Category: Rooms

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Lauren Bethany Elouise Watson / / Performance process, Research, Rooms

“Installation art actively engaged with the experience of the human perception, which tested its limits and expanded its possibilities” ((Oliveira, Nicolas de, Nicola Oxley and Micheal Petry (2003) Installation Art in the New Millennium, London:Thames & Hudson, Ltd., p. 6.)).

Mixing Installation Art and a live performance. Can they be argued to be intertwined?

Borofoky, Jonathan (2000), ‘Dream Drawings (1971-87)’ in Susan Hiller Dream Machines, London: Hayward Gallery Publishing, p. not paginated. Shankie, John (2000), ‘Go To Sleep (1995)’ in Susan Hiller Dream Machines, London: Hayward Gallery Publishing, p. N.P.

 

Robert Storr states that “the experience they provide is much like wandering onstage and picking up loose pages from a script, overhearing bits of recorded dialogue and trying to figure out what the setting is…and what actions might still be taken” ((Oliveira, Nicolas de, Nicola Oxley and Micheal Petry (2003) Installation Art in the New Millennium,  London:Thames & Hudson, Ltd., pp. 17-18.)). If we create an installation performance, rather than a simple piece of tangible art, we are hoping it will have the same effect; two separate, yet intricately combined performances happening simultaneously, yet only one audience member is directly engaged with one of two performances, creating a sense of anticipation, wondering what will happen next, and with who the performance will engage with.

If our bodies become a piece of installation art work, this would change the dynamic of the performance – rather than simply having the audience members as passive onlookers, we turn them into active voyeurs who have the option to give a ‘physical’ addition to the performance. To frame this within the work of an existing performance artist, Marina Abramović has created this audience-performer interaction, but rather than choosing to limit the audiences’ involvement, and therefore their effect on her, she gave them free reign, something which we are keen to limit. Abramović stated after her performance of Rhythm 0 (1974) she realised that “…the public can kill you. If you give them total freedom, they will become frenzied enough to kill you” ((Abramović in Sean O’Hagan (2010) ‘Interview: Marina Abramovic’, The Guardian/The Observer, Online: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/oct/03/interview-marina-abramovic-performance-artist (accessed 01st March 2013).)).

“Rather than only “touching with the eyes” [we] arrive at seeing through a sense of touch” ((Hiller, Susan (2006) Susan Hiller: Recall. Selected Works 1969-2004, ed. James Lingwood, Gateshead: Baltic, p. 17)) implies that physical contact is essential is really ‘seeing’ the performance, rather than simply observing. To leave your mark on the performance as an audience member whilst also taking something personal away for the experience. Allowing the audience to touch you as a performer is a very intimate act, especially with all the connotations of the bedroom, but for the performance to be ‘seen’ rather than simply viewed, I think that is it essential  that the audience must leave their trace in the space, while also taking some of the performance away with them.

“The immersive space remains fundamentally an experimental and sentient place, though it is also a means of escaping our everyday conditions” ((Oliveira, Nicolas de, Nicola Oxley and Micheal Petry (2003) Installation Art in the New Millennium, London: Thames & Hudson, Ltd., p. 53.)).

While exposing the audience to something which is usually  witnessed behind closed doors, we are  creating a fully immersive space; a space which holds its own realities, rules and atmosphere. By surrounding the audience in a fully fledged experience, this will allow them to temporarily escape from their everyday conditions, but hopefully allow them to leave our created world in a changed state, with an experience which they will hopefully remember. Be it either through some traumatic experience, or one of pure safety and comfort.

When you were younger your cupboard was home to a monster or two. Under your bed held the Boogie Man. And your bed protected you, kept you safe. Your night light or landing light also made you feel safe.

Yes?

What happens if we expose those ‘monsters’ hiding in cupboard and the inherent fears that something is lurking under the bed and bring them to light in such a way that you are unable to escape them? Susan Hiller argues that “I think we have enough mysterious darkness within ourselves and our own culture to be getting on with” ((Hiller, Susan (2000) Dream Machines, London: Hayward Gallery Publishing, p. N.P.)), implying that we don’t need to show the darkness which dwells within; to leave the grotesque at home and not to solidify it in art. However, I think this give us more justification to stage the grotesque and hidden secrets. For people to face their “mysterious darkness”, we must show the subconscious and the usually hidden fantasies unashamedly in order to evoke a reaction from the audience. Whether it be fear, disgust, admiration or even arousal.  

The Kitchen Show

Elizabeth Soper / / Performance process, Research, Rooms

“Perhaps what is most interesting in Baker’s work, an ingredient of the adjective ‘incomparable’, is that her work cuts across any strong distinction between the visual and the performing arts.” ((Barrett, Michele and Bobby Baker (2007), Bobby Baker: Redeeming Features of Daily Life, USA: Routledge, p.3)).

Bobby Baker’s, The Kitchen Show was something I found particularly interesting to watch. Her performance was of her in a kitchen with a commentary over the top explaining what she is doing, why she is doing it, and how it makes her feel – in the style of a cooking programme. The only difference was it wasn’t about cooking in her kitchen; she was using the kitchen and items in it to create something unusual and absurd. It starts with her stirring a pan of soup with a wooden spoon. In order for her to hold the wooden spoon she decides to tape her hand in that shape so she can grip it easier. As she does this she describes it so naturally, as if it is a completely normal thing to do in a kitchen. This I found quite humorous, and as the show goes on the ‘tasks’ she does become even more outrageous. Below shows a clip of some of her activities:

dailylifeltd (2012) Kitchen Show by Bobby Baker, Online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIbzhmljz_k (assessed 3 March 2012).

Previously I have discussed ideas to change the kitchen completely, having objects in the space that aren’t meant to be in there. After watching The Kitchen Show, I very much like the idea of actually using the kitchen for what it is, with the absurdity of the rabbit being enough. I will experiment with what Bobby Baker did, using kitchen utensils in different ways, for example she tied a wooden spoon in her hair and wore a cheese grater on a piece of string around her neck, and talked about it like its normal. Someone dressed as a rabbit doing everyday tasks like making the audience cups of tea or getting them a snack to eat isn’t normal to watch, similarly to Bobby Baker’s work. It would also be quite a struggle to do everyday tasks with mitten-like hands, big rubbery feet and a giant head with limited space to see out of, and would therefore be very interesting to watch the struggle I would have to endure just to do a simple task.

Cot room Growing up

Angela Michelle Graham / / Rooms

Freud discusses the “yield of pleasure involved” ((Freud, S (1991) On Metapsychology. London: Penguin. p, 283.)) in play. He looks past the fun factor and into the reasons that we play. In his example he looks into a young boy who has invented a game in which he throws his toys away in the hope that they will be returned, he also chucked a wooden reel with string tied around it out of his cot and then pulled it back in. Freud had decided this was due to his “instinctual renunciation … which he had made in allowing his mother to go away without protesting” ((Freud, S (1991) On Metapsychology. London: Penguin. p, 285.)). I am myself playing with the idea of looking into to how play is preparing us for when we grow up, specifically girls becoming women.

This is very obvious when we look at children’s toys, such as in the Argos catalogue in the girls toy section you will find dolls and pretend kitchens,

dolls and pretend kitchens, cot room girl “Chad Valley Pretend Play Electronic mini Kitchen” ((Argos.co.uk (2013) Buy Chad Valley Pretend Play Electronic Mini Kitchen at Argos.co.uk – Your Online Shop for Toys under 10 pounds, Cooking role play, 2 for 15 pounds on Toys.. [online] Available at: http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/9059430.htm [Accessed: 2 Mar 2013].)) where as in the boys section you will find cars, and toy work benches, cot room boy “JCB Pack Away Workbench” ((Argos.co.uk (n.d.) Buy JCB Pack Away Workbench at Argos.co.uk – Your Online Shop for Building role play.. [online] Available at: http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/3888559.htm [Accessed: 2 Mar 2013].)). This shows how even from a young age we are pushed to be a specific type of person, girls to become women with strong maternal instincts and to be the cleaner and cook for a male hunter gatherer type, and boys pushed to be masculine and provide for women. Even with the feminist movement beginning in the mid 18th century and still going strong now, gender stereotypes are still common today.

There is a pressure on women to want children and a husband, it is expected for a woman to put her career on hold and raise a family; less than a century ago most women didn’t have jobs but were simply home and baby makers. Many men believe that the perfect woman will be waiting at the door with a sandwich and in sexy underwear. This ideal is perpetuated by the continuation to believe that girls should be dressed in pink and have toy vacuums, were as boys should be running around fields in mud and wrestling. Dorothy Allison states “Class, race, sexuality, gender-and all other categories by which we categorize and dismiss each other- need to be excavated from the inside” ((Eagly, A. and Beall, A., et al. 2004, The Psychology of gender. New York (N.Y.) [etc.]: Guilford Press, p.1.)) It is becoming more and more acceptable for girls to join in typical boyish activities and boys to do girly activities. Although this has created a new genre of gender, such as a girl that enjoys sports rather than playing princess’s is a tomboy, and boys that enjoy playing with dolls rather than climbing trees are camp these terms which are regularly used in derogative manner between children.

I remember my parents not pushing me to be a feminine girl and I became a tom boy there’s no issue with that and in primary school people were very accepting of this. I mainly had male friends and when I started secondary school this became an issue with other girls they began to suggest to people that I was a slag and this was a turning point for me. I began to make more of an effort to be friends with girls and become more girly, I started wearing make-up and dresses and skirts. This was me acting to fit in and eventually it’s just became natural and a part of who I am.  

In Kira O’Reilly’s “Cut Piece” she asked the audience to cut her with a scalpel, and those that refused would then put plasters on cuts created by other audience members. This gives the audience the feel of creating something themselves as well as them leaving their mark. She used this in a durational way that built a bank of cuts and plasters all over her body, leaving physical evidence that she had performed. I’m looking to use myself as a canvas in a durational way, as Tracey Warr looks at a “significant shift in artists’ perceptions of the body, which has been used not simply as the ‘content’ of the work, but also as canvas, brush, frame and platform.” ((Warr, T., & Jones, A. (2000). The artist’s body. London, Phaidon. p, 11.)).. I am going to combine both the child and adult. I will create this by using both children’s make-up (that cheap sticky cream stuff) and my own make-up, only applying the children’s make-up with my left hand (non-writing hand) and the adult’s make-up with my right hand. This will hopefully create the affect of a child playing dress-up, rather than an adult pretending to be a child. I will apply the make-up to a specific side of my face and build on it throughout the 4 hours. I will offer to do the make-up of the audience and if they refuse will allow them to apply make-up on me.

I am hoping the audience will leave with the sense of creating something and leaving something behind for others to find. Can we create this sense elsewhere as I know other groups are giving things to their audience? But what can we allow them to leave as there are obvious limitations such as graffiti, but can we create a guest book like you would find in hotel for them leave a message in for others to find?

 

Purging.

Jozey Wade / / Performance process, Research, Rooms

Performance artist Andre Stitt here talks about how he uses certain substances in is performances as representation for feelings/ emotions etc. Some of the substances he uses are chosen based on personal memories of his, like the use of tar and feathers. At the end, as the narrator points out, he pushes the boat he has covered in certain substances out into the sea and it can be seen as a release or “letting go” of the dark memories he and/ or the audience possess. Straight away this struck me, in relation to what I have been working on in the bathroom.

In his book, At Home: A short history of private life, Bill Bryson talks extensively about plague and disease in history and how a great deal of it has related to being unclean and not washing. In his chapter about the bathroom, he discusses how people in the Middle Ages thought that to “plug the pores with dirt” ((Bryson, Bill (2010) At Home: A short history of private life, London: Black Swan))  was the best way to protect themselves from plague. “Most people didn’t wash, or even get wet, if they could help it – and in consequence… Infections became part of every day life… serious illness accepted with resignation” ((Bryson, Bill (2010) At Home: A short history of private life, London: Black Swan)). Nowadays, obviously, we are aware of the fact that quite the opposite of this is true. We wash daily, to clean – or purge – ourselves of dirt and grime gathered through the day, and to prevent ourselves from smelling and getting ill.

This idea of purging made me think of Andre Stitt’s work as a kind of purge also – like in his performance Where the Grass is Greener as seen in the video above. How the ritualistic aspects of his performances – with the feathers and pushing the boat out into the sea – help him let go or purge himself of unpleasant memories or feelings. How could I apply this to the bathroom?

forsite

After spending some time in there and sketching out some thoughts (as can be seen above), I tried to apply my previous ideas of how home life, or people within your home life can make you feel suffocated there. And how, more often than not, it is impossible for us to talk about these issues because we are just supposed to put up with them, or we think we are, if the people involved are family or people we love. Examples of this include overbearing/ strict parents (not necessarily physically abusive but perhaps), children with behavioural problems, loved ones with long term illnesses or even mental illnesses (like depression etc). I played with this idea of things we can’t say that grate on the inside of us, and how some sort of action or ritual within the bathroom could help us release this, or purge ourselves of it. (after all, as we have discussed, the bathroom is a place of purging anyway).

Beneath the Waters of Consciousness

Lauren Simpson / / Home, Performance process, Research, Rooms

alice in wonderland

http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Alice : accessed 04/03/12

The act of the bedtime story is an intimate experience, usually shared between parent and child. It is almost always a private occurrence. So, by creating a performance with it and making it public, it no longer has the element of privacy. It is often understood that the mothers are more likely to read to their child than fathers. “Not only do mothers still do the majority of shared reading, studies suggest that they do it more effectively than fathers.” ((Blake, J, & Maiese, N 2008, ‘No fairytale… the benefits of the bedtime story’, Psychologist, 21, 5, p. 386-388, EBSCOhost: accessed 27 February 2013. Page 387.)) Having a mixed gender group, this is a concept that can be challenged. Would an audience member respond differently if read a story by a male rather than a female?

“Storytelling is sometimes seen as an innocent activity best suited to young children” ((Killick, S, & Frude, N 2009, ‘The teller, the tale and the told’, Psychologist, 22, 10, p. 850-853, EBSCOhost: accessed 27 February 2013. Page 850.)) Therefore, combining the sexual content of a raunchy novel with the innocence of a fairy tale blurs this theory. The audience go from the safety of a bedtime story to the unnerving effects of the adult content. Because they won’t be expecting it, then it should come as a shock to them.

“Beware the stories you read or tell: subtly, at night, beneath the waters of consciousness, they are altering your world.” ((Killick, S, & Frude, N 2009, ‘The teller, the tale and the told’, Psychologist, 22, 10, p. 850-853, EBSCOhost: accessed 27 February 2013. Page 850.))

If this quote is true, this story should stir a deeper reaction than just uncomfortable shifting or nervous laughter. Even though the audience are not going to sleep, the crossing over of child and adult content may have an effect on them after they leave the room. They may look at fairy tales in a different light and be able to pick out the Freudian elements in a lot of them. Alice in Wonderland itself is a very Freudian story.