Kastner and Wallis’s typology of land art (1998) suggests involvement: “the artist in a one-to-one relationship with the land, using his or her body in forms of ritual practise” ((Pearson, Mike (2010) Site Specific Performance, Palgrave Macmillan, p. 33)).
Our performance developed a significant amount from this first stimulus. Originally we wanted to become a part of our architecture physically, playing around and finding shapes and spaces that our bodies could reproduce or fit into. Willi Dorner stated that to “see the space you also have to feel the space. Feel closer to the city. Closer to where you come from” ((Pinchbeck, Michael (2013) Site-Specific Performance Week Two: Practice [shown at Lincoln: The University of Lincoln. Main Admin Building] [viewed on 23/01/2013])). From this we were able to become a part of the landscape around us, be physically in touch with the architecture that has been built over the years. By being part of the architecture, thoroughly connecting with the space around us, it enabled us to gain a solid understanding of our site. We studied The Grandstand’s past and the many different experiences it has encountered through the years, its current present state and we ended in searching for hope in the site’s future. This would not have been possible if we did not connect with it, physically and most importantly emotionally. The relationship we had with our site was strong. From this we endeavoured to take our audience on a journey through past, present and future. We wanted to “recreate journeys and see how time has affected memory of the movements and memory of the space” ((Pinchbeck, Michael (2013) Site-Specific Performance Week Two: Practice [shown at Lincoln: The University of Lincoln. Main Admin Building] [viewed on 23/01/2013])). The aim was to have the audience experience the many different events that had taken place at The Grandstand, from World War One, the role of women during the war, the treatment of horses at the races and finally the dilapidation of The Grandstand itself. The journey the whole class created for the performance was successful overall. By the time spectators arrived at our restoration piece they had been given sufficient time to form their own opinion of The Grandstand. This made it easier for them to write down what they thought the site should become, through experiencing its past and present it enabled the audience to contemplate on the space’s strongest function. The responses we received from the spectators were excellent and nobody refused to participate. Each and every one wrote down their own suggestion, many quite similar to the 200 we had already collected and attached to our restored stands. An unexpected response we received was some spectators writing on ideas already attached, such as demolish, and they wrote answers such as ‘no’ or ‘don’t demolish’ next to the suggestion. Although unexpected, we were pleasantly surprised and delighted with how the audience were engaging with our performance. We were thankful for their participation and helping build the hope for the site’s future. We successfully managed to show that “a space is not empty but full of meaning” ((Goven, Emma, Helen Nicholson and Katie Nicholson (2007) Making a Performance: Devising Histories and Contemporary Practices, London: Routledge, p. 121)), we believe we brought the meaning back to the site through our performance.
As a part of our post show performance we took the twine with all the suggestions attached into the centre of Lincoln town. We then laid the twine across the high street, allowing the public to attach any ideas they had. Many members of the public approached us, asking what it was we were doing. It was explained to them what we had done in our performance before hand, and that we were then bringing the future of The Grandstand back to the public. Some people added their own ideas and others just wanted to take a look at the suggestions already provided on the twine. It would be fantastic in years to come to think that The Grandstand may become something from one of our founded suggestions; we would have given the site a future. Our performance became “a restoration of the absent present” ((Pearson, Mike (2010) Site- Specific Performance: New York, Palgrave Macmillan, p. 46)). We leave this project with hope, hope that our site won’t always stand bare and vacant and hope that it won’t always be forgotten by the people of Lincolnshire.
Here is a video of a part of our post show performance: