Author: Sophie Jane Bullivant

The Women of War characters were a prominent part of the beginning of our performance, Safe Bet. We performed a repetitive sequence in front of the wall, next to the Weighing Room. The four hooks on the wall symbolised a mirror for each woman, and we continuously moved down the line of hooks, applying different make-up at each mirror. For example, I applied powder at the first hook and then moved to the next hook, passing the object to another woman, whilst also receiving the lipstick. The sequence continued while the audience were greeted by the sound of the megaphone.

The first performances took place in a rotation format, and the audience went to the different performances in small groups. During the rotation, the audience returned to the seating area in the Weighing Room, to await the next performance/activity. We, the Women of War, remained in the corner of the room, and applied make-up and styled our hair. We also dabbed tea onto our legs and drew black lines onto our calves, which was a popular act of women during the war, to create the illusion that they were wearing silk stockings. Thus, the scent of tea and sweet perfume drifted through the room, for the audience to feel absorbed in the piece, as their senses were heightened. The action of waiting was also a chance for the audience to reflect on what they had experienced so far. Wolfgang Iser states that “Social communication […] arises out of the fact that people cannot experience how others experience” ((Iser, Wolfgang (2001) ‘Interaction between Text and Reader’ in Colin Counsell and Laurie Wolf (ed.) Performance Analysis, London: Routledge.)). As a result, the ‘waiting in limbo’ space that was created was an opportunity for the audience to briefly share opinions.

After the application of make-up, we (as the women) stood proudly in front of the audience. We wanted the audience to see the women as merely being on display, as they were during the pre-war period. Thus, we highlighted our smart, feminine attire and pristine make-up by posing in a row. Our position was a direct contrast to the factory scene that occurred later, where the women had a true purpose and an important role in Britain’s success in the war. Our journey and the transformation of the women throughout the performance is represented through the large cloth that we hung above the length of the Weighing Room ceiling. The cloth also symbolised the aeroplane wings that the Women of War sewed in the factories, and the fact that we used unwanted clothing of our fellow group members also emphasised our strong theme of community.

The Women of War’s main piece of the performance was the factory sewing scene, in the kitchen/shower room. The scene can be regarded as an exhibition and a piece of ‘Museum Theatre’. Catherine Hughes states:

In this age of deconstruction, the new focus on education has rattled the foundations of museums by bringing up questions about how we view knowledge, how we perceive the learning process, and how we determine whose point of view is dominant ((Hughes, Catherine (1998) ‘The Nature of Museums and Theatre’, Museum Theatre, Portsmouth: Heinemann.)).

Thus, the audiences’ reactions made each of us realise how thought provoking our scene had been. For example, my role was to greet the audience and invite a maximum of five people into the kitchen space. Ironically, the audience members that I chose were all male, yet this happened at random. However, a member of the audience later stated that he found the close proximity of the male audience highly poignant, as it highlighted the contrast between the genders, and suggested that the women’s hard work was, in contrast, overlooked by the men during the war. I informed the audience member that this was unintentional, yet the selection of the five males had created a new perspective of our scene. Another unexpected audience reaction that occurred during the scene was when the audience had their tea swiftly taken off them and poured down the urinals. There were many sighs of disappointment and reluctance, which highlighted the happiness and comfort that people feel with a cup of tea. Furthermore, the reactions emphasised the important message of the scene, which consisted of the tea representing community, and how community is literally being ‘poured down the drain’. Also metaphorically, the removal of the tea signifies how the Grandstand site is currently wasted and discarded. Cathy Turner reflects on such an occurrence, believing that “each occupation, or traversal, or transgression of space offers a reinterpretation of it, even a rewriting” ((Turner, Cathy (2004) ‘Palimpsest or Potential Space? Finding a Vocabulary for Site-Specific Performance, New Theatre Quarterly, XX (4) pp. 373-390.)), and personally, the opportunity for a plethora of meanings and audience interpretations, is the essence of site-specific performance.

During the last session at the site, the Women of War group decided to alter the proxemics of the audience to the performers. Since our piece is set in the kitchen/washroom and has limited space, the group decided it would be more appropriate to keep the audience partitioned from the acting space. We recently visited The Museum of Lincolnshire Life, inspiring the idea of an audience viewing our piece as a form of an exhibition, which will create a different experience for the audience, as opposed to the rest of the performance. Furthermore, the journey that the audience will take through the site is largely participatory and the audience are controlled by a narrative. However, our piece is now designed to be seen ‘in passing’, and cordoned off by twine, to resemble a museum display. Mike Pearson states:

Both proxemics, interpersonal distances from performer to performer and performer to spectator, and haptics, the touch of self and other, may become part of the expressive repertoire of performers and of the dramaturgical fabric of performance ((Pearson, Mike (2010) Site-Specific Performance, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.)).

In reflection of Pearson, the Women of War group have recognised the effectiveness of framing the piece, by only allowing the audience in the alcove entrance of the room. Therefore, this creates either a highly intimate viewing point, if there is a large audience watching at the same time, or contrastingly, an isolated, reflective space for a single audience member. The literal framing of our piece also emphasises our cloth installation as a “theatrical vignette” ((Pinchbeck, Michael (2013) ‘Safe Bet’, seminar, Site- Specific Performance, Lincoln: University of Lincoln, 17 April.)), as apposed to the view during the journey of the performance, where it hangs above their heads. Instead, the installation in the framed ‘exhibition’ space can be viewed much more intimately, and its connection to our factory scene can be recognised.

In my previous blog (The Wall), I touched upon the notion of rituals. The whole group has seemingly integrated the idea of rituals more and more frequently as the performance rehearsals have progressed. For example, the T.A.N.K  group have recently explored the technique of repeating a series of moves with chairs, to create the simulation of a moving tank. The regimented physicality of the piece also suggests the serious backdrop of warfare.

The art of performance itself is speculated in site-specific performance, as performers are exposed to “extended conditions of surface, climate and architectural enclosure” ((Pearson, Mike (2010) Site-Specific Performance, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.)) that we are not usually subjected to in a theatre. Furthermore, our bodies and voices are affected by sites not designed for theatrical performances, and the performers must adapt. For example, our Women of War piece is largely set in the kitchen/shower/wash room, located at the far end of the Weighing Room. Becoming factory women of the war, we perform patterns of movement and actions that resemble their roles. Phoebe and Emily’s characters’ perform a sewing routine, folding and cutting material, whilst my character weaves through the space pouring tea and sweeping the floor. The ritualistic movement demonstrates how we are at one with the site, and are responding to the objects around us. Moreover, “Tschumi speaks of ‘architecture in an expanded sense whereby the movement of bodies in space [is] just as important as the space itself’” ((Turner, Cathy (2010) “Mis-Guidance and Spatial Planning: Dramaturgies of Public Space”, Contemporary Theatre Review, XX (2): pp. 149-161.)). Gododdin (1988), performed by Brith Gof, also suggests that site-specific performance is strongly associated with physical theatre, as the “performers are put to the test” (Pearson 2010, p. 173). Totem (1998), by Lone Twin, also demonstrates how “the physically gruelling effort expanded by the performers drew attention to the actual process of labour inherent in the piece” ((Govan, Emma, Helen Nicholson and Katie Normington (2007) Making a Performance: Devising Histories and Contemporary Practices, London and New York: Routledge.)). Thus, the audience are watching something real occur, and the repetitive, formulaic movements that we have created, help to exaggerate this concept.

Another form of ritual that occurs is the journey that binds the Grandstand performance together. As part of the Women of War group, it is planned that our characters will become guides for the audience. Our leadership though the performance demonstrates our on-going exploration of the site, and is a method of chorography. Ingold states that “To be a place, every somewhere must lie on one or several paths of movement to and from places elsewhere. Life is lived, I reasoned, along paths, not just in places, and paths are lines of a sort” ((Ingold, T. (2007) Lines: A Brief History, London and New York: Routledge.)). In effect, we are mapping out the site with our movement, which is similarly presented towards the end of the performance. A key idea of the Restoration group is to plot the outline of the original Grandstand that once stood on the site, with yarn, so that the audience have a vivid image of the site’s past. The audience will be led around the shape, in silence, for each of them to read the ideas about the site’s future that have been attached to the yarn. This journey is itself a moment of ritual, as the audience can reflect on what they have seen and imagine what they would like the site to be.

Ultimately, the use of ritual, through journeys, physical theatre and repetitive sequences, will emphasise our connection to the site and encourage the audience to respond themselves.

The wall that remains outside, next to the Weighing Room, is set to be a prominent aspect of the performance. The Women of War group have since developed the ‘Suppression versus Liberation’ idea, and the wall is now likely to mark the end of our piece. Rather than the wall and chains representing women’s societal position pre-war, the location will be strongly visual, hanging objects that symbolise key aspects of the whole performance. For example, the group that are particularly interested in horse racing and betting, their object may be a horse shoe. The Women of War group are planning to hang a china tea cup, to symbolise the domestic role of women, and the community essence of the site that still remains today.

After more group discussion, the installation is possibly going to be developed further, with audience members taking part in the hanging of the objects. The effect of audience participation highlights the importance of the Grandstand as a landmark for the community of the city, and suggests a sense of ‘ritual’ or ‘memorial’. The wall will subsequently remain as a commemoration of the performance, being fixed, as opposed to the performance itself, which will be unique and cannot be the same again. The wall installation idea is inspired by the Pont de l’Archevêché, a bridge in Paris that is covered in padlocks left by lovers. The intriguing display is an example of evoking repercussions, emotion and brings life to the site itself. The tree structures on Luzhkov Bridge in Moscow also display padlocks; each representing the strength of a relationship. These random spectacles created purely by human intuition demonstrates “the transforming of the everyday into the extraordinary, the finding of poetry in something so mundane as a padlock” ((Daily Mail (2012) The Lock of Love, Online: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2172901/The-lock-love-For-years-couples-world-left-padlocks-bridges-tokens-love-Now-Britons-unlocking-inner-passions-too.html (accessed 21 March 2013).)). The objects that we choose to hang may also be seemingly unexciting, yet their presence on the wall brings about a new meaning, and equally emphasises the importance of the wall.

The padlock displays are similar to the recurrence of hanging shoes or trainers, sometimes known as ‘shoefiti’. The mysterious appearance of shoes, commonly on power lines, is an event that occurs anonymously, and is then discovered as a piece of contemporary, urban art. Credibility as art is questionable for many, but the shoes are thought to resemble “the number of runners” ((Gabrielle Giroday (2011) Running down theories about hanging shoes, Online: http://www.brandonsun.com/breaking-news/running-down-theories-about-hanging-shoes-118826304.html (accessed 21 March 2013).)) that pass down a street in some areas of Europe. The shoes have a ghostly effect, in the way that they resemble someone that has once been there to hang them, and the site can then conjure up questions and discussion by onlookers.

Sage Vaughn, a fine artist from Los Angeles, has recently collaborated with Converse to create a piece of public art for the SXSW Festival in Texas.The Monument 1 installation consisted of a metal structure with hanging Converse trainers. The company have also created pop-up stores in Paris, with similar decorative hangings of shoes, as a method of demonstrating their creativity.

The above examples demonstrate the connection between visual art and site that has also been discussed by Kastner and Wallis, in their typology of land art (2008):

Integration: the manipulation of the material landscape in its own right, the artist adding, removing or displacing materials – marking, cutting, rearranging – to create sculpture, drawing out the relationships between existing characteristics of site and evidence of human intervention. This is often monumental in scale, as in Robert Smithson’s large-scale construction Spiral Jetty (1970) ((Pearson, Mike (2010) Site-Specific Performance, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.)).

Thus, our performance at the Grandstand with the inclusion of symbolic visual installations can communicate the relationship that the group has established with the site, and emphasising the connection of the site and the city itself. The objects on the wall will also indicate the historical context of the site, both past and present, and as a result will bring about a positive future for the Grandstand.

The notion of a journey is important to our Women of War performance piece, as we want to portray the transition that women took in society (as a direct effect of the war). To present the power and liberation that women gained during the war effectively, the Women of War group want to contrast the image with a representation of the lack of power that the women had previously.

 

The piece will begin outside, at the wall originally used to chain up the horses. One idea is to tie the female characters onto the wall, to symbolise how they were supressed in pre-war society. However, Pearson questions how performance can be “adjusted for different audiences” ((Pearson, Mike (2011) Some Approaches to Research, Online: http://blackboard.lincoln.ac.uk/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_67088_1%26url%3D (accessed Friday 8 March 2013).)), and in relation to our piece, we need to consider the age of our audience. Furthermore, the fact that our piece centres on war is significant to Pearson’s question, as awareness to sensitivity may be necessary for certain audience members. For example, we will use ribbon to tie the women to the wall, to ensure that the image is not too brutal, at a time when the notion of conflict is still resonant in our society. Another reason for the use of ribbon is that it will be taken directly from the garments that make up the cloth installation, revealed later in the piece. The ribbon will thus be a momentous aspect of the performance, as it links the outside scene to the inside. Equally, the image of the women tied to where the horses would have originally been kept connects the Grandstand’s war history with the more obvious history of the horseracing. Therefore, the idea can successfully “illuminate, explicate and problematize the multiplicity of meanings” ((Pearson, Mike (2011) Some Approaches to Research, Online: http://blackboard.lincoln.ac.uk/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_67088_1%26url%3D (accessed Friday 8 March 2013).)) that resound within the Grandstand.