Author: Phoebe Wall-Palmer

‘Site may be transformed by the disruptive presence of performance seeking a relationship other than that of a ready-made scenic backdrop of against which to place its figures.’ ((Brook, Peter (2008) The Empty Space, London: Penguin Classics, p. 45))

On the 1^st of May 2013, our group attempted to inject life back into a site that normally lies silent. The research process meant absorbing and collecting the history of the sites past, thanks to The Lincolnshire Archives and The Museum of Lincolnshire Life, for example.

On performance day there were a few last minute adjustments. We had been told that the Grandstand had also been used as a place for blood donation, so we decided that when we take the audience through to the next section, after the rotation, we would thank them for coming and donating their blood to us. This was another moment of the past momentarily switching into the present, showing our aim for celebrating the Grandstand’s history. In addition, it introduced some humour into the piece, as the audience did not know what was coming next.

There were a few hiccups throughout the performance, where the rotation did not work as efficiently as we had hoped, and some audience members were waiting longer than others. We do hope, however, that as our sub group was a distraction in the same room (applying make up etc.) it meant that the piece did not fall flat, despite the extended time the audience had to wait.

Furthermore, when asking some audience members after the performance, it was clear that some had not noticed the stretch of material along the weighing room. In many respects, it proves the effectiveness of the entire piece as it shows they were immersed in the performance. The material was not on a persons ordinary sight line, as it was above them. As we realised through our ‘Drifting’ task at the beginning of the module, it is not until you intentionally look away from familiarity that you see the unnoticed. If we were to repeat the performance then the positioning of the material however, would be one to reconsider.

Our feedback from the audience was hugely positive and we were all so appreciative that the community had returned to the Grandstand once again. Specifically for our piece, an audience member described a slight sadness and wistfulness when watching us in the factory scene. The combination of 1940s music, the smell of tea and seeing a vision of the past being encapsulated within the space seemed to provoke this feeling. I feel our sub-group achieved the reconstruction of the past and celebration of femininity, but also embodied the hard work and strength that women would have had to demonstrate. We just hope that our representation did them justice.

We all became a ‘disruptive presence’ ((Ibid.)) to the normal order of the site. But I feel it was a worthy disruption. Hopefully, the Grandstand does not lay silent once again, and our project has highlighted the potential for the site. One day, the gateway to Lincoln will hopefully exist once again.

The Women of War during dress rehearsal…

 

The days leading up to the final performance were filled with the final changes to the piece and the last bits of sewing to create the patchwork material stretching from one end of the weighing room to the other.

We added a couple of sections to the beginning of the piece, mainly in the transitions, to fill dead space and hopefully become a familiar face to the audience throughout. A couple of the other groups want to use a rotation system for the audience. However, because their pieces may vary in length the audience may find that they have to wait a little while for the next piece. The audience reconvene in the first half of the weighing room, so our sub-group will set up an area in the corner where we will be applying make-up and brushing each others hair, as if we are getting ready for an evening out. But the most prominent addition will applying tea to our legs and drawing a line, using eyeliner, to create the effect of stockings. Goodman explains:

Women such as Helen Johnson and her friends wanted to look their best when they went out on a Saturday night… “There were no tights, prior to the war    everyone wore stockings… we used to enlist the help of our best friend who would apply this [Leg Tan] with a sponge or cotton wool, then there was a delicate operation of putting a pencil mark down the back of the leg for the seam.” ((Goodman, Philomena (2002) Women, Sexuality and War, Hampshire and New York: Palgrave, p. 66.))

By physically helping each other to apply the eyeliner, we wanted to demonstrate togetherness and sisterhood, connoting the women pulling together when they’re husbands were away. In addition, we want to show a contrast between our femininity and the masculine war theme, where two members of the group are acting as Officers. This juxtaposition should not only be aesthetically pleasing but will create the feeling of war from different perspectives. We will also set the scene by playing war-time songs, which will also be a reoccurring addition throughout.

When the rotation finishes our group will join the Officers at the front of the weighing room. We hope that the assembly of the us all together will paint a picture of the past, and shows a united front in the same light as when the first and second World Wars originally started. At this point we will then lead the audience into the next section, becoming the transition.

The ‘factory scene’ is our main piece and we are aiming to emphasise the change in women’s roles when war began. As explained in my previous post, Becoming a Woman of War, we will be contrasting our femininity with the bleak setting in the room, and the sound of machinery. However, where we position our audience in our  scene  has been an issue. We decided to use a long bench, found in the first section of the weighing room, and place it in the kitchen area of our space. We can only sit 4 or 5 members of audience in there and the rest will be at the entrance to the space. Though this is not ideal if the audience is large, we hope that all the different angles that the audience view our scene will make it a unique experience for each audience member.

The last time the audience see us will be outside, where the ‘Restoration Group’ is showing the audience aspects of the building, one being the service hatch where gingerbread and alcoholic drinks were originally served. From here we will be serving the home-made gingerbread. The juxtaposition of past and present in one space should hopefully highlight the rich history of the site, and the taste of gingerbread will heighten the warmth and community feeling that our whole group is trying to celebrate.

If these changes are achieved and are successful  then we hope the performance will provoke the taste of the past still existing within the walls of the Grandstand.

  ‘The movement of many men into the military and women into occupations previously undertaken by men is seen variously as bringing about permanent changes in gender roles, as illustrating the rigidity of gender relations, and as a significant element in individuals’ personal narratives of their own lives.’ ((Noakes, Lucy (2007) ‘Demobolising the Military woman: Constructions of Class and Gender in Britain after the First World War’, Gender and History, XIX (1), April pp. 143-162.))

The women of war were depicted across the country in propaganda posters, showing strength, bravery and fearlessness. In many ways, this portrayal was just. Fashion seemed to change from pretty to practical allowing women to throw themselves into the work place, from factories to the fields. However this generalisation does not take into account the importance of femininity: ‘A bright slash of lipstick, softly waved hair and a lingering trace of perfume could be seen to represent the persistence of the feminine in a masculinised world of war, a sparky message of defiance, a feisty semaphore of hope.’ ((Gardiner, Juliet (2004) Wartime Britain 1939-1935, London: Headline Book Publishing, p. 578.)) Clearly femininity was regarded to be highly morale boosting, possibly because it represented normality and familiarity in a country turned on its head, but more simply because it was something beautiful in a place of destruction. ‘Wartime discourse was complicit with the idea that a beautiful face was a brave face.’ ((Ibid, p. 579)) In addition, cosmetics were never rationed (although they were in very short supply anyway) ‘because the government recognized their morale-boosting properties for a female population who had few other opportunities to express their femininity and individuality.’ ((Ibid.))

Taking this into consideration, we feel that it’s necessary to present typical wartime fashions, such as the red lipstick and 1940’s style tea dresses. Our sub-group has two sections that will show a juxtaposition of femininity within a masculinised setting. Our first section starts the audience’s journey around the piece. We are serving tea and cake to the members of the audience- a stereotypically feminine role, but it will hopefully connote a feeling of community and a picture of the past. Our second section shows the transition of women into the war environment. For many, this period was of great change: ‘During the war, for the duration, new sets of beliefs about women, their capabilities and responsibilities emerged.’ ((Goodman, Philomena (2002) Women, Sexuality and War, Hampshire and New York: Palgrave, p. 15.)) This was the start of women being able to show not only men, but also themselves, what they were capable of. So, at the end of the weighing room we will set up a sewing factory style scene, involving a repetitive series of moves between the four of us in the scene. There will be two sewing machines set up- we hope that the mechanical and repetitive sound of these, in addition to the industrial feel to this section of the room will juxtapose with our costumes and we also plan to have classic war-time songs, such as Judy Garland, in the background.

The sewing itself is a significant aspect to our piece- the need to ‘Make Do and Mend’ was of great importance when clothes rationing was put into place in both the first and second world war. ‘Helen Johnson, aged ten when war broke out, remembered how: ‘because of clothes rationing we had to make do and mend. So we would beg old dresses from our mothers or aunts and try to renovate them to make them fit.’’ ((Ibid, p. 102.)) As a group we want to translate this idea by collecting clothes that have been donated to us, or our own clothes that we don’t wear anymore, to make a patchwork piece of material that stretches through the weighing room, suspended from the ceiling. During the piece we will be adding more and more to the material. Visually we were inspired by John Newlings’ Where a Place Becomes a Site: Values– Newling suspended a jacket covered in question marks, such like the infamous Riddler’s Jacket from Batman, from the ceiling of Nottingham’s Broadmarsh shopping centre and asked the public what they most value in their everyday life. The patchwork style will also be echoed in our own costumes, as we will be making pinnies in the same style.

Another layer to this is that we found, from The Lincolnshire Archives, that women would help to sew linen to the wings of aeroplanes during the war. This also helped with the visual aspect of the material being suspended from the ceiling, showing a sense of grandeur, and connoting the women’s work being high above us in the sky.

In summation, there is definitely an importance in celebrating women’s femininity within a masculine world, and what war meant for women. ‘Women were already beginning to enter the workforce in greater numbers before the war. But what might have been gradual and quiet progress into many previously all-male preserves was thrown centre stage with the direction of female labour into key areas.’ ((Harris, Carol (2000) Women at War 1939-1945: The Home Front, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing Ltd, p. 62.)) This shows that war was a catalyst for the change of gender roles in society. Within our piece we want to put forward that women ‘had the opportunity to colonise male space, to achieve their potential in the public domain, to achieve self-determination and perhaps, in some cases, to challenge inequality.’ ((Goodman, Philomena (2002) Women, Sexuality and War, Hampshire and New York: Palgrave, p. 103.)) But fundamentally, we all want to make do and mend the Grand Stand.

‘I got to see a place which seemed to me empty, silent and uncared for. Then I got to talk to people who work there. For the people who work and use the market, I had the feeling that the perspective of ‘tomorrow’ seems to be something vague and empty, a bit frightening, there is a feeling of not knowing what will be.’ – Willi Dorner 2005 ((Pinchbeck, M (2005), Nottdance 2005 Toolkit. Dance 4: Nottingham))

  Above, Wili Dorner, a widely respected choreographer, comments on his first experience of Sneinton Market in Nottingham. His interest in the site was of redevelopment, particularly noting the ‘empty, silent and uncared for’ ((Ibid.)) atmosphere to the market.

The feeling Dorner expresses resonates hugely regarding our own work. The Grand Stand is a place in limbo due to it being under protection by the Lincolnshire Act, meaning the building can not be developed unless it is confirmed by the council and funding is available for it. There have been many suggestions for the future of the Grandstand, from a Clubhouse for golfers to a skate park (see http://lincolngrandstand.com/4.html for full list) but with a site full of potential and saturated with history and former life it has found itself in an indeterminate state. As a group we are realising the importance of both past and future being celebrated within the perimeters of the site. In particular, the liberation of women through time and specifically how both World Wars, but predominantly World War II, allowed a new lease of life for the daughters, wives and sisters of the men fighting on the front line. The challenge we face is transforming this revolution, within the site, using installation pieces, for example, that commend and respect the sites past.

With this in mind we have developed the preliminary idea of dressing as war-time women, inviting audiences into the performance, serving tea and gingerbread (which was originally sold on race days at the Grandstand), before leading the audience through the piece. This was inspired by the small piece we created in class (see Site and Sense Part 1). We were all keen to enliven the senses through our performance, and also feel excited about exploring and celebrating women’s roles in war.

As aforementioned, we will be using the taste of gingerbread and smell of tea, which have many connotations, although these are personal to the individual, we hope there will be a welcoming and warm sensation induced from them. Helen Paris states that ‘smell permeates the everyday, triggering memories, transporting us through space and time even though we are mostly unaware of it.’ ((Paris, Helen (2010) ‘The Smell of It.’ In Freeman, J. Blood Sweat & Theory: Research through Practice and Performance. London: Middlesex University, p. 45.)) In this light, it seems unnecessary to bombard the audiences with smells and tastes, and feel the subtlety of introducing them will be enough to have an impact. As Paris describes, the link between smell and memory is generally in the unconscious mind. Therefore, the familiarity of being served food and tea should be elusive enough to allow for free thought.

However, Helen Paris who was part of the creation of On the Scent, wanted sense at the forefront of their performance: ‘The extraordinary power of smell to evoke memory inspired me to want to create a performance that not only used smell as one of the elements but wherein smell had a leading role.’ ((Ibid.)) Paris collaborated with Dr Upinder Bhalla, a leading expert in the field of neurological connections between smell and memory. Bhalla states that ‘humans themselves seem to be conditioned by society to ignore smell, especially in the sanitized modern world. It is interesting to see what happens when they are asked to pay specific attention to it.’ ((Ibid. p. 46.)) Taking this into consideration, would it be a more enticing performance when the senses are explicitly overwhelmed with different smells and tastes? In the context of our piece this may be excessive, as our contribution is only part of the entire performance and there is a difficulty in containing smells within a specific area. Therefore it may have an unwanted effect on the other parts of the performance.

Predominantly, we hope that the use of sense will add a more rounded experience for the audience member. We are hopeful that this will bring the past into the forefront within the Grandstand, using the senses to rejuvenate the vacant site- the smell of tea and taste of ginger- in the same light as Dorner wanting to redevelop Sneinton Market.