Paper Panel – Putting words in their mouths: verbatim and authenticity

I will be presenting a paper on authorship and community engagement this Thursday at Central School of Speech and Drama's conference:

Authoring Theatre


Paper Panel – Putting words in their mouths: verbatim and authenticity
THURSDAY 14 JULY, 16:15 – 17:45
REHEARSAL ROOM 6, WEST BLOCK

PUTTING WORDS IN THEIR MOUTHS: VERBATIM AND AUTHENTICITY

Chair:
Amanda Stuart Fisher

Presenters:
Maria Jose Contreras Lorenzini - Dramaturgies of the real In Chile: the problem of authorship
Steve Gilroy - Let’s get real about ‘verbatim’
Roberto Sánchez-Camus – Triangulated City Beirut: Co-Authorship in Applied Live Art

THURSDAY 14 JULY, 16:15 – 17:45
REHEARSAL ROOM 6, WEST BLOCK

You can read my abstract online.

South London meeting for Artists working in Social Care

St Christopher's Hopisce is hosting a forum to bring together a broad range of artists and musicians who work in health and social care across South London or who have an interest in developing work in the area.
Although there is a special interset in end-of-life care, working in care homes and demenita, anyone using, or interested in using, the arts with any client population is welcome.
At this introductory meeting, there will be an opporunity to present your work and discuss ideas and interests. There will also be time to discuss the need for an ongoing platform to share ideas and experiences in the future.

All are welcome to attend and share your work, thoughts and ideas:

14th April between 6 and 7.30pm

St Christopher's Hospice
51-59 Lawrie Park Road
London SE26 6DZ
tel 020 8768 4500
or email info@stchristophers.org.uk
http://www.stchristophers.org.uk

National Review of Live Art

Finally attended the performance love-fest that's the National Review of Live Art, and it was really worth it. This was officially the last event after 30 years, though it's returning in a changed format for next year. The event manages to bring together a diverse array of artists working across performance / live art fields under one umbrella. But it true magic lies in the ability to create a level playing field where established and emerging artists can meet and mingle and just be together. Helps its in such a cool city like Glasgow, that's the real deal right there...

One person complained to me about the constant queueing for performances, but actually for me these moments were a great opportunity to chat to strangers, meet new people and spend some time together in one of those odd social moments when otherwise we would usually commit ourselves to getting to the other side of the queue with as little distraction as possible.

Highlights for me:

The gothic ritual sermon by Julia Bardsley called Aftermaths: a tear in the meat of vision, where a zombie-like pentecostal-inspired preacher rants about profits... or was it prophets...

John Byrne's presentation was excellent, especially his Border Interpretive Centre, bringing awareness of the border as object in Northern Ireland.

Frenchmottershead, who I am interviewing as one of the artists I am surverying in my PhD were very receptive as well. They were commissioned to create a one off of their piece Were you Here the Last Time, where at a designated time and space a photo is taken. I positioned my self towards the front with some friends and felt pretty ecstatic with the countdown from 30 (for each year). It created a wonderful shared moment in time, something I truly appreciate.

A low point for me was being scolded and locked out after arriving 1 minute late to La Pocha Nostra presentation, but this was incredibly remedied by sharing drinks with them at the bar!

There's ofcourse so much more, a good place to read up on the work is the NRLA blog, look for the poetic words of Mark Caffrey reviewing the work and interviewing the artists...

(photo above is an unrelated graffiti on the streets of Glasgow but I loved it)

The Pigs of Today are the Hams of Tomorrow

Just got back from this symposium performance series in Plymouth, headed my Marina Abramović, who unfortunately didn't show up but was there via a Skype video chat feed. Though the event was fairly disorganised and revealed how insular the world of Live Art can be there were still some great highlights, including of course meeting interesting people.

The Royal William Yard was a stunning venue, housing most of the events and performances. There were six artist performing at the Slaugherhouse

Davide Balliano: sharpening a knife slowly and repeatedly while facing a corner where two large mirrors created a grouping of 4 identicals. A single lightbuld illuminated the space adn the sound was quite evocative. The piece was a bit cliche, in that its use of a man in black in a black cap in a dark corner became a certain character type that would immediately be evocative.

Snezana Golubović: who stood on a stage stepping into a series of shoes...

Eva and Franco Mattes: who recreated performances in Second Life. This was mostly interesting because I had never seen Second Life in action before.

Francesca Steele: created one of the more engaging and evocative works, a one to one piece where you stood on a stage with her while she took the gestures of professional body building next to you. As a body builder herself she has transformed her body and the work made me think of gaze, obsession and body image as well as nearness and personal space.

Bill Wroath: who was slated to perform at the Market in the centre of Plymouth was moved here due to an issue with the council and his work. He sewed a full pig corpse back together dressed as a butcher/medic while behind hime the numbers of pigs slaughtered in each country per year was projected across the wall. I enjoyed this work as I've been feeling that the ecological situation on this planet has been turning my vegetarianism into something more political which it never has been. Unfortunately most people absorbed the information and the proceeded to think it was funny to order pork at the pub, I suppose this is why the world isn't going to change any time soon....

The Market in Plymouth is an incredible space, looks like you are inside a giant pool. There is a unique culture there as well between the traders and buyers and I definitely sensed that the performances were generally an intrusion. One person working the event told me the last day "They hate us by now and can't wait for us to leave". This lack of integration with the general public was something that was a bit disappointing about the event in general but then again I suppose performance art may be one of the less accessible works as it is.

One exception was Ania Bas who performed as a working vendor, selling a variety of media information and possible instructions taped up and down her jacket. The last day I chose 'Chewing gum and people watching". She took me to her favourite spot and we talked about the market and the event, we easily picked out the skinny jean black clad art goers and the overweight, pasty shoppers. She told me about the shopkeepers and how engaging them brought varied responses. Though some were not interested, some where. I felt very happy that at least someone was bringing the work towards dialogue and integrating the actual existing culture of the site. One vendor bought one of her instructions for another, while a third was going to serve as witness...

For a full list of performers click here: Pigs

Seeing Marina on Skype in bed, blowing her nose and coughing was rather humanising. She said two interesting things, she explained the title. Performance artists are the pigs of today and their work in many ways needs to die in order to be consumed as ham. This gave the entire symposium a lens towards archiving and the issues surrounding performance documentation... She also said students always ask her about entering the art market and how to succeed, she explained that she spent 30 of her 40 years making performances unpaid. Though she recognised this wasn't fair she recommended to young artists to stay true to their work and to stay true to the context...

But by far the highlight of the weekend was Tehching Hsieh... That gets a post of its own...

Conversations with Tehching Hsieh

Chatting with Tehching was the highlight of the Symposium (see prior post). During his chat chaired by Adrian Heathfield, he talked about leaving Taiwan on a freight ship to Iran picking up oil en route to Philadelphia where he jumped ship. He spoke about how he had heard tow words in Taiwan 'conceptual happenings'. He had no idea what they meant or how they would be so seminal in his work. In the US as an illegal immigrant he spent 4 years in his studio doing no work. His studio was empty and he just sat their thinking. Then he had this idea, if I've been doing this 4 years why not one more? This was the first one year performance 1978-1979. He then completed 4 more and finished with a final 13 year piece where he would complete work but not present it publicly and basically disappeared. He emerged in 2000 and released a DVD of his work.
He was incredibly humble and genuine. I spoke to him after the event on the freezing cold pier in Plymouth. Tehching apologised for his English skills and said 'I am not as educated as everyone here'. I responded that he was genuine and that this was what people responded to, for he really received a loud applause. It was a welcome relief from an overly cerebral event!

I asked him if he ever had the impetus to make work... he responded 'whats impetus?'... i said need, want... he restated what he said earlier, that he already had his great ideas, that he had no more. and even if he did more it would become formulaic. He added that he also already stated as an art piece that he would not create any more work. And if he reneged on this then all his work would be a lie.

I love this man....

He also still lives in Bed-Stuy (Bedford-Stuyvesant) area of Brooklyn. Recently the grocer in his building was pistol-whipped and robbed. But he said he's been there for the last 12 years and he's never moving again...

Speaking with him reminded me of why I am an artist why I am drawn to what I do. There was such a strong spiritual sense in his work, my friend Debbie compared it to a form of Zen meditation. This is what makes great work, perhaps avoiding a paralyses by analyses and tapping into a deep well of energy that can exist in performance as in life...

Prize for Art and Social Change

The Creative Time Summit: Revolutions in Public Practice provides an opportunity to consider the work of more than 35 international cultural producers whose practice engages the public sphere on questions of social justice.
Their approaches intend to not only reflect, but also act upon moments of historic change, breaking the traditional barriers between art, culture, and politics.
The conference will open on the evening of Friday, October 23 with the presentation of the first, inaugural Leonore Annenberg Prize for Art and Social Change, honoring an artist who has committed their life’s work to social change in powerful and productive ways. This prize is the first award of its kind, honoring impact and commitment over market trends. This year, the Prize will be given to The Yes Men

The Leonore Annenberg Prize for Art and Social Change is an annual $25,000 award named in honor of Mrs. Annenberg’s life-long dedication to supporting the artistic voice in our culture, and to the vital role of art in educating and expanding our cultural dialogue. The Yes Men agree their way into the fortified compounds of commerce, ask questions, and then smuggle out the stories of their hijinks to provide a public glimpse at the behind-the-scenes world of business. This legendary group of culture jammers is, through their longstanding practice of invading and subverting modes of corporate communication, at the forefront of a movement to produce substantive change in our world. They are well known for projects ranging from impersonating representatives of major corporations to the distribution of thousands of copies of a simulated edition of The New York Times featuring idealistic, progressive headlines.

Everyman, an enquiry

We'll be hosting a discussion group at the Whitechapel Gallery that will kickstart a year of performance workshops building the new Lotos Collective event 'Everyman'. With invited guests from a variety of professions we'll be investigating the archetype of the Everyman across disciplines, attempting to decipher a universality of the urban citizen.

Discussion group is free and is part of The Nature of the Beast installation by artist Goshak Macuga.

The discussion will open to audience participation for the latter portion, come share your ideas!

Conference Presentation - Napoli Scorticata

As part of the Italian Theatre Season's Conference on Modern and Contemporary Italian Theatre, I will be presenting the performance project Napoli Scorticata, developed with Lotos Collective in Naples, Italy in 2007.

Conference Paper: Aesthetics and Applied Live Art

Wednesday 3rd September to Friday 5th September

As part of the Applied Practice Working Group, I presented a paper entitled: Aesthetics and Applied Live Art at TaPRA conference in Leeds

www.tapra.org

There's a lot I could write to respond to this, beginning with being the "practitioner" in an academic circle to now being the "academic" when around practitioners/production people.

I've added the paper I presented to my website for public scrutiny, if anyone feels like reading and responding:  

> >  Aesthetics and Applied Live Art  < <

What I can say now was the similarity between TaPRA and the many other organisations I have been a part of. Of course with the difference of content, the working group reminded me of working at the non-profit in Brooklyn and the voting and general organisation reminded me of my self-managed coop building in NYC. In essence the organising and presenting format model was in place everywhere and very similar if not the same. I guess it works is all, makes me wonder again about why it doesn't in government, maybe it just gets so big it stops working. Thats the optimistic viewpoint, I just think its greed...

Objects of Engagement Conference

Co-organised: Objects of Engagement Conference for emerging scholars and practitioners, at Royal Holloway, University of London.... To keep the buzz going the blog with the conference info will be opened up to anyone seeking to contribute.   

Check it out: http://objectsofengagement.blogspot.com/