The Grandstand’s Totem.

Abigail Dawson / / A Restoration

One of the leading artists in contemporary performance is widely considered to be Lone Twin, a theatre production company which formed in 1997. In an interview with Christopher Hewitt for the 2004 Brussels kunstenFestivaldesArts, he said they liked to “create maps of social and spatial engagement, suggesting imaginative territories that audiences might physically inhabit and traverse” ((Bilateral, (2006), Lone Twin interviewed by Christopher Hewitt. [online] Available at: http://www.lucazoid.com/bilateral/lone-twin-interviewed-by-christopher-hewitt/, [Accessed 05 April 2013])). The idea of engaging with the space is something we are extremely involved with, and creating a map of the past, present and future inhabitants. Focusing on a project that has influenced some of our performance ideas is Lone Twin’s piece Totem that underwent in 1998. The duo endeavoured to carry a fallen telegraph pole through Colchester’s town centre along a straight line, passing through homes and shops. The initials of those who participated and helped the pair complete their journey were carved into the pole by the artists. It is the notion of collaboration and participation that we are substantially interest in.

In our performance at the Grandstand, we plan to have the spectators encounter all the other pieces at the site. They will hopefully absorb all the stories that are portrayed of the past, the various uses of the stand and landscape surrounding it. By the end we aim for the spectators to have their own grasp of what they then believe the future of the Grandstand. As stated in previous blog posts, they would then attach these ideas onto the twine that we provide, approximately 800 meters in length. Are intentions are for the audience to see the two stand that we have remapped, be removed from the site completely and with the aid of the audience transport the idea filled twine to Lincoln’s high street. We hope to define our location through drawing the audience in and engaging them with the task of taking the future of the Grandstand back to the city, back to the people of Lincoln. We know however that participation should not be mandatory and force it upon our audience, but rather we should invite them to partake if they wish. In a conversation with Lone Twin it states that there should be “no obligation to participate in an active sense; the invitation can always be refused” ((Lavery, C. and Williams, D. (2001) Practicing Participation A conversation with Lone Twin, Performance Research: A Journal of the Performing Arts, 16 (4), p. 8)).  Spectators will not engage with the site properly is they are coerced into an activity, instead in Lone Twin’s performances for example they are “permitted to engage in a relation of non-relation, to stand on the sidelines and make their ‘poem’ from the ‘poem’ that Lone Twin have offered them” ((Lavery, C. and Williams, D. (2001) Practicing Participation A conversation with Lone Twin, Performance Research: A Journal of the Performing Arts, 16 (4), p. 8)). Are audience are able to develop their own ideas of the Grandstand from experiencing the pieces however they do not necessarily have to share them, the main aim is to just bring back the awareness of our site to what has been forgotten.

By taking the Grandstand’s future to the high street we hope to bring back some of the excitement back and a sense of community that existed at the site during the seasonal races in the past. Not only can the audience see the suggestions on the twine but so can other members of the public; it opens it up to for everyone to see how significant it was for Lincoln in the past, bringing a sense of remembrance and a small piece hope for the Grandstand’s future.

Horse: Nature’s Athlete, Tractor and T.A.N.K.

Stephenie Clubley / / T.A.N.K

Whilst developing our group’s piece at the Grandstand, we wanted to explore the relationship between the tank and its evolutionary roots. During the First World War, heavy haulage tractors were used to transport naval guns. The concept of the tank was first touched upon by Admiral Bacon in 1914 when he remarked, “If a machine could be capable of laying its own bridge, being equipped with means of offence and defence, it would be of assistance in trench warfare.” (( William Foster & Co (1920) The Tank: Its Birth And Development, Tee Publishing))

 

Before the invention of the tractor and the complete mechanisation of farming, horses were the farmers’ choice in work animals. They were used to pull ploughs and transport everything from carts of produce and raw materials to people and their tools. Other breeds of horses were bred for the purpose of entertainment, such as the racehorses that would have attracted the crowds to Lincoln’s own Grandstand.We wanted to show the relationship and transition between horse and machine in our performance piece. We felt it would create a stronger link with the site, through Lincoln’s rural setting and the role of the horse at work and in entertainment.

Continue reading “Horse: Nature’s Athlete, Tractor and T.A.N.K.”

The Wall

Sophie Jane Bullivant / / Women of War

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.

Pont de l'Archevêché, Paris
Pont de l’Archevêché, Paris

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.

Luzhkov Bridge, Moscow
Luzhkov Bridge, Moscow

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.

'Monument 1', SXSW Festival, Texas
‘Monument 1’, SXSW Festival, Texas

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.

My Grandad and the Grandstand

Jamee-Lee Fleming / / Personal Posts

For our performance to keep moving us forward and to help us develop our knowledge of the Grandstand’s history even further, I thought it would be an idea “talking with those who have particular kinds of knowledge” ((Pearson, 2011 )) The person in name has had experience of the Lincoln Handicap races from a young age until it stopped. This man is my Grandad, John Theobold. I thought it would be beneficial for myself and the group to access this information and to be able to take note to help us keep on developing our group performances but also our performance as a whole.

“When did you first experience the Lincoln Handicap races at the Grandstand?”

It was 1946, I was only eleven and I was supposed to be going to school that day but instead I headed down to the West Common. I did not go with any of my friends, we took it in turns as the school I went to; St Faiths and St Martin’s, would know what we was up to. They were not that stupid. (Grandad laughs) But yes, as I was saying. I headed down to the West Common to see the races from myself. It was absolutely packed! You could hardly see the racecourse never mind the horses. I dodged around the crowd in order to get a great view, I looked down on the ground and there were these black shiny shoes, I knew exactly whose they were. There were my Father’s. He was one of the policemen that patrolled the Common to keep an eye on the crowds. He was peering over the people and I ducked down because if he saw me, well I would be in a bit of bother and would of escorted me back to school then I would be even more trouble. Then later on I worked there before the races ended but I am guessing you’ll want to know more later on about that.

“Oh wow, you were a bit mischievous then! And yes don’t worry I’ll be wanting to know more at that, but did you ever back there knowing your Dad would have been around?

Of course I did, I wanted to see the horse racing! My family would not have gone down there to see them and skiving school would have been the only time I could go and watch. I went between the age of eleven and fifteen. I would stand near where the roundabout is now as that is where the races started and would walk down the mile track as the many races happened.

“Did you ever bet on the horses?”

No, I didn’t have the money to do so. There were two betting areas though, one on the Grandstand where all the rich people would be spectateing the horses and deciding on how much to bet on. Then there was the other one near the wooden fence on the Common for the people who were not “rich” enough to go on the Grandstand.

“So the community who went to the Grandstand was separated through class! Obviously the upper class arrived in nice cars?”

Well you know Hewson road, the one just off Carholme road after the Common. Well the houses were all private houses; they were for the jockeys and race goers who would have travelled. The jockeys would have left their horses in the stables at the Grandstand and they would collect them the next morning for racing. The race goers would walk to the Grandstand early morning where they would have to queue behind a rope. The policemen would drop the rope for them to enter when it was time.

“So you know the both sides of what happened of Carholme road. What was the atmosphere like?”

Oh it was brilliant! It was so busy, with people jumping up and down, shouting and screaming with their betting slips in their hands. You had people on stands doing all their hand signs telling the crowds the odds etcetera. There was so much to see, you couldn’t take it all in! I loved it.
You know yourself that the Common is massive; you couldn’t see any grass because of how many people were there. It was so loud, with the gun shots starting the races off, the pounding of the horse’s hooves and obviously the crowds roaring.

“Going back to your comment earlier, you worked at the Grandstand?”

Yes, I was an electrician. I did all the electrics around the building. It was alright, earned a bit of money. Then towards the end of my job the races also ended.

“What do you mean by that?”

Well other race courses were modernising; this was in the 1960s with their fancy cameras filming and the finishing photo shots as racing became more competitive and a lot more money was placed down for betting. Lincoln council had put a lot of money into this for the Grandstand but the races were causing Lincoln to be such a problem due to closing the main road to the city. The filming cameras needed electric sources because obviously the filming would happen on the field. So there was more money needed to be put into it all. In the end the Levy Board who owned the races, gave up with Lincoln and that’s why the races ended.

“Do you ever look at the Grandstand when you go passed it”

Not really know, to be honest with you I don’t even recognise it is there. It is a shame that it’s not in use anymore, but it would cause so much hassle bringing it back to Lincoln because of the traffic as it is placed at the entrance to the city. All its good for now, meaning the common is to walk your dogs around and a place to keep the neighbours horses on.

“Yes it is a shame, and unfortunately the idea still is not going ahead about bringing the Lincoln handicap back to Lincoln. Thanks for the information, hopefully I’ll be able to get something from this” 

Works Cited

Pearson, Mike (2001) http://www.landscape.ac.uk/landscape/documents/eventpapers/toolkit/4research.pdf (accessed: 11th May 2013)

The T.A.N.K: Part 1

Ben Middleton / / T.A.N.K, Uncategorized

One of the first ideas for the Tank group was to create a video recreating the conception of the tank. The video was to use the Yarborough room within the White Hart Hotel in Lincoln where historically we know the idea of the tank was first conceived. We did this because this could be a real starting point for our performance since we could use it as a mapping point and explore the creation of the tank from this very beginning. We also this was a strong point because ‘Relationships between the arts and everyday life became subject to radical scrutiny in the period of the historical avant-garde’ ((Goven Emma et al (2007) Making a Performance: Devising Histories and Contemporary Practices, Routledge p. 18)) we thought this was important because ‘Place is a space in which important words have been spoken which have established identity, defined vocation and envisioned destiny.’ ((Brueggeman, Walter (1989) ‘The Land’, in Liburne G.(ed) A Sense of place: Christian Theology of the Land, Nashville: Abingdon Press)) the tank changed the face of warfare and the idea of war altogether and we believe that this notion of the changing of warfare needs to be highlighted.

We then moved onto looking at turning this video into more of a commercial, or an American-styled infomercial where the presenter tempts you into buying the product being sold, this being the tank, mixed in with soundscapes of tanks and collages of images from testing out the tanks to them on the battlefield. We thought this would be effective because it the audience could take it as if we were trying to ‘sell’ the idea of a tank to them today. Plus it plays with the idea that all the investors of the tank back in the early 20th Century were placing a huge bet on the effectiveness of the tanks, similar to the people who placed bets on the horses at the grandstand.

Another idea we looked at was building a small scale model tank within the grandstand whilst being dressed as engineers and other workers who would have been involved in building the tank. We talked about doing this because ‘The first tank was built in Lincoln by William Foster and Co.’ ((Fish, Elizabeth (2013) Tank Memorial Proposed for Lincoln Roundabout, online: http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2013/03/tank-memorial-moves-to-lincoln-roundabout/ (accessed 20 March 2013) ))Showing how Lincoln is essential to the conception of the tank and how it was vita to helping Britain win the war.  We also wanted to play with idea of building the tank as a scale model because the action to build a small scale model takes precise intricate movements which would be reciprocated in the idea that when originally building the tanks every choice had to be precise and carefully planned in order to make the tank work.

Since this idea of ours it has come to light that a group within Lincoln wish to create a memorial of the birth of the tank on the roundabout at the end of Tritton Road in Lincoln ‘The aim behind the idea… is to remind and educate people on Lincoln’s engineering history, and commemorate the effort made by civilians in the city during the war.’ (( Fisch, Elizabeth (2013) Tank Memorial Proposed for Lincoln Roundabout, online:  http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2013/03/tank-memorial-moves-to-lincoln-roundabout/ (accessed 20 March 2013) ))This idea highlights the fact that Lincoln and Lincolnshire in general was essential to the cause of winning the war.