Last Thursday I attended an event at the Baltic 39 as part of ‘The Curves of the Needle’ exhibition. The evening comprised of two performances by students currently completing their MA in Fine Art at Northumbria University. The first was a sound work by James Watts and the second a solo performance piece by Rachel Errington. I left both performances early, not because I may have considered them ‘bad’, as to do so, I believe one has to have a much broader experience of such work (which I do not possess), but because neither held my interest. In the past I have performed with bands and as a storyteller, so I do have an understanding of performance outside the remit of ‘fine art’. However, where I thought there may be a considered link between ‘entertainment’ and ‘fine art’ performance work, I (from a personal perspective) could see or hear none. I suppose I was hoping to be ‘All shook up’ as Mr Presley would have sang, but that was not to be.
As a foot note, I have walked out of gigs, exhibition openings and other events when I have found the ‘entertainment’ not to my liking. However, there always pervades a feeling that this is, ‘not the done thing’ in our ‘Victorian morals’ based society. The Tudor answer would have been bawdy put downs and rotten food elements hurled at the performers. I shall restrain myself from those actions however.
