The joy of books…
I was able to collect my university pass on Monday, which meant that I could now access the library. I do a lot of my research online and often get frustrated at the limited information and imagery of performance/live art events. Looking through the catalogue of books I am really impressed with the variety of performance/live art titles they have. At the University of Salford they have two libraries that house the fine art collection, although it is possible to access the reference only books online.
Browsing the list of titles available I was grabbed by ‘Bad Reputation’, which contains performances, essays and interviews about the artist Penny Arcade aka Susan Ventura. Her colourful life story is documented in this book and interwoven into her performances. She was a runaway at 13, performed at the New York City Play-House at 17 and escaped from Andy Warhol’s Factory aged 19. She was performing in the NY gay scene in the 90’s whilst working in the daytime as a receptionist at a brothel. In her performances she is known for her dance breaks and talking directly to the audience.
Discovering Penny Arcade is a relief as I rarely find artists work I like or is linked in some way to my own practice. I am a big fan of Forced Entertainment’s work and thought they were the originators of talking to the audience, and dodgy dance routines then I discovered Penny. I am surprised that throughout all my reading around performance she has not come to my attention before. It does raise the questions of who and why certain artists get written into the history books and others left out. The book is written with such attitude and whilst I was reading it I kept imagining her NY, Italian accent.
Short video clip of Penny Arcade, Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore!
http://vimeo.com/39408749
I particularly like the portrait images of characters she has imitated. For example Andrea Whips a Warhol favourite, eccentric, who killed herself by jumping off the top of a building whilst holding a Barbie and can of coke. I am interested in Susan Ventura, imitating Penny Arcade, imitating Andrea Whips.
Project Re-think
Since looking at the José Camarón piece, ‘An oriental (Turkish/Algerian) woman’ it has got me re-looking at some artist images I had taken off the Internet. The images are of famous female contemporary artists either framed in a real life situation or documented at a performance. I particularly like Tracey Emin’s leg and knickers shot as she holds her paintbrush. I have thought about re-enacting this image for a photograph. To expand on this collection of images I could project the images onto me. There is something about the ephemeral projected image that can’t be pinned down. The light that creates the image offers an openness that a printed photograph doesn’t. Recently I have been creating digitally printed artist multiples and thought I would like to do more of this on the AA2A residency. However I want to take more risks and feel like creating a more ambitious installation. I am planning to get a tour of Media City and find out what resources are available through the university. I am envisaging the use of a large blacked out space, although I could use the photographic studio to experiment with projected images. Currently I am juggling a number of projects with part-time work and finding it difficult to get into the university. Although my practice is very research based with the actual physical making coming in at the end. I would like to plan some tutorials with the students and hope this can be arranged for December time.
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Stepping in and out of frames
This week I have been researching further into the José Camarón piece, ‘An oriental (Turkish/Algerian) woman’. My search started on the Internet and I found out that the piece is currently being shown at the British Museum. I emailed the research team and they kindly sent me more information about the artwork. I really like how the work is classified and described. The artwork is either photographed or scanned using black and white/colour coded bars and ruler at the edges of the frame. My first response from the British Museum did not include any information about the content of the work. However after contacting them again they sent me the following text:
Bibliography
McDonald 2012, pp.226–7.
One of Camarón’s most striking sheets, this brush drawing is based on Carle Van Loo’s Sultana Taking Coffee painted in the early 1750s and now in the Hermitage Museum, St Petersberg. Camarón would certainly have known of the painting through the print by Jacques Firmin Beauvarlet published around 1771. This provides a terminus ante quem for the drawing, making it one of the few that can be dated with any certainty. The similarities between the works are mainly in the dress of the seated woman, the small stool by her side and the curtained backdrop. But Camarón also introduced significant changes to make her more exotic, even alluring: she is turned more to face the viewer, smoke a pipe rather than taking coffee, her eyelids are heavily made up and there are beauty spots on her temple. A black servant stands in the background (her colour indicated by the shading on her face and wash on her arms) and in the garden beyond set upon plinth is a sculpture of a child riding a Sphinx that is very similar to the piece placed in the gardens of Palace of La Granja when they were created in the mid eighteenth century.
Learning more about the work only makes me want to do something with it. I feel a connection with the unknown woman in the drawing. The content seems to be more about the symbolism and style. As a performer I want you to see me and in my retail work I am someone who serves to the customers needs. I like the setting of the piece, a lady holding court and I would like to create a performance using this structure.
