ARTISTS TALKING

# 43 [25 October 2010]

Collected Texts

Phil asked me to send him some text from my experience of working in China and I thought it would be a good idea to use my blog and pick out bite size phrases. In my work I like to collect written texts such as observations and actions as part of my visual research for my performances. I originally started my blog as a way of documenting my residency, which took place in February 2010 although I have continued to write about my practice. The idea that work just stops or is completely separate from that period is not so and I feel that the residency has provided the seed which has since sprouted into a succession of new performances in the UK. I feel the opportunity to participate in the residency at the Chinese Arts Centre is another chance to make new work in collaboration with Phil Davenport and raises the question of how to communicate past experiences which happened in China within the context of the Chinese Arts Centre in Manchester.

Blog bites

Just one of those details that gets lost in translation

People turned up later and missed the party

I did get stuck for a moment

Uncertainty whether I could get over

Strange leaving party

Not sure when it started and ended

In-between the audience

Learning as a means to getting

Making it and not making it

We are seen as novelty

We somehow pull it together

Muffle of people speaking and traffic noise

Giving you some peace and quiet

Let go of the control

Trust in others

Feed it to all the guests

Trying to communicate

Can sound a bit scrambled

Climb the ladder and get over the top

They were very worried I might fall

Torn between two spaces

Stack, order, display

A gap between two buildings

Arriving, working, leaving

Felt like a tourist

Looked at

Not spoken to

I am not there

I am not here

He set off a belt of firecrackers

Better Life, Better People

One World, One Dream

A world of sameness

Tried to remember

Broken western pop songs

Sliding across off the edge of the screen

I can’t order my own food

When I speak 

# 42 [18 October 2010]

Chinese Arts Centre Residency

On Friday I met Phil Davenport before our meeting at the Chinese Arts Centre to chat about our ideas, which just seem to be naturally flowing. It’s really nice when you have that creative spark with a person and I feel our vision for the tour is developing every time we meet. Phil is eager to use his spreadsheet concept and to expand it so it can weave through the gallery creating an installation in the space. I suggested how we could cutout sections within it and how I could use the physical gaps to speak through. We are eager to use the unusual spaces, which the public usually does not have access to such as the bedroom and the store cupboard that offer smaller enclosed rooms. I am really excited about developing performances for these smaller spaces as there is no way of avoiding physical intimacy. We talked about marketing and Phil had a really interesting idea to create bank notes and intervene them in different ways into the environment. Our work has been advertised in The Chinese Arts Centre autumn/winter programme and it was lovely to finally see them, the copy reads:

Whisper residency artists, Nicola Smith and Phillip Davenport will be developing and showcasing Ghosts move about me patched with histories this November/December. Both artists have previously taken part in the artist residencies in Chongqing and will be using the residency space here to reflect upon their experiences in China. The pair will be using Chinese Arts Centre’s residency space to trace what they describe as ‘the broken edge between different cultures and the beliefs that leak through’. Their project will use smell, taste, hunger and desire to track these ideas. Nicola will act as a deliberately misleading tour guide, taking visitors through an environment created by the pair using scripts devised by her and Phillip. Ghosts move about me patched with histories will be an immersive experience filled with two of the most powerfully coded objects that human’s encounter: money and food.

I have been thinking about my wardrobe as a tour guide and I feel that I want to move away from the obvious formal look. In my recent performances I have been playing with identity by putting on an unplaced sort of European accent, which has worked well. When I have put this accent on people have asked me if I am Polish or Spanish and are unclear if I am really putting it on or if I am really foreign. I do not want to imitate a stereotypical Chinese look, however I am interested in how people judge and want to place a person simply by the way they look and sound. I bought this book in a charity shop firstly the title grabbed my attention, ‘Race’, Culture & Difference then I was taken in by the front cover image of a woman with a band of fabric across her face. The band is making it difficult to read her face, is it an oppressive or antagonistic gesture? It could be read as both.

# 41 [11 October 2010]

Emergency 2010@The Greenroom

What a weekend got to participate in and see lots of new work at the Greenroom, which is always such a treat. On the opening night I particularly enjoyed Allan Taylor’s piece titled ‘Alain D’Aylour’s Affordable Art Auction’ which the main character gives the audience advise on how to make money from your art and how ultimately art is about money. His piece was very interactive and he stayed in character the whole way akin to Lloyd Grossman in a blond wig speaking amusing art jibberish. I got to meet Mandy Romero on the Saturday night, it was nice to finally meet her and talk about her experience of traveling across China. The whole weekend was great research for me and I met some new people Matt and Jordan who put on performance/live art nights at Matt & Phreds in town. Amelia Beavis-Harrison was performing ‘In/Out’ on the doors stamping peoples hands as they came in and out of the venue she also has a blog on a-n which is a good read: http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/sing...

To see video documentation from my Emergency Balloon Drop, please follow this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aslkjqMAdAo

To see video documentation from The Eventé, MA Fine Art show, please follow this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Moa4BLJFLeM

# 40 [27 September 2010]

Emergency bed-in tour

I have had the predictable dip, mentally pulling the work apart but no time for procrastination as I need to focus on new work for upcoming events. I was pleased to be asked to put in a proposal for the ‘Bed-in’ project happening at the Bluecoat in Liverpool if you would like to make a proposal follow this link:

www.thebluecoat.org.uk/content/view/276/15/

The project pays homage to John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s week-long bed-in protest. I am particularly interested in people helping me with stuff, as this is what makes me feel most at ‘peace’. As a visual artist I work mostly in isolation and often find it hard to ask for help and can procrastinate over this particular action, which makes the act of asking even worst. For this project I propose to have a list of things I need help with and my aim is to achieve as many as possible in the time frame. I will ask the audience to:

Help me document this

Help me write a blog

Help me use my camera

Help me decide what to have for tea

Help me get lunch

Help me get a drink

Help me with my anxiety

Help me I'm bored

Help me make money 

Help me have a ciggy

Help me go to toilette

Help me with my career

*I must stay in bed or be carried to a destination using part of the bed

This Friday Emergency kicks off at the Greenroom in Manchester and I am trying to construct a triangular net for my emergency balloon drop (http://emergencymcr.posterous.com/). I have spent £50 on football netting which I hope will be delivered today and I intend to fold it in half to create a triangular shape. Money is a bit tight at the moment so I hope I wont need more than 150 balloons it’s amazing how expensive good quality balloons are. If you would like to participate in my emergency balloon drop then please come along this Friday to the Greenroom, 54/56 Whitworth Street no later than 5.15pm, the event is free.

On Wednesday night I went to the opening of ‘Association’ exhibition at Castlefield gallery. The artists collective had situated themselves in the gallery space and sent out open invitations to artists to collaborate with them. The exhibition is a developing visual archive of this process. Phil Davenport whom I will be working with had participated in this and it was great to see him at the show. For me it was nice to see more of his work and talk about how we could use it in our tour at the Chinese Arts Centre. He was showing A1 black and white spreadsheets that had written descriptions of extinct birds in contrast to headline set text that flowed between statement and nonsense. We spoke about enlarging the prints so people could actually walk on them making them more interactive and that the text could be used as part of the tour script. We both agreed how difficult it is to communicate our individual experience of China to other people but how we could also play with this on our tour.

# 39 [22 September 2010]

The end of the eventé

I felt happy with how my performance played out including the happy mistakes that happened along the way. I did feel a little nervous however I had rehearsed a number of times, which made me feel more in control of them during the performance. When I entered the room people seemed to watch me but keep their distance hanging to the edges of the space. As I turned around to start it seemed like everyone was so far away from me, although I used this as a way to connect with the audience. I kept asking them to ‘come closer’, ‘closer’ which they followed very cautiously. When I asked for assistance on the stage only one person put their hand up but this just added to the tension of how this partnership was going to play out. Although I had run through the piece I was always aware of the unpredictability of crowd participation. This came up then I asked people to say ‘Guttenta’ as my lovely assistant held up the name card, which the audience didn't really follow. I saw this as an opportunity to air my disappointment with them and how they were not following my instruction, on repeating the action they responded. This interaction with the audience was a way of lightly laying down the rules of engagement. A particular high in the piece was when I asked people to throw confetti over me at the end of my dance as I lay on the floor. When the time came it felt like an age I was sitting on the floor and then each person slowly approached me, threw confetti over me. It’s as if everything had suddenly gone into slow motion and this section of the performance was out of synch. Throughout the piece there was a regular light rumble of laughter although I could feel the tension in the room. The climax of the show worked really well people were happy to take the party poppers, move closer to me and follow my final instructions. As the party poppers went off and the balloon drop failed we all stood in silence for a few minutes. Eventually I stood up, positioned my cardboard cutout and left.

# 38 [12 September 2010]

Back soon photo shoot

On Friday I had a mini photo shoot in my living room to produce an image to go onto my cardboard cut-out. Originally my husband tried to do the photography but it just wasn’t working, luckily though he did arrange for a friend to help me. It was great working with Scott the photographer and I felt more relaxed during the shoot as I trusted his technical expertise. It was quite bazaar having a photo shoot in my living room and I like how in the background you can see power sockets, a speaker and the roll of paper I am standing on. I think I might use one of the original shots as a print for my promotion at the show I could even use it as a large print to exhibit in the future. I ordered my cardboard cut-out online Friday morning and I should receive it on Monday. I had to pay a bit extra for the cut-out to be a whole, flat piece and delivered ASAP I just hope the cardboard structure is as good as the image. My main focus for Monday is to take all my materials through to Liverpool and to test the sound equipment. I am starting to believe more in the work now and to have fun with it. The piece is very tongue and cheek about the idea of event culture and internationalism and I hope the work comes across with a sense of humour.

MA Fine Art show at Liverpool JMU Art & Design Academy, Duckinfield Street, L3 5RD opens on Saturday 18th September. The Liverpool Biennial Touched conference is happening in the same building from 11am til 5pm and our show opens at 5.30pm were I will be doing a performance titled 'The Eventé'. No invitation required, it will be a fun evening with some interesting work and drink!

Link to book a place at the Touched conference:

https://www.patronbase.com/_LB/Productions

I hope to see you there

Miss Eventé

# 37 [6 September 2010]

Mini meltdown eventé

My anxiety has been simmering away all week and finally came to the surface on Sunday evening after a diversion on my way to work, someone being short with me, finally getting home to find out that the so called ‘mobile mic equipment’ I bought off the Internet isn’t so mobile after all. My anxiety is triggered by the pre-performance ritual I go through every time I make a piece of work, the stress of juggling money to pay for materials and technically not really knowing what im doing desperately makes me want a magic fairy to help me. A large Bacardi breezer, twenty Marlboro lights and a little cry later sorted me out. I just sometimes feel very alone and unsure about new work and get frustrated that I don't know more techy things. I should really be getting some support from the university with my MA piece but they are so unhelpful, which is why I wanted to avoid dealing with them and resolve the work myself. I have booked out space at the studio this week and it was such a relief to move my materials out of the spare room and really have a good look at them in a white space. I felt solace entering the studio and have had a sense of moving the work on which is difficult for me to feel when I am working at home. This is part of my process I need to start the grain of my idea at home to freely experiment but then the work reaches a stage were I have to physically move it to the studio to take it to the next stage. The balloon drop is bigger than I expected so I have made it shorter to make it more in proportion with the length of the display board. This week I need to get my artwork ready for my cardboard cut-out which again worries me as I need to order it on the Internet so who knows what it will look like until it is delivered, fingers crossed.

# 36 [19 August 2010]

One-woman show

I have been doing some research on the Internet in-between shifts at work looking at one-woman shows. I found many female comedians on You Tube, however I found the most funny performances by drag acts particularly Anna Conda who like most drag artists mime to songs and dance around a bit, which is exactly what I’m looking for! I particularly liked this piece a spin on the famous Tiffany track, I think were alone now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LURFNo94daE 

I love the simple stage set design with the focus on the performer. Why is it so funny watching men dressed as women prancing around like children? I know why, because its ‘funny’ something you rarely see in the art world. To get some feedback on my first draft for my performance ‘The Event’ I have sent a rough script to some of my friends to see what they think and get references to other peoples work. One of my friends suggested looking at Miss World speeches which again I had a right laugh watching videos on You Tube of these beautiful women talking absolute nonsense all in aid of saving the children and ending world poverty. Reading through my script I have been developing my foreign accent, which has improved since watching videos of Zsa Zsa Gabor and Ivana Trump, I think I will call myself Miss Eventé. I booked a tour for next week at the Cornerhouse with Amy Rudolph around the Unrealised Potential exhibition, which will be ideal to research her hosting skills please follow link to show info:

http://www.cornerhouse.org/events/info.aspx?ID=1752&page=0

I have visited the show already so I am interested to compare and contrast the experience of being led through the space by someone else. My initial feelings of the exhibition was that it looked well designed although it felt like a series of deconstructed parts and that something was missing. Maybe this was because a different artist made the proposal for the exhibition on level 2. I do think that knowing before I entered the space that tours were planned to happen on this particular floor influenced my experience of it.

If anyone has any suggestions of artists to look at, and tips on hostessing skills please let me know, thanks again Andrew for your comments.

# 35 [9 August 2010]

Event Culture

My intervention work is a reaction to large-scale organised events, which this country is saturated with particularly art events such as the Liverpool Biennial, Manchester International Art Festival, and Frieze Art Fair. Such events predominantly show established high profile International contemporary artists who make these stages seem unattainable to new and emerging artists like myself. It seems that in this day and age we are only allowed or controlled to engage with each other in public by attending official cultural events. I am tired of seeing the same art and artists doing the circuit and see the potential of down sizing, which can create an intimate experience between the artist and the viewer. In my work I want to create my own mini event which pushes back to the organized art ‘spectacle’ by showing myself as un-spectacular.

The phenomenon of Tate Modern with its record-breaking visitor numbers could be criticised for creating a shopping mall like viewing experience of art. This way of funneling people through the space could be considered similar to an airport experience fills me with anxiety and concerns me whether people are capable of engaging with anything for longer than two minutes. The Tate Modern aim is to give the audience an ‘experience’ when they visit. However, are they merely just creating shallow encounters or a real opportunity for people to connect on a deeper level with art? The experience is a fleeting moment and once passed can feel like it never actually happened. As an artist this is an ongoing challenge and motivation for my work.

At the 2010 International Arts Festival in Manchester, Marina Abramovic curated a group show of Live Art and led a group initiation before entering the space at the Whitworth gallery. I attended this event and felt the most effective part of the performance was the group initiation which lasted around an hour, this involved the audience wearing white lab coats then sitting with around 200 people and being taken through a series of actions. For example we all had to drink a small cup of water in 7 minutes, another action required sitting in front of the person next to you and staring into their eyes for 5 minutes. The aim of the performance was to slow people down, bring them into the moment, make the audience more aware of their surroundings.

# 34 [30 July 2010]

Am I being too safe?

Here I go again questioning my proposed balloon arch, am I being too safe with this? Am I trying to fit in too much with the rest of the group? Deep down I want to do something live but I also worry that I wont have a presence in the show for 3 months, again I question, does this really matter? The strength in my work is having a live presence and using myself as material in a temporary situation. I could simply do a live piece on the opening night and repeat it intermittently over the 3-month period say once a week. I guess how long and when will depend on the nature of the work. I really struggle making proposals 2/3 months in advance of actually realising the work as it always changes. I feel really strongly that I do not want to show video documentation and that I want to use the energy and situation of an opening night. These feelings of worry are part of my process when I make live work, fear of looking stupid and crossing the line of the ‘status quo’ fills me with anxiety but also drives my work. I sense that the group would rather I showed a video or an object as they are easier to curate which I feel is the wrong attitude.

This week I have been doing some research on the Internet looking for images, which represent ‘celebrations’ and ‘parties’ this is helping me build a picture of how I want my mini event to look. I feel that the balloon drop idea is what I want to go with and to start building the performance around this. I need to consider if I want my event to look like an informal party or more corporate looking? Could I somehow combine the two aesthetics? I really like the structure of a corporate stand, which has two or three elements such as a display board, poster stand and plinth. These objects would be easy to move around the space and place next to the balloon net. On the Internet I found information about Liverpool’s sister cities, whatever that really means? They are Cologne, Germany and Shanghai, China. From this research I am eager to have an ‘International’ flavour to my performance. On a-n website I have been reading the visual arts research paper titled ‘Biennial and citywide events’ and I particularly enjoyed Jan Verwoert piece ‘Forget the national: Perform the International in the key of the local (and vice versa)!’ (http://www.a-n.co.uk/research/topic/471538) When I think of 'events' I also consider this to be birthday parties, weddings, a dinner party, and meeting up with friends. However I am aware of how large-scale events are taking over our city spaces for example last year we had the ‘International Arts Festival’ in Manchester, the following month, ‘Spanish weekend’ and after this was the Jazz Festival.