Fiona Willkie in The Negotiation of Space in Site-Specific Performance defines the theatrical genre as “Performance occurring in non-theatre venues and in which the site is a vital element, instrumental in developing the theme or form of work.” (Willkie, 2004). The genre encompasses cultural theory, geography, and anthropology to create a non-traditional performance method which is heavily influenced by its surrounding context. Significantly different to traditional theatre-based practice, a prominent desire underpinning site performance is a relationship with spatial dynamics. For example, traditional proscenium theatre contains an auditorium in which an audience is seated, establishing a barrier between audience and performer. Site, on the other hand, promotes alternative performance space as opposed to traditional theatre structures. This methodology is reinforced by Mark Auge’s concept of place and non- place, he states “If a place can be defined as relational, historical and concerned with identity, then a space which cannot be defined as relation, or historical, or concerned with identity will be a non-place.” (Augé, 1995)
There’s Non-Place like Home
There’s Non-Place like Home (2016) was a six hour instillation piece performed on the 5th of May 2016 in the Lincoln Archways. A Living room was erected within the site that welcomed an audience within in the invitation of conversation, tea and biscuits. The trajectory of this blog will be to discuss the influence and decisions that lead to the final site specific performance.
The foremost stage in the process was to explore the city. Carl Lavery’s 25 Instructions for Performance in Cities (Lavery, 2005) involves a “composer” (Lavery, 2005) who creates a “score of music” (Lavery, 2005) or set of instructions for a performer to follow in real time. Applying this method in order to explore Lincoln was particularly effective in highlighting the subtle details of the city. Despite a directive approach that could be considered autonomous to follow “at no time did the instructor proffer specific advice in what form the performer should take.” (Lavery, 2005) hence allowing for individual interpretation and application of the given instructions. Instructions are not restricted and therefore can be performed through various performance modes; walking, dance, instillations, recorded lectures or digital technologies (DVD, MP3, SMS). Consequently this meant I was able to personally tailor the experience to my chosen walking method. Lavery’s direction of the city allowed me to explore and rediscover the subtle and diaphanous dimensions that are not immediately obvious to the eye. Specifically, Larvey’s seventh instruction “flânerie” (Lavery, 2005) or unmediated wanderings, incorporates various methods of walking practice as a way in which to travel and explore the space. Utilising Larvey’s concept as an exercise we designed a set of random and unmapped pathway instructions such as; take the nearest left and continue to walk for exactly 3 minutes. We then proceeded to exchange the directions amongst a larger group meaning we were unaware of the route we were to follow, thus agreeing with Larvey’s concept of “flânerie” (Lavery, 2005). This stylised method of exploration through Lincoln allowed me to notice the intricate details not overtly obvious to the preoccupied mind. [See Figure.1]
One of which being Lincoln’s historic and ornate architecture. The archway supporting the Lincoln Guildhall is often overlooked as a place of transition between adjoining sections of the high street. The space captured our interest as a piece of historic architecture lost amongst the consumerist and modern high street. The artistic research group Writes & Sites published A Manifesto for New Walking Culture (Sites, 2006) in which they encouraged the study of “mythogeography” (Sites, 2006) through their Dadaist literature. This can be described as the process to “Intertwine and subvert the official” (Sites, 2006) current function of a site with its previous historical uses or purpose. After researching the archway it became clear its role had altered dramatically since its construction in 1520 [See Figue.2] throughout and alongside the development of the high street. Over its tenure on the high street the Guildhall’s main function always been a place for governors of the city to meet, yet the building itself has been divided and extended over time creating a vast and interesting ‘mytho-geographical’ history. This included its previous function as the county prison detaining convicts between the years 1569 up until 1809. Now a derelict cellar the prison consisted of 13 ft cells guarded by only small iron gate windows. My research confirmed the decision to hold the site specific performance within the Archways due to the versatile scope of possibilities and influences that could be taken from its expansive history. Moreover, the manifesto develops the notion of architectural symbolism “view shopping malls as hyper-real museums to consumerism” (Sites, 2006) suggesting the site is more than just its primary function and represents a larger social issue. Addressing the argument raised within the manifesto, I continued to research the prison as I felt it was a huge part of local history that had since been forgotten and addressed a dramatic cultural mistreatment of prisoners in the derelict conditions.
[Figure 2] (Lincoln archway prison, 2016)
Situated within a place of commerce we noted the archway received a high footfall of pedestrians as they walked across the high street. In spite of this many appeared to walk through the building with little awareness of their changing surroundings often appearing distracted by conversation, mobiles or thought. During an initial rehearsal, I spent time observing the site and the people who passed through and recorded an audio file [See Figure. 3]. The archways had become neglected, overshadowed by shop advertisements and the interruptions of modern life. Therefore a decision was made to create a site performance that would challenge and question the effect of the consumerist market on Lincoln’s cultural heritage. Now cluttered by rubbish and the continuous footfall of shoppers, it became easy to forget its extensive time spent as a prison that had been once occupied by hundreds of inmates. Although held captive, the cellars beneath the Guildhall had once been a place of residence and had housed a substantial population of convicts. This led us to discuss the concept of home considering how a home can be defined or classified, and in extension whether despite being a jail, a cell could be considered a person’s home.
Figure 3 (Holly Lomas, 2016) Recorded sounds of the Archway.
Home is Where the Art is
Within Western culture the notion of home is considered as the basis of family, warmth, comfort, security and nourishment. Regardless of the geographical nature of a person’s home, whether that be a capital city or a small village, comfort is found in the closing of a front door to the safety of your own sheltered environment. During the rehearsals process we continuously examined the notion of what people describe as a home- as opposed to a house- which remained to have a clear emotional distinction. Arguably, a comfortable home includes a collection of possessions and materials that are continually altered according to the changing desires and needs of a family environment. Identity is also formed through the design of the home reflecting the inhabitants’ status, ideals and values. The idea of home became a key stimulus on the influence of the performance. It became important to challenge the accepted notion of home, and question the sites previous function as a ‘home’ or prison? In rehearsals we began to piece together the key objects we considered to be of value within our own homes. It was decided the living room perfectly embodied the concept of home and in extension comfort.
Tracey Emin’s My Bed (Emin, 1998) is brutally honest in presenting empty beer bottles, soiled underwear, blood stains and fag butts as a reflection of the artist’s life and private space. Art critic Jane Rendell reflects “the dislocation of Emin’s actual bed, this highly personal object that she had slept in, from its domestic setting to the space of the gallery, made it art.” (Rendell, 2011). I believe candid confessional nature and use of personal items establishes an intimacy with the viewer and engages the audience in a frank expression of emotions. Rendell writes on Emin “by presenting her own life story in the shape of her bed, and by transforming it into work of art, directly confronts us with our own prurient interest in other people’s lives.” (Rendell, 2011) suggesting Emin’s confrontation of the personal makes the instillation fascinatingly irresistible to the spectator. This helped to cement and form the design of the instillation, by using personal objects from within our own home environments to engage and as Rendell states “interest” an audience members fascination with “other people’s lives” (Rendell,2011).
As a group we discussed combining the nostalgic concept of home with the influence of Emin’s blunt realism. This clarified and confirmed our decision to replicate a home environment within the archways [See Figure 4]. An aim of the project was to establish a connection with audience members as they interacted and connected with the space. As Imogen Racz states in Art and the home: Comfort, alienation and the everyday “Homes are places of habits, rituals and movements, and when experiences are translated into instillation and sculpture, these also require the audience to move around and measure the work against its own bodily and mental memories” (Racz, 2015) suggesting home art instillation dictates an interaction between sculpture and audience because of its recognisable nature. Therefore, tasked with the need to make our piece as specific as possible we devised a questionnaire, asking and interviewing passes by what they consider to be home. The results showed several believed sitting down on the sofa with a cup of tea to be the embodiment of home and comfort.
Figure 4 (Lomas,2016) The Instillation.
Quali-tea conversations
In the following weeks we began to discuss our individual roles and responsibilities within the piece. Initially, the thought was to incorporate confessional exchange between ourselves and the audience. This would involve the trade of a person’s story for a cup of tea, having previously established this was the public consensus of comfort. The process of drinking tea is well established within British culture as a common greeting and precursor to conversation, for example polite practice is to offer a ‘cuppa’ to a guest at your home as a sign of hospitality and welcome. This semiotic practice was partly inspired by Adrien Howells “Salon Adrienne” (Howell, 2005) who created a dramaturgical structure in which clients would be invited to a hair salon to have their hair washed, massaged and styled. This bespoke style of theatre values the audience member and emphasises the importance of exchange. Howells states “The piece Salon Adrienne is a basically an excuse for me to have a meaningful interaction and dialogue exchange with another person” (homotopiafestival, 2007) as he remains constantly attentive to the improvised moment, responding to the flow of conversation. Howell claims people are “far more prepared as a stranger to open up to me… it’s a feminine disguise, but it is a disguise” (homotopiafestival, 2007) encouraging a unrestricted conversation masked by his transvestite appearance. I believe the playing of an eccentric fictional character removes Howell from a position of judgement, and therefore allows unrestricted exchange and conversation. In our own rehearsal process we considered and improvised playing theatrical housewife characters. We devised stylised movement to carry out domestic tasks, for example I offered the audience biscuits however crushed several on the floor beforehand to create and mirror Howells sense of performativity. Work-shopping and performing to others as these characters highlighted the inefficiently in our piece. The forced acting simply created an uncomfortable and rather inappropriate tone. However, Howell’s idea of confessional exchange or “exploiting one to one scenarios in a domestic setting” (Fierce Festival, 2007) formed the basis of our piece.
Developing this process we continued to meet and design the specifics required to create the structure [See Figure 4.]. Acquiring permission from the council meant we were able to measure and begin working out the feasibility of the piece. As a group we decided to block a single arch within the central structure using black material, the effect creating a closed and genuine room. Additionally, we continued to experiment with the positioning of furniture with the intention to create a comfortable and believable space. As practitioner Imogen Racz states “Sculpture prerogative is to confront us with the fact of our material, physical, bodily reality, making that fact available to thought and feeling- and making it sociable, an open secret shared with others in a common space.” (Racz, 2015)
Figure 5 (Calvert, 2016) Construction and measuring of site.
In Hind-site
In reflection, the performance can be deemed successful by the audiences’ reaction and participation in the piece. Before performing, a reservation or concern of mine was that enough people that would stop and feel confident enough to open an honest dialogue. However, the enormous public reaction was excellent with numerous people stopping intrigued by the room we had created within the Archways. The conversations throughout the day became increasing framed around where each individual considered home to be, how they differed from me and how the city contributed to their identity. Moreover, with the aim of establishing a relationship each conversation fashioned geographical connections resulting from even the smallest of similarities. An elderly woman and I established a connection after discussing her grandson’s recent employment with the Metropolitan police. The conversation produced a shared geographical awareness due to both having prior knowledge of the area, as I consider London to be my home. Despite having lived in a small village in Lincolnshire her whole life we created a link between the two of us through the experience. [See Figure.4]
The most surprising factor of the performance was the expectation of certain audience members that they were required to pay for the experience. Despite the sites central location within such a dense population of commerce, previous to the performance I had not considered such reaction. Therefore, an observation if we were to perform the piece again would be clearly notify and inform the audience it was a free experience in order to encourage a higher participation rate.
Figure 4 (Lomas, 2016) A conversation regarding place of home.
In reflection, the process has allowed me to discover a new and provoking style of performance. Moreover, I now recognise and value the importance of research, and its ability to provide educated and informed decisions throughout the devising process. The experience has demonstrated how a prior knowledge of history, cultural theory and anthropology can be combined through site specific performance to highlight a larger cultural statement. I have enjoyed the opportunity to work within such a unique and diverse style of performance and have learnt skills I hope to continue to develop throughout my undergraduate studies.
Figure 6 (Walls, 2016) interaction within performance
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