ARTISTS TALKING

# 53 [25 January 2011]

Evaluation

Comparing my proposal to the actual outcomes of my project is still ongoing, although I do feel I achieved most of the original aims. Work that I actually realised in Chongqing was a street intervention, end of show ‘happening’ and an improvised stage performance. Since being back in the UK the experience of working in China has emerged in the form of new performances, video work, recently culminating in a live art/installation exhibition at the Chinese Arts Centre in December 2010. Due to the ongoing artist residency programme at The Chinese Arts centre I had the opportunity to participate in a group show facilitated by Wang Jun an artist I met during my stay in Chongqing. Whilst working at 501 Artspace I interviewed a number of artists to learn about their practices. This work continued in the UK with Wang Jun and I interviewed him with a translator, which was recorded and shown at the ‘Scholars Rock’ exhibition at the Chinese Arts Centre in April 2010. I have presented 3 artist talks at Liverpool John Moores University, Leeds Artspace and at The Chinese Arts Centre. Self-publishing in the form of a blog on Newworknetwork website, a-n artist talking, You Tube, Facebook and Twitter has provided a fast and effective way of showing my work to a wider audience. My artistic profile has been raised due to this online activity, which has led to more exhibition and event opportunities.

Unexpected outcomes   

When I arrived in China in mid January it was the lead up to the Chinese New Year, which meant that the university was closing and students were travelling away to see family. This meant that it was not possible to present a formal Artist Talk. However to meet the requirements of my proposal I used a recorded artist interview which came about after I initially interviewed the Chinese artist Zheng Li whom then questioned me about my work. In my final ‘New Arrivals’ performance at 501 Artspace at the end of the piece, after a short Q & A I played the recording of my artist interview, which was translated throughout. During my time in China there were a number of events happening such as the ‘International Arts Festival’ in Chongqing and ‘Expo’ in Shanghai was being heavily promoted. From this experience I made work in reaction to these events and used the ‘private view’ as a framework for a leaving style party ‘happening’. ‘Event Culture’ is an international phenomenon a theme that has continued in my work.

Throughout my stay in Chongqing my host Yan Yan introduced me to new artists and from him I learnt about his experience of the live art scene. I spent New Year with his family, which was a unique experience to participate in local activity. Since being back in the UK I have made links with artists in Manchester who are due to participate in the residency programme. This has led to an offer of an artist talk at a symposium at the Chinese Arts Centre in 2011. In December 2010 myself and Philip Davenport an experimental poet worked together on an exhibition at the Chinese Arts Centre called, Ghosts move about me patched with histories a live art, installation. This was a new experience collaborating with Davenport and we feel that we have produced a piece of work that has the potential to tour. Working with new people has showcased my work to new audiences this has resulted in an invitation to perform at an event called Fuel, in Manchester, 2011.

What would you have done differently?

I do feel that 4 weeks was too short a stay and on reflection taking into consideration the time it took to travel to China and the Chinese New Year holidays, 5-6 weeks would have been the ideal period to stay. I have produced a large body of work, which I have distributed through social networking websites. However with hindsight I feel that the work should also be distributed as a designed, DVD, show reel that can be given out to curators and arts organisations nationally and internationally, which I did not take into account in my project budget.

# 52 [3 January 2011]

Magician

This video piece is taken from the Chinese New Year, Gala TV show. When I watched the show in China there was an English computerised translation over the top of it which really undermined the performance as it sounds devoid of emotion. I found this amusing and have recreated the piece emphasising the computerized voice. This video was part of the installation at the Chinese Arts Centre.

Follow the link below to view the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72WXeuIuzAQ

# 51 [16 December 2010]

Post Ghost, Part 2

On the opening night we had around 25 people whom we crammed into the space. On reflection it was probably too many as later performances with fewer people in worked best. Again I am still always surprised at how the audience, want to follow direction even though I said little although I used a lot of physical gestures. As I ushered the golden ticket holders through the glass doorway a wall of people met me. I have read somewhere that a group of 8 and under in a meeting situation will express their own feelings or views. However, if the group is larger individuals will tend to go with the crowd. I don't know what it is but I do feel that the fine art audience is harder to please or get a reaction from. The audience laughed at my dancing and even commented on it while I was moving around. At the end I held my pose and they nervously clapped, paused and then clapped again almost trying to make me move through their actions.

I do find it interesting why people clap or laugh in this situation, which isn’t really funny, and my performance is pretty ordinary. It’s as if the audience are trying to gain some control of the situation and move me along. I was aware of this during the performance and would deliberately hold poses to slow the piece down and not adhere to the crowd. As there were so many people in the room some had already sat on the sofa and I was worried if they would move on my request. They did and I ushered the golden ticket holders to the seats and played the video. The rest of the audience were crammed behind the sofa or had moved to the adjacent wall quite far away from the video. As the video ended and the lights went off the room fell silent and I moved to the ladder. As I positioned myself in the doorway everyone seemed to stay still and not follow my movements, which meant that most people didn't see me strike the light. The audience may of only heard this action or seen a dim light. As I left the audience in the darkened room they stayed their expecting me to re-enter the space.

I did three more performances later in the week and each one was so different depending on how many people were in the room. Repeating the piece allowed me to add more gestures which were needed at certain points to direct the crowd. I was most happy with an audience of 8, as they were more vocal, trying to speak during the performance. I felt more control over the group and at the end of this particular performance I had to go back and tell them the piece had ended as they just stood still in the room for about 10 minutes. Generally people acknowledged surrendering themselves to my control and feeling a tension of what was going to happen next. The most surprising performance was with only two people, one particular person who was British/Chinese had his hands up against the wall as if I was going to search him. He tried to talk to me a lot throughout the performance but I just cut him off by not speaking. During the dance it was very intense as I really pointed and moved close to them. The audience member commented that he thought I was a bit like witch trying to cast a spell on him. Other comments were;

It was like you were performing a ritual about life and death.

Some people are invited to the disco and others are not, whilst others get to be famous.

I felt included and excluded.

Why didn't you give me something to hold?

I just wanted to follow you.

People with the golden envelopes had the privilege and we didn't.

I wanted to know what song you were listening to.

How did you get the same dress that the lady was wearing in the video?

It was beautiful. 

# 50 [14 December 2010]

Post Ghost, Part 1

I know I haven’t been blogging as much as I would have liked however getting the work made in time was so close to the wire unfortunately this had to take a back seat. At the artist talk we had about 15 people, which was really nice to see, as I was worried that no one would come. I started the talk first as I wanted time to prepare for the later performance. I went for the more formal slideshow although I sat on a chair, as I don't like standing behind reading stands. I decided to focus my talk around the work I was making before I went, blogging and my initial research before going to China. Unfortunately I have lost my China photographs and had to use my blog, which wasn't ideal however I was still pleased that at least I had this to show. I missed a middle section in the talk were I wanted to show another video piece and make reference to feelings of absence not being unique to China but how I can have these feelings in any place. On reflection I should have had a rough script to ensure not missing stuff out although I think I did well considering there was little time to prepare. Having the artist talk before the opening was a good idea as it ensured visitors stayed for the whole event and got more information about the artist and the work.   

The performance started with me handing out golden envelopes and fake notes to the audience who were waiting in reception. I ushered people with the golden envelopes to the wall and signaled the rest of the crowd into a different entrance. I escorted the golden envelope holders through the entrance from the street and they waited behind the glass door while the gallery audience watch. As I direct people into the gallery I follow them in changing my persona, thanking everyone for coming round my house as I slip my shoes off. I offer tea but only have enough for one person. I change into my green sparkly dress behind a mini changing screen and proceed to mime silently and dance. As I hold my final pose at the end of the dance people nervously clap. I move the people off the sofa to allow the people with the golden envelopes to sit and I play them the magician video. I stand silently til the end. Lights go out. I move to the ladder and climb, framed by the dark doorway I sit and strike a match, watch it burn. I descend the ladder and leave. The audience are left standing in a dark room and eventually I turn the lights back on.

# 49 [8 December 2010]

Marking out the ghost

For the past two days I have been making my second video with a little help from my friend artist Andrea Cotton. I just felt at ease and happy to have someone assisting me who gets the way I work and has an eye for detail. I was filmed marking out the performance in the space with no audience. As Phil’s wallpaper is black and white I thought the video would work better if I tinted it the same colour. As usual I underestimated how long it would take to run through the whole piece, although the process is helping me remember the sequence of the performance. Today I need to install the DVD players and see how the whole installation is working. My plan is to do a full dress rehearsal and I may ask a few people to come in and watch. Usually I would not run through the final performance with an audience, as there is no guarantee how they will react. There are key sections in the performance that I need to test out such as the lights being turned out, changing over DVD’s and how to handle a chicken roaming around the gallery. I still need to prepare for the artist talk and I plan to use my blog and show some of my videos. I want to focus the talk on the development of my work, performance, the artist’s I met and the influence the residency has had on my recent work. 

# 48 [3 December 2010]

Day 3 @ The Chinese Arts Centre

Finally I bought ‘Linda’ my friendly computerized voice today for my video piece I am slowly putting together. I got the final translation through today and enjoyed listening to the audio then had to work out how to digitally record it. Thinking as I do all around the houses I eventually recorded it on an edirole, which my friend had kindly lent me. The best audio quality with no atmos interference was in the bathroom, I had heard that a lot of musicians have done this is in the past and it worked. I am struggling to edit anything in the residency space at the Chinese Arts Centre as we are still prepping the walls and have lots of random stuff around us. We have put up Phil’s spreadsheet wallpaper on one wall and the door it looks fantastic although we hadn’t planned in prepping time and it is eating into my making time. Tomorrow I plan to work from home and crack on with sequencing the sound with the video. Phil and myself have been making up our own invitations that has taken up most of the day but I think it was worth it. People like to have something to take away with them, which an e-invite doesn't offer. I managed to give out 50 last night at the Chinese Arts Centre, art auction and everyone really appreciated them. I have so much to do next week and we plan to have the space fully prepped by tomorrow. There are certain things I just cannot do such as physically marking out my performance in the space for the spoken audio tour until we finalize the installation. We intend to have another video piece of me running through the performance without an audience, a bit like a ghost.

# 47 [24 November 2010]

The Golden Ticket

This morning I have been re-thinking how to plan the tours of the gallery and feel that I need to simplify the instructions. Originally I wanted to have ticketed spaces on the tour and communicate that you can also observe the tour, this is too complicated. I thought that I could bring this into the performance by giving selected individuals golden tickets to go on tour. I bought these golden envelopes in the arts and craft shop in China Town and they are used to burn in religious ceremony. I find it strange why you would want to burn such pretty paper and the man in the shop got a bit irritated with me as I kept picking things up and asking “what is this for?” and he just kept saying “it’s just for burning”. In the shop there was a mini concertinaed changing screen and small sweet like objects made from pastel coloured cardboard that I want to buy. I have been editing my video of the magic show and I am now waiting on translation. Yesterday I managed to find a green sparkly dress in a vintage shop and put a £10 deposit on it, I pick it up on Saturday. I’m feeling a little bit frustrated, as I have no money and am waiting to get paid at the end of the month; there will definatly be nothing left in the pot for Christmas presents this year. Writing the blog is giving me the structure I need to develop the work ready for installation next week. This has been an unusual way of working towards a residency as usually I am not sure what form the work will take. However as the residency is so short and we want to maximize the opportunity into a show rather than an open studio has meant developing a clear vision of what we want before we start.  

# 46 [17 November 2010]

Computer Love

This week I have been researching how to create a computerized voice. I want to use this audio style and live translation of the Chinese New Year, TV Gala show video in my performance at the Chinese Art Centre. The simple way of doing this would be to pre-record my voice and edit it over the top of the video, however I feel this could be a good opportunity to create something live from the material. I have been looking at using a vocoder pedal which requires attaching a mic and a musical instrument such as an electronic keyboard. A different option on the market is a keyboard which has a mouth attachment that operates in the same way as the vocoder, simpler to use but much more expensive. It was suggested to me to use ‘text speak’ on the computer were you simply type in the words and it replays back in a computerized voice. I love this and have been playing with the voice and writing different scripts for ‘Linda’ to read. Linda is a voice I downloaded which sounds very similar to what I heard in China a computerized, English translation, void of emotion. Ideally I would like to use the keyboard as I see the potential of it as a prop which gives the impression that I may play something musical on it. However the voice sounds more like a musical instrument, which is not the effect I am looking for. The ‘text speak’ function on my computer is the right tone and the laptop is also an effective prop. I envisage sitting behind or to the side of the audience tapping away on my laptop, I could also try and lip-synch to the sound. In the video the female presenter wears a green sparkly evening dress and I like the idea of wearing something similar creating a duplicate image.

# 45 [10 November 2010]

30 years of Japanese Fashion 

On my recent trip to London to see the family I had a free day and I visited Future Beauty, 30 years of Japanese fashion at the Barbican. This exhibition is the first in Europe to show avant-garde Japanese fashion that challenges ideas of beauty, function, ultimately elevating the work into art. As I entered the ground floor gallery was divided by banners of white fabric and clothed mannequins stood on top of plinths. My favourite on this floor was Junya Watanabe, Comme des Garcons piece from the autumn/winter collection 2000-01 which I like to call the flame. The skirt piece was constructed in a honeycomb formation from translucent fabric, which appeared to be glowing under the lights. The edges of the fabric look so soft and fragile it amazed me how the piece was actually standing.

Up on the first floor the designer’s collections were individually set in their own spaces with sound, sometimes video from the catwalk shows which the clothes had featured in. I was blown away by the presentation of Jun Takahashi, Undercover, autumn/winter collection 2000-01 each mannequin is completely encased by the clothes in an almost fetishistic manner and placed in front of a wall covered in matching fabric. I love how the clothes wear the person rather than the person wearing the clothes which I feel reflects our obsession with brands and consumerism, a worrying glimpse into the future perhaps? Last but no means least was Issey Miyake’s most recent collection 132 5, which is made from recycled fabric which emerges from flat packed polygons into wearable garments. The curation and display of the work throughout was really impressive particularly Issey Miyake’s work that had the polygons placed at the front like mathematical drawings and then behind, the mannequin wears the garment. Video was used extensively from interviews with the designers, documentation of the catwalk shows and ‘how to’ animation. Large scale lambada framed prints hang on the walls of Kawakubo’s designs which have been photographed by Naoya Hatakeyama that document the bold, simple shapes in a two dimensional image. Please follow the link below for more details: 

http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=10771

# 44 [2 November 2010]

Reading Performance

I found this resource on the Live Art Development Agency website please follow the link below for the full guide. In this post I have taken a section of the text which questions the transference of 'experience'.

http://www.thisisliveart.co.uk/resources/Study_Room/guides/rachel_lois_clapham_guide.html

Reading Performance Writing: A Guide (2010) by Rachel Lois Chapman

What is it?  Towards a re-enactment of the experience of performative writing by Danae Theodoridou. Here is its cover: matthew goulish 39 MICROLECTURES in proximity of performance How do we understand something? We understand something by approaching it. How do we approach something? We approach it from any direction. We approach it using our eyes, our ears, our noses, our intellects, our imaginations. We approach it with silence. We approach it with childhood. We use pain. We use history. We take a safe route or a dangerous one. We discover our approach and follow it. What is it? ‘The bad thing with experience is that it can’t be transferred.’ (Remember these words) 

What is it? You go back to it, you try to describe it, you try to analyze it, you try to show it, you try to tell it, you try to express it, you try to share it, you try to transfer it. What is it? Performative words. Their experience. It can’t be transferred. What is it? No need for describing words, analyzing words, showing words, telling words, sharing words, transferring words. Just words to re-enact the experience. If it can be transferred, it can be re-done and it can be re-lived. Here they are, they don’t transfer, they re-create. The experience of one who read a book and bought it twice, of one who carried a book everywhere like a personal Bible, of one who since that day knows that ‘the bad thing with experience is that it can’t be transferred’.

It was such a relief reading this text and it confirmed to me how a personal ‘experience’ cannot be copied and exactly transferred to another person. All that can be done is to re-create and allow the experience to be interpreted in multiple ways and know that this is OK. The main experiences I want to re-enact are feeling out of synch verbally with people and to re-create watching the New Year Gala TV show with translation.