would deliberately hold poses to slow the piece down and not adhere to the crowd. As there were so many people in the room some had already sat on the sofa and I was worried if they would move on my request. They did and I ushered the golden ticket holders to the seats and played the video. The rest of the audience were crammed behind the sofa or had moved to the adjacent wall quite far away from the video. As the video ended and the lights went off the room fell silent and I moved to the ladder. As I positioned myself in the doorway everyone seemed to stay still and not follow my movements, which meant that most people didn’t see me strike the light. The audience may of only heard this action or seen a dim light. As I left the audience in the darkened room they stayed their expecting me to re-enter the space.
I did three more performances later in the week and each one was so different depending on how many people were in the room. Repeating the piece allowed me to add more gestures which were needed at certain points to direct the crowd. I was most happy with an audience of 8, as they were more vocal, trying to speak during the performance. I felt more control over the group and at the end of this particular performance I had to go back and tell them the piece had ended as they just stood still in the room for about 10 minutes. Generally people acknowledged surrendering themselves to my control and feeling a tension of what was going to happen next. The most surprising performance was with only two people, one particular person who was British/Chinese had his hands up against the wall as if I was going to search him. He tried to talk to me a lot throughout the performance but I just cut him off by not speaking. During the dance it was very intense as I really pointed and moved close to them. The audience member commented that he thought I was a bit like witch trying to cast a spell on him. Other comments were;
It was like you were performing a ritual about life and death.
Some people are invited to the disco and others are not, whilst others get to be famous.
I felt included and excluded.
Why didn’t you give me something to hold?
I just wanted to follow you.
People with the golden envelopes had the privilege and we didn’t.
I wanted to know what song you were listening to.
How did you get the same dress that the lady was wearing in the video?
It was beautiful.
