Our ideas and research is gradually developing into vivid performance pieces now. A particular practitioner of site-specific performance who has inspired us is John Newling and his recent performance Where a Place Becomes a Site (2013). His participatory performance involved an installation of a long yellow jacket, suspended from the ceiling of Broadmarsh shopping centre, which draped along the floor for members of the public to admire.
Newling’s performance relates to our Women of War theme, as we wish to recreate a sewing factory atmosphere inside the Grandstand. Therefore, we are similarly creating a long piece of cloth, from scraps of material throughout the ideas/rehearsal process, which will then become an installation for the final performance. The cloth represents the role of women during the world wars and their newfound purpose in life. The process of sewing the large piece of cloth is being regularly documented in videos, which we then hope to project onto the cloth itself during the performance. The group is keen to use the corridor space that connects the main room with the RAF room, and could otherwise be forgotten as ‘dead space’. Consequently, we want to install the cloth there, for the audience to view as they journey from one space to the next.
Newling was there in person at the shopping centre, to ask passers-by for a ‘value’ in their life, and in appreciation he offered them a small piece of the jacket material. The concept of audience participation is significant to the Grandstand site, as collectively as a group we all feel that it is important to capture the audience members’ thoughts, emotions and ideas for the future of the Grandstand, as part of the final performance. Furthermore, the ‘values’ that Newling collected during the performance “will become a script for this live reading at Nottingham Contemporary” ((Nottingham Contemporary (2013) Where a Place Becomes a Site: Values, A Reading, Online: http://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/event/where-place-becomes-site-values-reading (accessed Wednesday 27 February 2013).)), and likewise our feedback from audience members will, we hope, become part of an ongoing process for the Grandstand’s future.
The prospect of our performance as a starting point for the revitalisation of the Grandstand is discussed by Mike Pearson, who states that performance can function as “occasioning a critical reappraisal of the inherent qualities of places rarely visited” ((Pearson, Mike (2011) Why Performance?, Online: http://blackboard.lincoln.ac.uk/webapps/blackboard/execute/content/file?cmd=view&content_id=_716442_1&course_id=_67088_1 (accessed Saturday 2 March 2013).)). Thus, with a strong focus on research, there is the opportunity to place the site in the public eye once again, and to re-establish the Grandstand as a well-known landmark of Lincoln.