Notes From New York

we are two thirds the way through the biennial and the critical writing initiative (Writers Hub) in case you had forgotten the name! We hope you have been reading all our blog posts and opinions on the performa blog : here again, also in case youve forgotten, http://07.performa-arts.org/performa_live.phpand on interface.

we are still building on activity and aims outlined int he worksop: writing about live art and performance for immediate online publiocation (ie blog) with the aim of better serving performance work by creating a more in depth critical analysis of new performance – thus filling the huge gap that is accessible, engaging, yet critically valid writing on this fascinating genre. most peoples individual aims for the workshop were also related closely to our aims for ourselves and the critical writing initiative itself: without exeption people wanted to write better about performance-both for the benefit of performance, future historians, performa 07 and for their own skill as writers. speed was also a key factor-everyone wants to get faster at writing and the the blog activity to date, the practical exercises and feedback sessions all seem to be really helping with reducing the amount of time it takes to write strong texts. one of the aims of the workshop, programme and blogging about perfoma was also to gain better knowledge about the work seen. and many people cited dance as something they wsanted to know more about, write on and therefore create a better groiunding of knowledge in terms of how it fits into visual art performance.

it fits really well, then, that dance is something that performa have concentrated on for this biennial, defne (curator for performa) said that programming dance into performa had been really interesting and exciting, but also very revealing about the kinds of traditional activity, classifications and skill aspects that come up with trying to cross-programme between dance, visual art and performance. according to what defne, said it seems that dance is the last bastion of the art world to hold out against being blurred into visual art or performance and resistence was found, not only in terms of programming dance ionto performa atall, but also from artists and audience members too. its quite fitting then that the performa programme 'dance after choreography' truly does take a slightly renegade, punkish approach to dance, and explodes the genre from within. it blurrs boundaries and goes global with various different traditions of dance that have been indebted to visual and fine art : judson, rainner, bell.

this revisiting dance and brining it back to visual art or live art roots is really lioberating and fascinating stuff; also really confidence building in terms of new audiences who now (myself included) feel entitled, confident and eager to not only see 'contemporary dance' but to critique it. Jerome Bell's 'Pichet Klunchen and Myself' at Dance Theatre Workshop last night, was my first foray into that world of 'contemporary dance', 'post dance , or what performa are calling 'Dance After Choreography'…more to come soon- in my Dance Review!!

in between all the joyous dancing on classical ballet's grave i have had my haircut by a ten year old as part of a performance-photo here. now my (bad) hair cut is actually – literally- a peice of live art. and stands testiment to the radical peice of work out of which it came 'Haircuts by children by Darren O'Donnell. check out my review on the performa blog, writing from live art website or interface for more gory details, suffice to say that before the performance i actually had shoulder length curly hair-and now i dont!!!!

speak soon.

RLxx

An Impromptu Performance

As I was getting the subway back from the screening of Daria Martin’s film at the Tribecca Grand Hotel tonight, I saw an impromptu performance on the train. Two men got on at East Braodway, one stop from Brooklyn. I didn’t notice either of them until the one at the other end of the carriage started playing the cello. Then I started to look at the man sitting in front of me – he was sideways on so I could gaze at his profile without being too obvious. He was somewhere between forty and fifty years old and homeless. Just like everything else in New York, he could have been cast and styled by a film crew. He wore a plaid shirt, heavy trousers and boots with no socks on. His feet were tapping away in time to the music.

That’s when I realised that the two men were a double act. The guy on the cello sat at one end of the train, while his partner sat at the other, and when the cellist had finished playing they would both ask the other passengers for a donation.

By this time we had made a stop in York Station, and carried on again. Pretty impressive for a couple of homeless buskers, I thought. Not only have they managed to find a cello, but they’re also really treating us to a proper performance. OK, so it had none of the virtuosity of Zeena Parkins, the experimental musician who had performed on the electric harp back in the Tribeca Hotel. But inbetween the clattering of the subway train and the rasp of the driver’s anouncements, I could tell that that cellist could really play. I looked round at my fellow passengers to see if anyone else was having the same thoughts. A woman who was up near the musician had taken out her purse, so I surreptitiously fumbled in my handbag too, praying that I could remember where I’d stashed all those $1 notes and not pull out a $20 by mistake.

We pulled into the next station, and I saw the homeless man by me begin to stand up, so I closed my hand over the note ready to give it to him. He turned round and got off the train. The cellist was at the other end of the carriage, cap in hand, receiving fistfulls of change from a grateful audience. The homeless man strode purposefully towards the exit.

I realised suddenly that they were not a double act at all. The cellist was just a cellist (and now, as he came closer, I could see he was actually quite smartly dressed), and the homeless man was just another one of us riding the subway, with somewhere to go. I had witnessed an impromptu performance, but my preconceptions had transformed it into something else entirely. The cellist walked towards me and got off at the doors in front of my seat. Embarrased by the force of my own preconceptions, and shaken by the realisation that this man wasn’t homeless, I kept my hand in my pocket and never gave him any money.

Mary

When is it ok to leave a durational performance?

When is it ok to leave a durational performance? When your legs go numb? When your drink is finished? Or perhaps when you see the curator of the event of which the performance is part, gather her bags and head to the door?

I braved over an hour and a half of Tony Conrad’s ‘Window Enactment’ at Greene Naftali Gallery last night, which means I stayed long past any of those criteria had been met. Sniffling into my tissues on the floor of the gallery, it was only when I saw the time that I realised I had spent most of my viewing minutes daydreaming about cats. Absorbing, Tony Conrad was not.

Perhaps my problem last night was more to do with Conrad’s work than anything else (I’ve reviewed it at www.writingfromliveart.co.uk ). But the question of how long to stay in a durational performance is one I’ve come across before. In an object-based show, a few minutes looking at each painting or sculpture will let you know if you want to move on, or if it deserves more attention. At the theatre, your time is packaged up neatly into watching and socialising between acts, and a lot of Live Art or performance follows a timed structure. But when your gallery handout gives just a start time, and especially if you are unfamiliar with the artist’s work, it can be agonising to decide whether to leave and if you should risk missing out later on.

I felt a similar audience-anxiety watching Marie Cool and Fabio Balducci at the National Review of Live Art in February this year. The awkwardness of coming and going was exacerbated by the fact that the artists were in a special room with a kind of sound-proofing air lock between it and the corridor outside. As a result, the work was buffetted from the hectic mayhem of the Tramway venue, but it also meant that the quiet performance space was rudely interrupted by any audience member who started shuffling her shoes, grabbing her bag and making for the door. Luckily, in February my anxiety was fleeting. I enjoyed the work, and the longer I stayed the more it absorbed me. I left when I felt pleasingly full– the feeling you get from that last mouthful of food that sates your hunger.

But the lack of beginning and end was obviously troubling for some people, and it became troubling for me last night. The problem comes down to how much agency and control you, the viewer, feel you need. One of the first reactions to unclear definitions is anger (see our posts about the queue for Vezzoli’s performance, below!) – how dare the artist waste my time? I’m not here to be manipulated! Except of course that’s exactly what you want the artist to do – to invade your life, your headspace, your normality, and show you something different or interesting.

In which case – who’s responsibility is it to set the boundaries? Should we, as viewers, submit to the mercy of the artist for an undisposed period of time? Should we surrender to an artistic authority beyond our quotidian minds, or should we expect the artists to work for our attention and justify their right to occupy our thoughts? More importantly – should we ever admit that we have been thinking of cats instead of ruminating on the multi-layered possibilities of a ‘special live performance’? Answers on a postcard please.

Mary Paterson

Just posting the note i wrote about blogging, its personal, very general, do post a comment if you disagree with it, its what we handed out to the wokrshop participants as an introduction to the blogosphere, so pitched very much at a beginner.

RLxx

Blogging : An Ideal Recipe by Rachel Lois Clapham

Why blog?

Much of today’s art criticism has devolved away from a removed position of judgement to a more embodied critique. This is (very basically) critical writing where the author (and reader) is necessarily situated in the personal; their body, their opinions/subjectivity and this position is considered relevant and critical. In addition, people nowadays often put as much stock in what their neighbours think of a piece of art as they do in what a professional thinks. Both these factors explain why and how blogging is such a vital, popular and growing phenomenon; its form, design and purpose are all often without spin and are personal i.e. a blogger, whatever they blog about, is telling you what they think.

Your blogging voice

Bloggers need to stay true to the blogger ethos of ‘say it like it is’ and giving their opinion freely whilst maintaining levels of professionalism and being mindful of any important relationships such as funder, artist or friend. The personal touch doesn’t mean a blog is not of professional standards or interest to academics, artists or commissioning organisations. Many individuals and organisations have a vested interest in blogging and many blogs are professional, both in financial terms and content. A growing number of professionals and organisations take blogging very seriously as a genre and pay bloggers to report on much more than just the facts.

Addressing the reader

Due to the blog’s informal origins, blog readers won’t necessarily be expecting large amounts of dense, specifically academic or theoretical language or text in a blog. This kind of content certainly does appear on specialist blogs, and will certainly be beneficial to many visitors to the PERFORMA 07 Live blog, but be mindful that the Performa blog has a potentially wide and varied readership and the content of the work seen may well be unfamiliar, unusual or difficult to many who are not familiar with live forms of art or new media. Any specific content or language will need to be carefully introduced, clearly referenced and explained for the benefit of the reader.

A Good Blog
There is no point writing about a piece of work if you only have bad things to say about the work. Also, you need to bear in mind that Performa is trying to foster a community that will inform artists, future historians but also encourage more people to see and learn about performance art and new media so plainly negative reviews won’t be published. Instead we want critical writing that includes, and works within, the PERFORMA 07 Live blog guidelines whilst maintaining its voice and criticality. A certain level of questioning or negativity is ok as long as you are generous (to the artist, to the work, to your reader), also constructive and balanced in your opinion. A good tip to gage whether or not you think you are being balanced regarding your negative opinion is to ask yourself ‘Would I feel happy as author of this writing if I met the artist or curator for dinner?‘ If the answer is no, it’s perhaps time to re-phrase or put more into the text to explain yourself. Thanks to Joshua Sofaer for that tip, which he told to me and has saved me numerous upset stomachs…

You will distinguish your blog from the majority of vicious, bad or ‘nasty’ blogs (i.e. blogs that are full of typos, unstructured, ill-thought-out or overly negative and viscous) by following the PERFORMA 07 Live blog guidelines, doing thorough copy editing and ensuring the facts (credits, copyright, names, dates, times) are all included and cross referenced. Also make sure you include any relevant links to the artists work.

Happy Blogging!

Rachel Loisxx

mary has been really sick and drinking lots of tea but today seems to be recovered. yesterday we had the workshop 'Writers Hub' so she took lots of drugs and it went well. There were 11 people in total, including us. there are about 5 more people signed on to the writing live programme , but they had work commitments and other things so couldnt make it on tuesday. they will be coming to the peer review sessions though.

the workshoip itself, the handouts and writing exercises were pitched at the right level, thankfully, with many in the group either never having blogged about art, written any art criticism/critical writing, or know much about performance, so feedback and dialogue on the day were good and we have given everyone -whether they be students, performa staff, or professional writers/academics lots of templates and thoughts to go away with to help them blog better about Performa.

There was good discussion on the day too, which i am glad of, sparked by the fact that some of the writers on the programme may have been schooled in what i would call conservative art criticism of the old school, or the Academy. This sort of writing puts itself in service to the work, is well researched and critical, but often doesnt come from the personal, and as such it would never use familiar tones or the highly personal mode of 'I' in its writing. We will see how these voices come through on the blog as opposed to those who are more overtly embodied in their criticism. maybe the two forms of writing will go well together, there is no doubt that there will be readers who appreciate both style of wriitng.

an important part of the day was getting from everyone why they were there at Writers Hub workshop and what they wanted out of the writing programme over the course of Performa biennial. everybody's personal aims make an interesting read and we will be all set to try and support the writers in part way reaching those aims as the weeks progress.

the blog posts are already coming in thick and fast-often too many for rebecca alone to edit as many of the writers are inexperienced and need more condensed editorial advice or changes made to their texts. im sure this editorial challenge will sort itself out as people write more and see others texts and accessible styles of writing for the blog, we also plan to introduce writing surgeries where some writers will be invited (or they can drop in of their own accord) to go over their texts in detail and in person, then we can literally 'incise' the more problemaic bits of any writing whilst guiding them through general points.

the writers raised lots of questions re: what knowledge should you bring to the work, how much research should you do prior to writing? how to write a work that you know nothing about or dont understand. also , there were more prescient or specific points about what a blog was, what kind of blogging we were doing, what voices to use, also what were the challenges ofblogging about performance. i was glad i wrote a note about general points about blogging to give to everyone, but this is just a start and by no means answers the questions that were raised. we will no doubt continue these questions at our next peer review session 9th november. this session is at freemans restaraunt where the writers will be eating 'bring me the head of …' by by Serkan Özkaya which is a Performa Commissioned sculpture and a peice of food!!! yum. Author and Performa Director, Roselee Goldberg, will also be attending the next session, and she can give her feedback on the writing so far, and also give her views on writing about performance in general.

I will extrapolate from my copius notes from the workshop day at a later stage. until then-im off to a halloween parade. ive seen some pretty scary and wild costumes so far-and they were only on people in the lcoal supermarket doing their shopping! in addition, between people dressed as farm hand hicks, fat policemen and homeless people (particularly distasteful i thought) im not atall sure, as a brit, if some people are in costume or not!! better smile anyway, just to be on the safe side

til then

RLxxx