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The Pigs of Today are the Hams of Tomorrow Plymouth Arts Centre 22,23,24/1/10
Why should we attempt to preserve something as intrinsically impermanent as Performance Art? And if we agree that it should be recorded, how can we best capture its essence in the present?
The exhibition showcases recordings of performances at the three-day event, allowing them to be witnessed by other audiences. The display attempts to revoke some of the ephemerality of Live Art, turning the performances into something that others can experience, learn and draw inspiration from. In a room on the ground floor of the Arts Centre, photographs hang by clips from taut wires. ‘Untitled Performance Stills’ (pictures above and below) are instances from re-enactments of remembered Performance Art pieces ‘donated’ by audiences and restaged at the Plymouth event by the Performance Re-enactment Society with Hugo Glendinning and other participants.
‘Exhibition Tour of Remembered Works,’ is a recording of the people who ‘donated’ their memories accompanies the exhibition. Instead of playing their voices directly into the room, the viewer listens through a single set of headphones, giving the feeling of being addressed personally and intensifying the experience of listening to the recollections. In places the interviewees’ sentences have been manipulated to become sonic art - a sentence from one contributor is repeated ‘in the round,’ a contrast to the abrupt cuts made to other dialogue. The memories give context to the photographs, transforming them into something new. Hearing how the pieces have provoked various emotional responses including admiration, empathy and humour also adds to the intensity of the ‘Untitled Performance Stills’ exhibition. A female speaker’s voice catching with emotion as she remembers the artwork depicted by the baby shoe is particularly moving.
On the same floor are videos featuring Abramović and the work of the Red Ape project (picture left). Also included is footage of seven works by new artists selected by Abramović and created at ‘Performance Market,’ an event held within Plymouth City Market. The performances, which all fit within the context of the market, include Bill Wroath dressed in a meat processor’s white overcoat and hairnet who subverts the methods of industrial meat production by sewing pieces of pork back together with butcher’s twine to reform a whole pig. He offers his work as a way of making amends for the reduction of animals to mere cuts of meat. In another piece Ania Bas tours the market offering a range of services for no charge to market visitors. A passer-by chooses a pat on the back from the proffered menu, the obvious pleasure this gives going some way to proving the old adage that the best things in life are free.
The sound from Balliano’s piece affects all of the work on show in the room including ‘I know it’s just a state of mind’ a virtual performance staged in Second Life by Eva and Franco Mattes who use avatars to create ‘Synthetic Performance’ (above right). The rhythmic sharpening provides, in places, an unintentional beat to which the naked figures fall down repeatedly.
Humour can be found in the exhibition too. A video of the Complaints Choir’s performance of ‘A Good Ole Whinge,’ a list of moans elicited from Plymouth citizens set to music by Nicholas Grew and produced by Lucy Walker, is on also on show. Devised by artists Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, listening to the Complaints Choir is a surprisingly uplifting experience – the artwork turning the negative sentiments into a positive shared experience that the viewer can relate to.
The experience of watching Performance Art from a distance is no doubt different to witnessing it live. The viewer is aware of camera angles being chosen and cuts being made. Some of the meaning along with the immediacy and intimacy are unavoidably lost, but the exhibition is a fascinating insight into how the legacy of performance art pieces can be used to inspire and create different meanings long after the ‘present’ has past.
Heather Smith 5/2/10. Thanks to Hannah Protheroe and Marco Anelli. |
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