BEGIN THE BEGUINE
Given that a few arrangements fell through this week, I still seem to have been pretty busy. I have been, shaping my strategy… Ha! That sounds like a crass corporate slogan.
The task in hand is really for me to get a handle on how to put together this increasing treasure trove of material.
I have begun by defining what it must NOT be; confirming to myself that it mustn’t look like some worthy presentation of local history. Instead, I want to develop a vehicle that somehow denies the hierarchy of linear time. Although it uses the Rink Ballroom as a starting point, it isn’t just about the building, and it’s not just about THE people involved.. it’s about ‘people’ in general – and what it is to be a person – all considered through a very discriminating lens (mine).
“Big canvas” you may well say.. and I would agree. It will get more specific.
Over the period of the project I have defined what I’m trying to do in many different ways for various people. As we all do, I explain the work differently depending upon what I perceive the listeners potential level of understanding, or sympathy with my cause, might be. But of course it’s all just musings on the head of a pin ultimately.. if I could write it down then there would be no need to make the installation at all.
So I found myself yesterday experimenting with a little video projector – projecting some of my footage onto cylinders I made out of paper; re-videoing the result and then laying that footage back over the top of the original footage. What I’m after is a way of saying, visually, that we are watching an illusion of linear time. Like most things, less is often more. My distorted projection ‘echoes’ are interesting but to be handled with caution. I’m not after a surrealistic chaotic soup, just gentle interventions.
Whilst it’s exciting to jump into the more expressive elements, I am also aware that I have a great wodge of material that needs to be logged and then cherry picked. This is no small task, and I can’t give shape to anything without that is done first, so I am officially starting that process NOW.
In my mind, what will make this into a work of ART (as distinct from a multimedia documentary) is that I am allowing myself to decide what constitutes ‘truth’ by more than simply re-ordering it. I was thinking about how to weave myself or others into the plot… or maybe to make a composite ‘everyman’ who could represent ideas I want to explore; ideas that aren’t necessarily obvious in what people have said directly to me.
In fact the manipulation of fact is no stranger to many of the musicians I have come across. Some have changed their names more than once; their stage names becoming their real names eventually. I like that; it allows me to re-invent some of my material. Fabrication in pursuit of truthfulness. Fabrication as a enabler of integrity.
Back on planet earth, a couple of cancelled meetings mean I’m a bit behind and the week has been taken up with various practicals. One of these more enjoyable tasks was picking a number of images that might represent the project. You could loosely describe them as ‘publicity’. With the first show still 8 months away it might seem a long way off but the PR machine needs feeding. Deciding on any one image is an interesting dilemma given the scope of this piece. I have decided on the one posted here. It’s an informal, almost throwaway shot that I didn’t even have in my initial go-to pile but, on re-trawling, it just seemed right. Suitably of ‘the moment’.
Signing the exhibition contract also made me focus on what the final name would be, as ‘Light Fantastic’ was always just a working title. ‘Send three and fourpence’ seems to be in the spirit of the piece… being that it deals with the idea of a message re-interpreted by repetition…
Google it if you’re not familiar with the reference :)
