The Final Countdown

The day of our performance was abnormally sunny and fortunately the wind we had was minimal. Due to this we were able to make a few changes and adaptions to our pieces as we no longer needed piles of pennies to hold down our string, that marked out the shape of our cross like art work. These changes impacted the delivery of speech and overall aesthetic of the piece. The immediate change we made was to have all the pennies in the middle of the artwork in a pile on which the speaker counting to 9 thousand stood on. We found that this created a sense of purpose to place the pennies and made the journey to reach the pennies more direct and cleaner. The counter also formed a small platform in which they appeared elevated to project the numbers being counted. As a performance our instillation piece appeared successful, they proceeded to count and varying paces as the audience walked in and out of the site, providing a permanent visual and audio piece, which could be heard and seen through transitions between other pieces. The final summary of our piece occurred when reaching nine thousand and all the pennies were laid on the ground. As a group we all stood in the middle whilst the last counter counted the 8900 to 9000. After the 9000 had been counted to the speaker said ‘ Nine thousand Lincolnshire soliders died in the First world war ’

The artwork our work was based on was created by a Lincolnshire solider. The basic structure of the cross we were focusing upon held so many symbolic connotations that outlining them with a copper queens head imprinted coin felt patriotic in a sense but also negative as it is a symbol of sacrifice through its religious significance.

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Our final piece turned out successfully by well timing our counting by the end of the piece the audience walked past as we counted our final hundred and read out the fact and the artwork was a final created spectacle glistening in the May sun. The clear message we wanted to portray was translated verbally and physically it felt poignant and relevant to the site and ground we were working upon as its completion felt like a summary of our final understanding and appreciation for the lives lost.

9000 pennies548980_524692417569542_763127492_n

The T.A.N.K: Part 2

Once we had decided on creating the tank as a model, like the monument to be established on the roundabout at Tritton road, we thought about how we were going to make the tank. Several suggestions were tried from hay to cardboard boxes but we decided on using the chairs from the Grandstand because ‘materials themselves have been limited to those that efficiently make the general object form’ ((Morris, R (1993) ‘Anti-Form’ in Morris, R’s Continuous Project Altered Daily: The Writings of Robert Morris London: MIT Press)) the chairs replicated the tank in an easy, but still ambiguous way. Plus, we liked the idea of creating the tank out of objects that were already in and or left in the grandstand because, like the grandstand they had equally been forgotten about .

Since we decided to build the tank out of the chairs, we experimented with looking at the chairs already being there when the audience walked into the room, this worked well because at first the audience had no clue what it was, being just a pile of chairs and some netting set up in a specific way the tank still looked ambiguous enough that the audience would not understand what it was until the performance was underway and the use of soundscapes and dialogue would help them to understand what the sculpture was representing. Alternatively, we looked at simulating the movement of the tank’s caterpillar tracks with the chairs, we thought this image worked well and we decided to build the tank movement wise whilst the audience walked in.

Furthermore, we looked at how this movement was quite repetitive and we believed that each movement we made should be precise and repeatable; this is since the tank was quite mechanical we wanted to replicate that mechanical sense by making the movements accurate and in a form of repetition. We did this by using the whole group to move the chairs where two people would be in perfect sync with each other on each side to make it look like the tracks were moving perfectly; also, we would hold the chairs over the line of the other chairs to make it look neat and mechanical. We decided to add the mantra of the tank force ‘From the blood, through the mud, to the green fields beyond’ here since we believed that the mantra spoke of the goal of the tank and its forces.

Once we had established this much we wanted to look at how we could integrate the tank to the Grandstand, although the tanks were never really used or tested at the grandstand, however, we know there was trench training on the west common ‘Crenelated earthworks just south of the grandstand identify the location of a former training trench from WWI.’ ((Heritage Connection Lincoln West Common online: http://www.heritageconnectlincoln.com/character-area/west-common/64/description (accessed 25th March 2013) )) Additionally we found a picture in the archives on the first tank, Little Willie on the west common,

Little Willie normal

we can assume here that maybe the tank was brought to the west common to test out on the practice tranches to see whether it would be able to cross the trenches on the warfront.  Even though the tank was never really at the Grandstand we still believed it to be a strong part of Lincoln’s history much like the Grandstand that had been forgotten.

Penny for your thoughts?

Penny for your thoughts?

 

 

After a week of going into multiple banks and receiving a varied range of reactions, when asking to change our collected pounds into one penny coins, we thought about the use of the money outside our art piece. I became increasingly aware of the mass of money we had gathered, mainly because I had carried it! The weight of the endless plastic counting bags other than giving me backache, made me fully appreciate how much money we had collected and needed to complete out piece. Each member of the class had donated a sum of 3 pounds or above to our cause when we realized that our cause was just for a performance, what would you the money do once returned to its previous owner. Would each coin end up taken unexpected journeys like each of us had over the last few weeks, would it be used for good? Would it be put towards some form of regeneration? Or would it be dead money? Lost, stagnant, wasted like The Grandstand current use or like the soldiers, they stood for, majority of who were younger than 25. We felt we wanted to make sure the money wed carried, placed, scoured the banks of Lincoln high street to gather were put back into a project as positive as ours. It was this notion that inspired our question posed to the class, for them to part with their 3 pounds for the contribution of 90 pounds, 9 thousand one pennies, back into the community. We wanted the moneys use to carry on its good will after our piece so we began to research relevant, local charities that we felt were on the themes of women, equestrian, military based, the themes of the whole classes work as it was everyone’s money. We decided to present the charities to the class and see which they were most receptive too.

 

The first charity is; ‘Recycle a Race horse’ which is a Lancaster based rehabilitation center for ex race horses.(( http://www.thoroughbredrehabilitationcentre.co.uk/contact.php))

The second charity is; ‘Bransby Horse, rescue and welfare’ this local, which has two, bases one in Lincoln, that is concerned with providing a sanctuary for abused equine based animals and rehoming them.

((http://www.bransbyhorses.co.uk/home/home%20about%20us%20NEW.html))

The third charity is; ‘Addaction’ a charity that helps transform the lives of people affected by drug and alcohol abuse. Several member of the class has had personal interaction with the charity and some staff that work in center in Lincoln.

((http://www.addaction.org.uk/landing.asp?section=93&sectionTitle=What+we+do))

The Fourth Charity is; ‘Scotty’s Little Soldiers’ after asking a serving pilot for the RAF base Waddington, he felt this was the most worthwhile charity he knew of related to the military in the UK. The charity supports the children of the serving/fallen soldiers. ((http://www.scottyslittlesoldiers.co.uk/aboutus.html))

The fifth Charity is; ‘Be Attitude’ a charity used by the homeless people of Lincoln, which offers them shelter, food, companionship and support. Again member of the class have been and interacted with the staff and users of the site. In close relation with the Local charity ‘Nomad’ The charity itself is almost site specific, based in St. Mary’s church, it was formed through a homeless person knocking on the parish’s door where the idea of the shelter was first formed. ((http://nomadtrust.org.uk/about/st-mary-le-wigford-partnership/))

The sixth charity is; ‘Women For Women’ An international charity, who supports emotionally and financially over 351,00 female survivors of war and conflict. ((http://www.womenforwomen.org/))

The final charity is; ’Raffa’ The infamous charity offering support for the RAF family (ex soldiers and their families.) The national charity helps all generations with a relation to the RAF. ((http://www.rafa.org.uk/Who-we-are))

All of the charities listed have ties to the themes listed above, but more prominantly without realizing all involve and are based or restoration and transformation, whether it of a life, an animal or a worn torn family/village. The theme of change and restoration is so evident in all these charities and the aims of all our pieces, changing attitude towards the heritage surrounding all components The Grandstands past.

The City of Lincoln Brass Band and the Grandstand

I recently went on a drift, out towards the top of the city. Sitting back on a bench looking out over Lincoln, I spotted the grandstand. Almost lost out of view of the busy, noisy city, it looked peaceful and quiet. This observation made me reflect on site specific, and how I think it is our mission to show the residents and visitors of Lincoln, what a beautiful site it is. With such charisma, and history I believe what we are doing as a group, really brings life back into the building and what the audience should feel is proud of Lincoln, proud of the grandstand and inspired.  Having found that the City of Lincoln’s Brass Band rehearse in the weigh room, got me thinking about how the sounds of the city and history are incorporated into the grandstand.

The band is a continuation of the Lincoln Malleable Iron works band formed in 1893. ((http://www.cityoflincolnband.org.uk/Content/History/MasterPageHistory.html accessed: 14th April 2013)) In 1939 the band was disbanded from the Iron works due to the war. After the war the band was almost diminished because of the lack of player and funds available. However with help from Councillor Mrs Mary Sookias, who ‘bought’ the band, set them up with some new instruments and set them up with their new practice room at the Grandstand. 1979 saw the band having to move due to the Grandstand being refurbished, and only in the most recent years have the City band returned back to the weighing room.

During one of our visits to the Grandstand, Michael suggested having a look at the brass bands repertoire which had been written on a blackboard in the weigh room, to see if I could get hold of any of the music or indeed play it. One of the songs on the sheet was ‘The Lincolnshire Poacher’. On our recent trip to the Lincolnshire Life museum, there was a display up about this very song and I was able to source the music from a reliable source as the song is a wide spread March, used up and down the country. The song was originally use by the 10th regiments of the Foot and its successors the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment, known as ‘the poachers’. After this it was adopted by the Royal Air force College, Lincolnshire in 1919 as a quick march. The song is listened to with lyrics or instrumental and all brass bands in Lincolnshire use the well known song, to show and remind themselves of their heritage.

Although I have not found a moment in the performance to play this or indeed a song close to war (the last post) can be worked in, I am sure as the piece develops a clear slot will arise, whether it is in some dead space or enhancing another groups piece. The band itself has been affected by the war, and loss and development and restoration similar to the similar themes we explore in the various performance aspects so i think it would be a huge loss if it was not used. I believe there is something magical about a brass sound hitting the walls of such an historic and quiet building which can bring it back to life within an instance.

The Worth of a Penny

Upon a visit to the ‘Lincolnshire Life Museum’ the underlying theme of our piece appeared to be edited. We were struck by one fact displayed on a board, which sparked the theme of our piece not to be changed, but updated. The fact stated was that ‘Nine thousand Lincolnshire men died in the Great War.’ This statistic resonated with us as a group, although we had been attached and moved by the tale of the Beechey Brothers, we wanted to represent that moving story, but not detract from the sheer amount of lives lost of local men, which we were unaware of. We found ourselves at a cross roads where it appeared we could either pick the personal, infamous story of a mothers loss of 5 sons or focus on the 9 thousand lives lost, we decided not to dismiss either ideas and show both. We wanted to do this in a simplicity way of physically showing nine thousand lives and then also telling the story of the Beechey Brothers. We found an area of The Grandstand, which we felt we could hold an instillation piece in which we could represent the 9 thousand local lives lost. We chose an outside patch which was boarded by a white fence, which we knew to be the ‘ parade ring’ we felt this prominent as we were showing the lives like the horses would have been shown in previous times. By physically having the piece on the earth outside The Grandstand; which was uneven due to the trenches that had been built at a time when the grandstand had been used for military purposes, we felt it created a more honest and authentic piece. The idea of placing something on the ground in which the said men would have walked and trained made the link between the site and our work ever more prominent and reflective.

We noted this meant we would be subject on the day of performance to the elements, we had rehearsals in the snow and severe worry of windy conditions which mean the positioning of the pennies were crucial to hold down the string that would mark our piece.  The environment might oblige you to respond in a certain ways, prefiguring the performance.’(( Pearson Mike, 2010, Site Specific Performance, London: Palgrave Macmillian.))

The idea of using an item or fact to represent the lives lost we found as a medium to link our previous work and our new inspiration, we felt the stories, letters and art work which we had discovered in our research still needed to be staged in some form; so we developed the idea of an installation piece. We decided to use nine thousand ‘something’s’ to create a piece of artwork we had found in our research. A Lincolnshire Solider had created the artwork in the trenches. We wanted an item that was small enough for us to replicate this piece of art by filling it or outlining using all nine thousand of the ‘something’s’. After research we found an instillation piece by the practioneer John Newling. His most recent work focused on the growing of plants and fruit in urban and religious locations. He states on his blog when commenting on his 2013 piece Ecologies of value ‘The first section of the exhibition plays with ideas relating to money and religion.’ ((http://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/art/john-newling-0)) In his exhibition he displayed 50,000 two-piece pennies in a church. This lead us to the notion of look at the value of 1 pennies, the idea of money in an environment which took thousands of bets each race, seemed to link directly to The Grandstand on that level. We also found placing the pennies on the earth caused them to be uneven due to the marks left by tracks of previous tanks and trenches making the reality of the situation and lives lost come to the fore front of our and the audiences mind when replicating the art piece. The coins not only link to the betting side of the Grandstand, but also the constant theme of worth, the worth of the almost retired building, the worth of a life, the self explainary worth of currency, which in todays economical climate regularly fluxgates. We want the process of creating the piece to be interactive and for the audience to place a penny on the art work fully aware it represents one life, it makes the connection personal as well as expressing the magnitude of life’s lost.