Ellen Louise Pearson – ________-Safe House-_________

A Reflection of Invisible Rituals/Life Beyond the Window

Ellen Louise Pearson / May 12, 2013May 13, 2013 / Documentation, Performance process, Rooms, West Parade

Final performances

My Role

For the first two nights of our performance my role was to be a curator of my installation pieces as well as a guide telling the audience members which room to go to next. However, as I was on the landing at all times it meant that people didn’t feel free to explore the space or express opinions. This was especially true for the toilet room as even though I asked each audience member if they wanted to explore the room, only two did so.

As an experiment, on the third night I agreed with the performers in the other rooms that I would hide, mostly in the CCTV room, and observe how the audience reacted to the installations without being watched or feeling coerced. This had very encouraging results, with verbal responses to both installations replacing the silences of the first nights, and every audience member looking around the toilet installation.

A Reflection of Invisible Rituals – Video Performance/Installation

My final video consisted of six different rituals, of around two minutes each, played on an infinite loop. The order of the videos came from looking at everyday lives and the order in which people tend to do these actions; cleansing (wiping my face), drying (talcum powder), grooming (brushing hair), moisturising, daydreaming (looking into the camera) and writing in a diary (writing on a mirror). I also put a different twist on all of the videos in order to make the audience think about those actions in a different light.

Above: My final performance video. ((Louise Peason (2013) Louise’s Site Specific performance video. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAwnDoNSu-A (Accessed: 12th May 2013). ))

For the cleansing, grooming and moisturising videos I tried to slow down or extend the usual way in which we would perform these actions, turning something we would do in under ten seconds, into an action extending to two minutes. This was similar for the drying, day-dreaming and writing in a diary, but as an alternative to extending the length of the ritual I altered the way in which I performed them. Instead of using talcum powder in the usual way, I poured it slowly over my feet until I was eventually covered with powder and stepped out of the frame, leaving a shadow where my feet had been. Inspired by Marina Abramovic and the story of Orpheus and Eurydice my daydreaming video comprised of me staring into the camera, as opposed to a spot in the distance, and ‘snapping out’ of the day-dream when I suddenly turn to look behind me.

For my final video I played with the idea of mirror writing (a style of writing that is also sometimes used for secret messages, like in a diary) as when reflected the backwards writing will actually read forwards. This was an interesting video to observe reactions to, to see if audience members figured out that the writing was actually created backwards.

For my set up of this installation I had intended the mirror to face the staircase so that the audience could see themselves as they came up the stairs, but due to health and safety restrictions, as well as the mirror not being free-standing, I decided to hang the mirror on the wall at a 90° angle to the stairs. This did mean that it was safer for my video monitor and stand as they were further into the landing, rather than being close to the top of the stairs. To the wall with the mirror on it I added a short description of the installation and a backwards clock to add to the theme of reflections and altering the perspective of time in which we perform the rituals. In addition it had a practical purpose, giving me a clock to keep track of where the audience members should be at particular times.

Top Left: The video monitor from the top of the stairs. ((Pearson, Louise (2013) Video Installation [Photograph]. ))
Top Right: The audience’s view of the monitor through the mirror. ((Pearson, Louise (2013) Audience’s perspective [Photograph]. ))
Below: My installation description. ((Pearson, Louise (2013) Video description [Photograph]. ))

Reactions to my video varied, with many responses that I hadn’t anticipated. An interesting comment was that my video might be a live stream of me in a different house and if they asked a question then I might respond. There were also some responses to my mirror writing with people exclaiming “she’s writing backwards on a mirror, in a mirror!” which was very satisfying as I was relieved that people understood the complexity of that clip. The most satisfying reaction to my video was in response to the hair brushing clip, when one audience member likened it to the horror film The Ring which used similar videos of everyday activities just before the girl crawls out of the screen. The audience member feigned fear that he would die in seven days or that I would come out the screen to attack them. This reaction was something I had not considered, having never watched The Ring. It was fascinating to see such a diverse range of reactions to my video, each observer’s own imagination or experiences shaping their interpretations.

If I was to ever re-film this installation or perform in the house again I would create a longer video, either by adding new rituals to it, or extending the existing videos as (due to the ten minute performances in each room) when audience members left the different rooms they always ended up seeing the same clips. I would also find a more effective way of covering my monitor stand as the sheet which covered it didn’t give a very neat finish, although it did serve the purpose effectively of hiding the DVD player and all the wiring. If I could, I would still like to try having the mirror facing the stairs rather than at an angle so that the full effect can be experienced of discovering the installation immediately when coming up the stairs. This would be useful as some audience members did not understand that the video is to be viewed through the mirror and instead stood to the side of the monitor observing it from the front. In terms of the video content I would try to create a higher quality video, experimenting even further with the speed and style of my movements as well as controlling the brightness and focus of my videos which automatically refocused at inconvenient points. I would want to re-film my talcum powder clip as the colour of the carpet was quite distracting and did not match the neutral tones of the other clips.

Life Beyond the Window – Installation

My final installation piece comprised of 50 individual sheets of observations which were photocopied several times. The reason I chose to do this rather than write an entire room’s worth of observations is the amount of time it takes to write a single sheet of A4 paper; the 50 sheets took an exceptionally long time to write by hand but when stuck up covered less than half of the narrow wall. However, the result of sticking up the large number of sheets to the walls, ceiling and both sides of the door was an impressive installation, and unless closely inspected, it was hard to tell that each page was not individual.

Left: Low angle of installation ((Pearson, Louise (2013) Low angle of the Installation [Photograph]. ))
Right: Toilet wall ((Pearson,Louise (2013) Toilet wall [Photograph]. ))

I attached a description of the installation to the door, and set the engaged/vacant sign to ‘engage’ as a subtle message to the audience to engage with the installation rather than become introverted, as is usually the case when one uses this room. I also left the light on and the door wide open so that it could be seen by people coming up the stairs.

Above: My toilet installation description ((Pearson, Louise (2013) Installation description [Photograph]. ))
Below: Engage sign ((Pearson, Louise (2013) Engage [Photograph]. ))

During the performance it was difficult to get any audible responses to this installation but over the CCTV cameras it could be seen that the toilet installation was more interesting to some audience members than the video performance; when I wasn’t on the landing the toilet room was actually the first place most audience members were drawn to. My fellow performers complimented me on how impressive the installation was and they were appreciative of having something interesting to read when they had to use the facilities.

Above: A panorama of my toilet installation. ((Louise Pearson (2013) Louise’s Installation Panorama. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx2rW0kDhYE (Accessed: 12^th May 2013). ))

If I was to do this again I would dedicate much more time to generating the observations so that the room could be filled with unique pages, thus making it even more impressive. I would also use different sizes, types and colours of paper in order to make the final project look more visually appealing. The variation in size would create an easier way of ‘wall-papering’ the odd shapes and pipes on the walls.

Observations from a Landing

Ellen Louise Pearson / May 12, 2013May 13, 2013 / Documentation, Home, Performance process, Research, Rooms, West Parade

Performance Process

First impressions

The house where we are doing our Site Specific performance and the home I grew up in have certain similarities so it was slightly unnerving walking up to the landing for the first time, as it felt strangely familiar, especially the layout of the upstairs rooms which sparked a lot of childhood memories.

Above: My landing observations. ((Pearson, Louise (2013) Landing Observations [Photograph]. ))

I spent some time exploring the landing in detail and recorded my observations from different positions in the room, intrigued to see how the changing perspectives influenced my perception of the space. I also quickly sketched the layout of the landing and added in ideas for performances that could be staged within this small area.

The thing that struck me most is that the landing is almost a non-place (it is not a room per se as it has no function other than as a place to pass through) which makes it feel terribly lonely. I toyed with idea of somehow making the landing into a real room, perhaps a room in miniature or like a small flat with bits from every room. This would give a purpose to the previously dead space whilst inverting the idea of what a landing should be.

The landing is also a gateway area for anyone walking up the stairs yet is not a place where people linger for long. Another idea could be to have a gatekeeper/guide at the top of the stairs who would direct the audience around the upstairs rooms or even give them a choice in where they want to go, by giving clues as to what is behind the closed doors.

I thought about using the nails in the walls to hang pictures or photographs to make the room more homely; these might be of our own or staged families. It would also be interesting to hang a mirror within a picture frame to encourage the audience to reflect on their own homes and families.

Above : Landing Panorama ((Pearson, Louise (2013) Landing Panorama [Photograph]. ))

The Landing

Leading on from my idea of turning the landing into a room, I decided to try decorating the space as if it was a living room to see firstly if there was enough space for any seating and secondly, to see whether it inspired any performance ideas. Luckily there was just enough room to create a make-shift sofa and chair though it did make moving around the landing awkward for the other performers.

I began to devise a narrative about the history of the house, as well as the etymology of words such as landing and stairs. I then considered the daily rituals which we perform without realising their significance. I was inspired by Edwin Heathcote’s The Meaning of Home (2012) where he talks about mini-rituals such as ‘opening the [front]door… welcomed in the sun and light of the new day’ ((Heathcote, E (2012) The Meaning of Home. London: Frances Lincoln. )) which led me to think about the daily rituals we all carry out, such as brushing our hair, which I know many people perform in the same order every day without thinking, and therefore ritualising it.

However, these ideas were short-lived as it felt wrong to try and disguise the landing as another room rather than explore its own features. I decided to scrap the living room idea, but I did still want to incorporate the rituals somehow.

Left: Chair ((Pearson, Louise (2013) Chair [Photograph]. ))
Right: Sofa side view ((Pearson, Louise (2013) Sofa side [Photograph]. ))

As a contrast to my first idea, I next removed all the extraneous objects from the landing and focused on the movement that occurs within the space and began creating a new performance concept. My plan was to get the audience to play a game, where they had to navigate around the landing only using parts of the floor which would never usually be stood on. In practise it was very difficult to explain the rules and aim of the game, especially in view of the small size of the landing, which would be very easy to cross.

I then began looking at ways of performing which required minimal movement; I played with the idea of rituals again, and sat in front of a mirror on the landing brushing my hair to see if it gave me any ideas. Performing different daily rituals came to mind, but unless I explained them, it didn’t make sense for me to be performing them on the landing; surely rituals such as brushing my hair would be done in the bedroom? So I turned to video art to see if that could produce the effect I wanted while not appearing out of place.

For the video I filmed half hour clips of myself performing a variety of ritualised activities, which I then played on my laptop but which could only be viewed through a mirror placed opposite it. The idea was that the video would become an installation piece set out so that when an audience member walks up the stairs they would first see themselves in the mirror and would then need to position themselves directly behind a monitor (which is playing my video) in order to see it through the mirror. I was inspired to display my video in this way by the film 33 x Around the Sun which is ‘a dreamlike journey into a world where nothing is quite what it seems’. ((Flamin (2005) 33 x Around the Sun, Available at: http://flamin.filmlondon.org.uk/showcase/assets/showcase_items/33_x_around_the_sun (Accessed: 9th May 2013). )) In one scene in a cafe, the beginning is filmed through a mirror, which is eventually revealed during the scene. The idea of not knowing whether a film clip is shot through a mirror or not fascinates me as it creates an Alice Through the Looking Glass perspective once it is revealed.

Above: An image from 33 x Around the Sun ((Hardwick, John (2005) Image of 33 x Around the Sun [Online]. Available at: http://flamin.filmlondon.org.uk/showcase/assets/showcase_items/33_x_around_the_sun (Accessed: 9th May 2013). ))

I was also inspired by Marina Abramovic’s The Artist is Present in which she sits unmoving across from a chair in which audience members may sit and share a moment of contemplation with her.

Above: Background information on Abramovic’s performance at MoMA. ((MoMAvideos (2010) Marina Abramović: Live at MoMA. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GD5PBK_Bto (Accessed: 9^th May 2013). ))

This inspired one clip of my rituals video in which I watch the camera for an extended period of time as a representation of daydreaming, where our eyes are often fixed on a distant point. Though the clips themselves worked well as an endurance piece of film, I believed they were too long for audience members to appreciate the aim of my piece. Consequently I cut my clips first down to 10 minute segments, then finally to a 12 minute complete video with 6 clips of around 2 minutes each, playing on an infinite loop. This meant that audience members who would only be on the landing for a short amount of time would be able to see at least two or three clips.

Stairs

My original idea for the stairs was to number each stair, and to have a fact on the wall which related to that number either to do with the house, the street or about our group of performers. Though this was interesting for some numbers, many of them were uninteresting facts merely acting as fillers.

I then moved on to researching stories involving stairs such as the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and the Biblical stories of Jacob’s Ladder and when the Queen of Sheba visits Solomon. Though none of these ideas led to any final performance ideas, I did use some of their aspects in my video performance. In both the Biblical and Ancient Greek stories there is a lyre or harp involved which led to the inspiration of my clay model. I also took influence from the ‘don’t look back’ aspect of Orpheus’ story as well as the Biblical tale of Lott’s wife, both of whom ignored the warnings given and turned to look back. In the clip inspired by Marina Abramovic, at the end I turn to see what’s behind me as a subtle indicator to my research into these ancient stories.

Toilet Room

My original idea for the toilet room was to create an anonymous open canvas upon which audience members could leave their messages and memories of home. I also prepared a list of questions that I would ask the other performers, about their ideas or memories of home. Though this did work well as an idea, it would have been time-consuming for all of the performers so I decided to focus on creating an installation through all of my own work.

After reading Georges Perec’s An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris I was inspired to do my own observations of everyday life, which I would then stick up all over the toilet room walls. In this way I would bring the outside world into the private area of the toilet room, subverting the inward-thinking nature of the room.

On the Street Where We Live

Ellen Louise Pearson / May 12, 2013May 13, 2013 / Home, Research, West Parade

House Research

The Street
The setting for our Site Specific performance is a house on West Parade, Lincoln, to the west of the city centre. It was built in 1932, the date proudly displayed on the house itself, but beyond that the history of the house is a mystery.

A trip to the Lincolnshire Archives reveals that as far back as 1842 West Parade was actually called Clay Lane, after the clay pits which were used during that era. Though the house does not lie on top of any of these pits, it may be worth experimenting with clay as part of the performance process as it relates to the street and the pits played an important part in the building boom of the 1870s and 1880s producing bricks and tiles which were used all over the country.

It transpires that the current job centre on the corner of West Parade and Orchard Street used to be the site of St Martin’s Church, which was built in c.1873. The vicars of the church lived in the vicarage which is still situated near to the house we are using, so a religious theme could be a performance route.

Above: St Martin’s Church ((Parkinson, Wendy (unknown) Lincoln St Martin New (original: Lincolnshire Echo) [Online] Available at: http://www.wparkinson.com/Churches/City%20photos/Lincoln%20St%20Martin%20new.jpg (Accessed: 25^th February 2013). ))

Another near neighbour, around the time our house was built, was the Oxford House Private School, Preparatory for Girls and Boys and run by Principal Miss Brunner. It may be worth researching the school as it was open from at least 1932-46. The idea of a private school within a house could be an interesting concept to explore.

In the 1946 Lincoln Directories there is finally a reference to our house. In the house next door there is a James Alfred Wright and in our house there is an Alfred Ernest Revill aged 66.

Alfred Ernest Revill

Above: 1911 Census record for Alfred Revill ((‘Alfred Revill’ (1911) Census return for Motherby Lane, Lincoln, Lincolnshire. Public Record Office: PRO RG14/19744, folio 51, p.3. Find My Past (2013) Available at: http://www.findmypast.co.uk (Accessed: 21^st February 2013). ))

Looking at the censuses I managed to discover some information on Alfred Revill. He was born in 1880 in South Collingham, Nottinghamshire. His parents were Matthew (age 35), a Groom, and Julia (age 25) and he was the second child of the six they had. Surprisingly, all his siblings lived into adulthood.

Alfred’s parents were born in Lincoln, although in the 1881 Census, they were living in Binbrook, Louth. ((‘Alfred Revill’ (1881) Census return for Binbrook, Louth, Lincolnshire. Public Record Office: PRO RG11/3264, folio 35, p.16. Find My Past (2013) Available at: http://www.findmypast.co.uk (Accessed: 21^st February 2013). )) By 1891 they had moved back to Lincoln and were registered at 8 Winnowsty Buildings, Winnowsty Lane. By this time (when Alfred was 11) all of his brothers and sisters had been born:

John J. Revill, born 1878
Alfred E. Revill, born 1880
Blanche M. Revill, born 1881
Elizabeth A. Revill, born 1883
Walter N. Revill, born 1886
George H. Revill, born 1888

The eldest son John, aged 13, was working as an Errand Boy while Alfred and the rest of his siblings (apart from toddler George) were listed as ‘Scholar’. ((‘Alfred Revill’ (1891) Census return for Winnowsty Lane, Lincoln, Lincolnshire. Public Record Office: PRO RG12/2594, folio 24, p.41. Find My Past (2013) Available at: http://www.findmypast.co.uk (Accessed: 21^st February 2013). ))

In the 1901 census, when Alfred was 21, all of his siblings, apart from Elizabeth, still appear to be living at home. They were now living at 6 Motherby Lane, which is just around the corner from West Parade. ((‘Alfred Revill’ (1901) Census return for Motherby Lane, Lincoln, Lincolnshire. Public Record Office: PRO RG13/3062, folio 152, p.44. Find My Past (2013) Available at: http://www.findmypast.co.uk (Accessed: 21^st February 2013). )) John is now a Journeyman Blacksmith, Alfred is a Coachman, Blanche is a General Servant, Walter is a Joiner’s Apprentice and George, now 13, is a Chemists Errand Boy. Elizabeth is listed working as a Domestic Servant in a house on West Parade.

Above: A Victorian Coachman ((Nanton, A.M. (1919) C. M. Wright, the Coachman, at kitchen entrance with Victoria and pair [Online]. Available at: http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/features/timelinks/imageref/ref0293.shtml (Accessed: 20th March 2013). ))

Ten years later, in the most recent census of 1911, only two of the children were still registered in the house with their parents. Alfred, now 31, was a Domestic Coachman like his father and George, now 23, was a Clerk in a Draft Office. Interestingly, there is another addition to this census; an 8 year old boy named Harold Starr who is registered as grandchild to Matthew Revill (Alfred’s father). ((‘Alfred Revill’ (1911) Census return for Motherby Lane, Lincoln, Lincolnshire. Public Record Office: PRO RG14/19744, folio 51, p.3. Find My Past (2013) Available at: http://www.findmypast.co.uk (Accessed: 21^st February 2013). )) After some more searching it transpires that Blanche was Harold’s mother, registered with her husband Thomas Starr (Iron Planer) and their younger son Robert at 22 Hungate, Lincoln. So why was their eldest son staying with his grandparents and uncles instead of at home? ((‘Blanche Starr’ (1911) Census return for Hungate, Lincoln, Lincolnshire. Public Record Office: PRO RG14/19744. Find My Past (2013) Available at: http://www.findmypast.co.uk (Accessed: 21^st February 2013). ))

The final piece of information I have found so far is a Marriage Certificate. In late 1925, in Lincoln, there was a marriage between Alfred E Revill and Mabel Atkinson. At the time Alfred would have been 45. ((‘Alfred E Revill’ (1925) Certified copy of marriage certificate for Alfred E Revill and Mabel Atkinson. Find My Past (2013) Available at: http://www.findmypast.co.uk (Accessed 21^st February 2013). )) The house was built some seven years after they were married. Whether they were the first occupants remains a mystery. All I can determine is that by 1946 Alfred was living there alone.