Author: Kash Walker

Post Show Evaluation

May 1^st 2013.

We arrived at the site, the Grandstand with one hundred or so newspapers ready to ‘wrap’ our ‘space’ making it a place of symbolic meaning. We started to paper the room, we could see that we were covering and protecting the walls from it loneliness, making it warm and used once more. The taped horse was being shaped up and all was in progress. We had not covered the room entirely before but we felt it would be fine in the time we had. This turn out to be incorrect, we ran out of provision for sticking the newspaper the walls and it was taking much longer than we anticipated. But there was help, the T.A.N.K group was able to help us prepare the room and help to get ourselves covered in newspaper.

On reflection, the preparation for the performance took a lot of time, it left us little time to place props and set up our projection and prepare for the performance itself. But it kept us alert and not too relaxed and we had a second chance to prepare, which we prioritised in. The night before our group had discussed using a quote from the bible to help some up or performance, it was, ‘People come into this world with nothing, and when we die we leave with nothing’ Ecclesiastes 5vs 10-17((The Holy Bible, New Centry version, 2003: Thomas Nelson Inc)). It helped to show the Grand stand for what it was without a use, ‘nothing’ it has lost it purpose. It also helps to describe how we were first presented with the Grandstand and its empty shell, its echoing emptiness. We came to perform and we left with what we came with, leaving the Grandstand as it was. We also used the red lights that were on the walls in the Grandstand to ‘transform’ the space, to give its warmth back once more, with our piece aiding this, with a day at the races.

As we performed for the last time, we became completely immersed in the performance. It was receive better than expected with laughter from the crowd and their full attention to the meaning of the performance. We proved that ‘performers will blend fact and fiction and will shape real material that the will find in order to develop the creative project’ ((Govan,E, Nicholson,H and Normington,K. (2007). Making a Performance. London: Routledge. p.131)), our project was aimed to do this and I believe it did so.

We believe and I believe that we created a piece that spoke endless word for a silent building, the Grandstand. We showed that it was a building that once stood out when it had something to show, through horse racing. We ‘engaged directly with the meaning and history’ ((Allain, P and Harvie, J. (2006). The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance. New York: Routledge.p.149)), to show what it is and who it was. We wanted to create a performance that would ‘provoke performers and audiences to interact, through both looking and contact’ ((Allain, P and Harvie, J. (2006). The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance. New York: Routledge.p.149)). I believe we did this through our piece and now the Grandstand has be left to feel alone once again to enjoy its history.

Works Cited

Rehearsals

Over several weeks we have been working on creating our final piece and it has come together, in many different ways then we expected.

Our performance now included multimedia, props, music, betting slips and speech. It was now a ‘representation’ of the Grandstand and it was built on the theme of loss and the ‘nothing’ that the Grandstand had become.

Our performance/instillation:

We will let the audience enter to a room that is covered in newspaper; this is to demonstrate that we are preserving the Grandstand, sheltering it for its move with us, its journey. As Will Dorner states, ‘I got to see a place which seemed to me empty and uncared for’ ((Pinchbeck,M. (2005). Nottdance. Dance4.)), and this is what we were providing for the space a caring cover.

As the performance continues, a poem will start to be recited from the wall of the Grandstand, the poem The horse that I am riding by Ric S.Bastasa.  The audience will notice five people merged in to the wall, in suits of newspaper. We are ‘inhabitants’ of the space previously ‘strangers.’ This is to show symbolism of the grandstand itself in plane sight but never noticed, due to it ‘none’ purpose.

“the horse gets nothing.” ((Bastasa, R . (2010). The Horse That I Am Riding. Available: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-horse-that-i-am-riding/. Last accessed 5th May 2013.))

This final sentence of the poem uttered in unison. This is to demonstrate a realisation that in fact, what has the Grandstand gained from all of its years of service? ‘Nothing.’  This shows the ‘loss’ and now we will show our audience our symbolic ‘journey’ of how the Grandstand has been left as a result.

William Tell, Overture sounds; we break away from the wall leaving the instillation, reenacting a day at the Grandstand. “2:1 Midnight Dance”, shouting odds, walking around the audience dropping betting slip, people’s dream, hopes and money, all ‘loss.’ To then finally asking them to, “place your bets here!” We then queue up against the wall as if waiting to place our bets watching, Eadweard Muybridge, Horse in motion, that has been on an endless loop for the whole performance. Our feet start tapping, we are being the horse. Impatient, strong and then winning. We create a screen made out of Racing Posts showing the betting, the walls it has created around us, the Grandstand and the emptiness that will soon follow.

The music ends, the race is over. But who is the winner? The floor is swept away, revealing a house outline, has it been killed? The idea came from the plans for the Grandstand to become a mortuary, so this is how we symbolised it. It is also there to display that horses are shot if they incur an injury during racing as they are ‘useless’ and will never be able to race again. This shows a relation to the Grandstand and its ‘uselessness,’

Then finally, the winner of the Lincoln Handicap 2013, Leviate is revealed. A plate of mincemeat, purposely done to show today’s food scandals with horsemeat mixed In with ‘Tesco’s’ beef mince. We applaud, and continue to clean, packing away the caring newspaper and hopeless betting slips, to leave the Grandstand ‘bare,’ with ‘nothing.’ It has not escaped its ‘loss,’ as it was always there.

Works Cited

Influence

Through looking at the use of newspaper, this week our group started to look at the way in which we might be able to camouflage on ourselves in the space we wanted to create. We were then led to an artist called, Emma Hack.  Emma is known for ‘exploring the notion of camouflage’ ((Hack. E. (2013). Emma Hack – Diverse Multimedia Artist Skin Illustrator, Photographer, Sculptor. Available: http://www.emmahackartist.com.au/emma_art/the_artist.html#.UZC8sLXqmSo. Last accessed 5th May 2013.)), this is why she stood out to our group. She draws upon inspiration from the ‘iconic model, Veruschka’ ((Hack. E. (2013). Emma Hack – Diverse Multimedia Artist Skin Illustrator, Photographer, Sculptor. Available: http://www.emmahackartist.com.au/emma_art/the_artist.html#.UZC8sLXqmSo. Last accessed 5th May 2013.)), who also used body art to ‘blend’ into a walls. This was the kind of inspiration that our group looked, for the newspaper could be our means of camouflage.

We then progress our piece, to a new level. To combine loss, betting and the Grandstand itself, the newspaper was to become a container, helping us carry this idea forward. As a group we wanted to use the newspaper as a full body suit, head to toe. This was so we were able to be a part of the Grandstand itself.  We had the idea of using several different newspapers to represent the Grandstand, the Racing Post and the Lincoln student newspaper. This was because it offered mixing the present in to the past of horseracing, at the Grandstand.

As we wanted to explore the theme of betting throughout our piece we decide to experience a betting shop, William Hill’s betting shop. This experience would helped us to get an insight to how betting works and what atmosphere it creates. On our arrival to the shop we entered and everyone in the shop was silent, the only sound as the television blurring out odds. The walls were covered in newspapers stating all the odds of the races and everyone was dressed in dark colors. This gave us inspiration to our piece as we saw that the atmosphere created was one we were working towards. We wanted to create a build in tension, the race and the winner.

We now had all of the elements to our piece but we still had to place it all together, all the evidence, scripts and props, had to come to gather to create our final piece. Over the next few weeks we will be working on placing all the elements together to create a piece that delivers an answer to our site, the Grandstand. We are looking at ‘reframing and re-imagining place’ ((Govan,E, Nicholson,H and Normington,K. (2007). Making a Performance. London: Routledge.p.140)), the site was our message, we just have to think of how we were going to deliver it to our audience.

Works Cited

Research

By now we were very happy that we had a somewhat structured performance, but we wanted to explore more and add something extra to our piece.

As we explored, we had the chance to read into several practitioners’ works and gain some inspiration. We came to James Yarker and his piece on Stan’s Café and Site Specific Performance. We needed to look at the way in which ‘emphasis on specificity than on site’ ((Yarker, J. (2007) Stan’s Café and Site Specific Performance. Coventry University.)) was more important. We had to create something, as Yarker states, ‘outside the conventions and expectations of a theatre.’ ((Yarker, J. (2007) Stan’s Café and Site Specific Performance. Coventry University.))This then made our group work on looking at ways in which we could represent our piece to our audience, and if we wanted them as the observers or to be a ‘part’ of the performance stepping outside the conventions as it were.

We then had a trip to the Lincolnshire Archives, which was what we wanted, to see how we could link the past with the present. As they had a lot of material we came to a blueprint of the Grandstand, and its plans to become a mortuary as a precaution to war. This then became an interesting idea that our group wanted to focus on. This was because we wanted to look how we could link the ideas of loss and death of the Grandstand to its own past and possible future. The mortuary was a very clear way of displaying this.

We then continued by looking at the space that we were performing in, the ‘weighing room’ at the Grandstand. We looked at how we could somehow be physically part of the room. ‘Transforms place into spaces or spaces in places’ ((Govan,E, Nicholson,H and Normington,K. (2007). Making a Performance. London: Routledge.p.126)), we wanted our space with in the room to become a ‘place.’ This then led us to the idea of camouflage, and the idea of being a part of the ‘space.’

When we started looking at camouflage, we were led to an artist called Christo and his idea of wrapping famous buildings. It is almost a symbolic gesture of preserving or hiding the building from sight, almost testing if people appreciate the building to start with. He states, ‘ It is easier for some to grasp the wrapping concept and refer to their artworks entirely as “wrapping,” but the work is more about altering an environment than wrapping – which is only one way to do that’ ((Christo and Jeanne-Claude. (2013). Frequently Asked Questions.Available: http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/faq. Last accessed 5th May 2013.)), which was what we wanted as a group and this was how we were going to try. But what to wrap it with, what material and what was our reason for it?

We then started to look at newspaper as a material, this was because of it use when ‘wrapping’ an object to keep it safe on the ‘journey’ of moving house. This idea then became very interesting but why newspaper? how did it link to the grandstand? Because of this we questioned using it, until we realised the Racing Post, a newspaper that was perfect for our piece. This was due to the fact that it offered symbolic and physical reference to horses, which related to the Grandstand itself. It also helped us to think of way of placing the idea of betting into our piece. Our performance had started to take shape.

Works Cited

Planning

Throughout the weeks we have been working on gaining material that will help supply content to our performance, to help stimulate our audience. Knowing that we wanted to represent horse throughout our performance we were led to Eadweard Muybridge ‘instrumental in the development of instantaneous photography’ ((Muybridge, E. (2010). Introducing Eadweard Muybridge. Available: http://www.eadweardmuybridge.co.uk/muybridge_image_and_context/introducing_muybridge/. Last accessed 5th May 2013)), and his photographic capture off a moving horse to create the first motion video. This inspired us, as it felt like the horse in the motion video was a representation of what we wanted to represent. As it is running without cause, as it has no rider, relating to the grandstand and its missing cause. It was also appealing to us that the horse was in black and white, which was a symbol of a memory, which we liked the idea of using as a Grandstand memory. This was to show how the Grandstand was once proud to stand tall as a host to these proud, strong animals. The horses still remain but blocked of by a road and iron bars. As if the Grandstand has lost its purpose, and is completely alone.

We then came to the task of looking at Mike Pearson questions on ‘outline stances, attitudes and presuppositions’ ((Pearson, M. (2010) Site-Specific Performance. Palgrave Macmillan: London.p.22)), the questions that stood out to me were:

‘Am I a stranger or an inhabitant?’ ((Pearson, M. (2010) Site-Specific Performance. Palgrave Macmillan: London.p.22))

The site of the Grandstand was once a place of celebration and community, so is it an inhabitant? Or have the years of drifting memories has left it alone and forgotten, a stranger to itself.

‘Do I pass unnoticed or do I stick out?’ ((Pearson, M. (2010) Site-Specific Performance. Palgrave Macmillan: London.p.22))

The ‘Grand’ stand once stood tall in a busy environment, but is now shadowed in iron bars as a roadside building unused.

These questions offered an insight of the site itself and it gave me an idea. The idea was the Grandstand itself stood out but was unnoticed by Lincolns population, as it had no purpose, it then made me wondered how we could represent this in our performance? The idea of camouflage then became an interest to our group.

Our group then looked into the idea of how to represent the horse in the Grandstand and the theme of loss, through something vocal, this led us to a poem by Ric S.Bastasa called, The Horse That I Am Riding:

‘’then finally, the horse that i am riding,
the black one with long hair and
long feet, flying without wings,
speed nearing the speed of light,
has taken the lead, and the rest follow
tirelessly still,
i do not look back,
i do not beat the horse with a stick
i keep on riding making the horse
feel confident that i am still
supporting its cause, to be first,
to be famous

and then my horse wins,
the owner gets the real buck,
and i the jockey,
merely receives a little name
and a little commission.

the horse gets nothing. ‘’

((Bastasa, R . (2010). The Horse That I Am Riding. Available: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-horse-that-i-am-riding/. Last accessed 5th May 2013.))

We then tested this poem out in the Grandstand against a wall; we said the poem in cannon as if we were in a race. Then at the same time we would all end and at the same time all say, “the horse get nothing” ((Bastasa, R . (2010). The Horse That I Am Riding. Available: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-horse-that-i-am-riding/. Last accessed 5th May 2013.)). This was so we displayed the most important line of the poem was the last and it displayed a truth not normally shown to people, as they just look past this and see the jockey as the winner. This was a representation of the Grandstand now, it gets ‘nothing’ after a life time of purpose its now is a ‘nothing’ space. We want to show that it has lost everything to become a ‘nothing’ in plain sight.

Now all we had to do was to look how we could combine all these elements and progress them to make a site specific performance.

Works Cited