The Odds Are Stacked – Page 2

The Odds are Stacked: Part Two

Kash Walker / May 13, 2013May 13, 2013 / The Odds Are Stacked

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

The Odds are Stacked: Part One

Kash Walker / May 13, 2013May 13, 2013 / The Odds Are Stacked

Introduction – Our beginning

We was interested in the idea of giving the Grandstand its voice back. Inspired by this we created a performance that was presented in silence. The idea of its voice was presented in post it notes, as we held in our hand by over our mouths. We did this in front of a projection, as it displayed and image of the Lincoln Handicap at the Grandstand in its glory days. We then dropped the notes to show emotions being discarded from the Grandstand, showing it losing it voice. We wanted to show ‘a vocabulary which provides better metaphors’ ((Pearson, M. (2010) Site-Specific Performance. Palgrave Macmillan: London)). The words we included on the post it notes had binary opposites on them relating to the grandstand, for instance, winning/losing. The audience feedback then made ideas spark in our progress. This was due to an audience member suggesting that the falling post it notes were like ‘betting slips,’ we were intrigued.

My group ending up being made up of myself, Rachel, Emma, Eloise and Charlie. We came to the basis that we wanted to create a piece that would be representation of the Grandstand. The themes of betting and houses became strong, and the overall theme of loss. We wanted the idea of ‘loss’ to relate to the Grandstand itself, through it losing its use and becoming almost derelict.

We then started to look into the idea of horses and their struggles as an animal. This was because we felt that it was an area that was overlooked by other groups, as the Grandstand was built for horseracing, which became more and more interesting to our group. We looked at the struggles of the horse, when it loses its race, and the nothing that it is given in return for its efforts.

Our group has come to the conclusion that we want to base our performance around the idea of betting, racing, and the horse. This would then come together to represent ‘loss.’

Works Cited

Camouflage Paradox Vs The Final Hurdle- Just Desserts.

Rachel Miller / May 13, 2013 / The Odds Are Stacked

As the New paper curtain fell for the last time, it had come to pass that all the research weeks and preparation of collecting newspapers and boxes had come to an end. It came First as a amazing experience to be a part of. With the special close working bond i built with my group i could definitely agree that we all thoroughly enjoyed our selves…

1st Place of May and our premier and preparation of covering the room had run smoothly. As we news papered the windows to shield the light for our projection of Eadweard Muybridge’s Horse, it began to feel complete. As William Tells Overture began to play, the heart started to race as i burst out of the newspaper cocoon and picked up my betting slips. My Horse bet ” Aint got a Scooby” chosen from a random racing post defined my cockney accent and background. As we overlapped and lapped around the audience i began to get more and more excited as i knew what would happen once we had all reach the end of our lap. The HIGH light was ” Ladies and Gentlemen place your bets here ” Throwing the betting slips in the air as they flew down and around the audience, created a sense of falling wealth, as they could be seen as cash feather floating to the ground. My proudest moment of the bible verse declaration resonated with the finality of the performances end. Nothing. The audiences faces as the meat from Tescos was presented : LADIES AND GENTLEMEN I NOW PRESENT TO YOU THE WINNER OF THE LINCOLN HANDICAP 2013 LEVITATE. As the laughter and syncopated applause echoed in the room it was humbling to know from taking a theme of loss we had gained the audiences recognition of our humor.

The Piece felt at its most whole as some of the other groups helped to paper us into the people we were then on that day. It represented to me the build up to the final performance and how information i had consumed whilst studying this module. Up until the mask when i felt a complete loss of identity as my smile or expression could not be seen it felt restricting to my voice and movement when waiting off stage. If i could change one thing it would be to of stylized the news paper skin in a more comfortable and efficient way. I also would of like to had each of us project a verse from the bible chapter. In order for us to give a clearer understand towards the audience through a different level again or how gambling can theologically affect man. I was really grateful to of had just the one verse shared it was something i felt personally needed to be in the piece to make it feel complete.

Space.race.space.race. On your mark, get BETS. NO.

The Winner Takes It All – Evaluating the Race

Charlie Jane Doherty / May 13, 2013May 13, 2013 / The Odds Are Stacked

‘At Site, there may be no recourse, no second chance’ ((Pearson, M (2010) Site Specific Performance Basingstoke Palgrave Macmillan p.17)) I believed that this quote really connected to my group piece because once the newspaper was stripped off the walls and swept of the floor our performance space had gone and we were standing in an empty weighing room in The Grandstand

On The first of May 2013, it took just over three hours to set the space ready for the 1 pm performance.

On Your Marks Get Set Go!

Myself, Eloise, Emma, Rachel and Kash walked in towards the wall of newspaper, we emerged ourselves in the wall of media before our audience entered the room again. We performed the Ric Basta Poem and then the race began.

Have you ever heard the saying “I could eat a horse”? Why do people say this? Does the meat on the National Handicap Winner Levitate look appealing to you? I did not think so.

If i was going to perform this piece again, I would like to have the whole room completely covered in newspaper; as i felt that the part that was not covered broke the illusion that we wanted to create. I feel that my group had achieved our overall aim in bringing back the theme of gambling back to the Grandstand.

Producing a stable diet – Main Course : Running on an Empty stomach.

Rachel Miller / May 13, 2013May 13, 2013 / The Odds Are Stacked

Our papering of the weighing room bares similarities to artist Rachel Whiteread’s sculptures of negative space. She fills the unused space around domestic objects with all kinds of material to make casts and then removes the object inside. They are ghosts of interior spaces or, if you like, positive impressions of negative spaces (( Rachel Whiteread,EMBANKMENT:About, Tate,http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/unilever-series-rachel-whiteread-embankment/rachel-whiteread, Accessed 4/5/2013)) The focus of her work is to concentrate on the absence of life within these spaces and the memories they use to hold. As critic Kathryn Chadason comments on her work ” Revealing the space we cannot define” (( Chadason, Kathryn, Sculpture “Negative Space with Rachel Whiteread”, http://trendland.com/negative-space-with-rachel-whiteread/, Accessed 3/5/2013)) In response to this our aim as a group was to work on revealing the Grandstand by helping to restore its lost/absent definition. In particular her sculpture cast House (1993) (( Augustine, Luhring “Rachel Whiteread Bio” http://www.luhringaugustine.com/artists/rachel-whiteread/# ,Accessed 3/5/2013)) a uninhabitable east end London Victorian town house. A large scale project which was filled with liquid concrete to create the mold then knocked down on the inside once set. This was a empty domestic space which was abandoned and represents the absence of life as it was deemed too dangerous to live in. Her use of concrete helps to stimulate the cold lifeless state of the house.

The weighing room is a space we felt had no life or definition. From first sight we witnessed its bare white chipped walls, with its cold stone floors and moldy ceiling. A place where life was very much absent however held a bundle of silent memories. So we like Rachel Whiteread define our empty space by filling it with materials however we wanted our audience to witness a journey of the space coming to life to it then being emptied and swept away, stored into boxes by the end of the piece. In order to help answer Why is the Grandstand empty? My Grandstand Journey equation : + / – = [?] When researching Rachel Whiteread’s work i came across this statement in a thesis abstract written by Graduate Artist Analisa Violich Goodin which is included in her visual criticism on ” An Imagined Absence” “We have become invisible, while all that was unseen has risen to the surface of the visual field. What we think we know is suddenly unfamiliar, what we think we see is now obscured.” (( Analisa Violich Goodin “Thesis Abstract An Imagined Absence: Images of Loss and the Performance of Representation“http://sites.cca.edu/gradthesisevents/visual_criticism/goodin_analisa/1.html Accessed 3rd May 2013 )) In comparison to our piece we can relate to this statement through our representation of human camouflage. We may not have made our selves completely invisible but our aim was to be conceal and make our identities invisible, in preparation for us to become part of the space as well as perform in it. So it was in the corner of a news papered weighing room that we were “ unseen” however due to our bodies and outlines we did appear “risen from the surface “. Our audience members ( peers and lecturers) people with whom we are familiar could of become immediately confused and oblivious to who was who underneath our broadsheet skin. We therefore became objects of unfamiliarity. By this we wanted to convey how the Grandstand is becoming increasingly unfamiliar to the city of Lincoln. If the Grandstands past self was to fast forward and see the way it has been abandoned and forgotten today, would it recognize its own self ? With regards to the Grandstand being possibly used as a mortuary in the second world war we decided to apply this appropriate factor to our theme of loss with our horse motif. So in the style of a murder crime scene we depicted a black tape outline of a horse on the floor, which we did not reveal until the end of our piece as it lay underneath a layer of newspaper carpet. It is here that we “obscured” something from what our audience’s initial acquaintance with the space . We decided to reveal it near the end of our piece as we wanted the Grandstands original purpose and silent hero to be the last imprint in their minds. However to lighten the mood of the piece we decided to play with the current news on the horse meat scandal and this year’s Lincoln handicap winner to comprise a bit of a dark humored joke about what might of really happened to the winner Levitate after the race.

“When you lose playfulness , you lose inspiration” –Willi Dorner ((Pinchbeck, Michael, 2005, NottDance, Dance4 Toolkit))