i ran for 'hounded'. I chased people wearing foxes tails through the city streets.
a new use of space, a new way of interacting with the city. A reclamation, of ourselves, of our entertainment, of our bodies, of our cities. For the children that never grew up, we need a playground, the city is our playground. For the kids who played computer games inside when they were kids, we need to get out, the streets are our woods.
A reaction to spoonfed culture, a rejection of consumption of culture. A need to be involved, to heighten our senses, use our bodies, make choices, feel alive, a little danger, make decisions. A real life computer game.
experience. we are all artists. we have leisure time. we have humour.
"there was a sense that Liverpool was being permeated in a fundamental an subtle way" Total Theatre magazine (p.9 vol 23 winter 2011/12) although speaking about a different event in a different city, there is an overall sense of 'getting out of the gallery/venue/pub/theatre'. A need for creative cultures to touch individuals, for individuals to be touched, to make, to share, to participate. Now that we all have free time, that we all have internet access, we are becoming equal and we want equal influence in our real-time worlds as we do online. In the way that a home-made video might 'go viral' on the internet, in the physical world we also want to permeate, to participate, to directly experience and influence.
There is a fundemental shift - we are beyond post-modern, we have become permeable.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Friday, December 16, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
had to send images to represent my work.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
let's do it in French!
There is already literature out there charting the return of circus and some at least anecdotal information on the arrival of the term Cirque and how it signifies contemporary circus.
But is there info on how circus relates to post-modernism and how its inclusion is part of a wider phenomenon? Low-brow it is... intertextual it is... When traditional circus is presented, it's still referencing itself. When Cirque is presented, it's mixing 'low' (or popular, or non-elitist) and presenting it as 'high'. Like porn in galleries, post-modernism consumes and regurgitates another art form. (does this cheapen it? do i care?)
By becoming Cirque, is it popularising and making circus more accessible to a contemporary audiences or is it trapping it and seeking to exclusivise an art form and bring it into the deliberately elitist world normally comprised of ballet, opera and exclusive galleries. Things you need 'cultural capital' to access.
How did circus come to be here and where is the hungry machine of superiority going next?
But is there info on how circus relates to post-modernism and how its inclusion is part of a wider phenomenon? Low-brow it is... intertextual it is... When traditional circus is presented, it's still referencing itself. When Cirque is presented, it's mixing 'low' (or popular, or non-elitist) and presenting it as 'high'. Like porn in galleries, post-modernism consumes and regurgitates another art form. (does this cheapen it? do i care?)
By becoming Cirque, is it popularising and making circus more accessible to a contemporary audiences or is it trapping it and seeking to exclusivise an art form and bring it into the deliberately elitist world normally comprised of ballet, opera and exclusive galleries. Things you need 'cultural capital' to access.
How did circus come to be here and where is the hungry machine of superiority going next?
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Saturday, October 1, 2011
first week back in college
so, here we are. wondering how to make a fine art degree relevant to me. I have wonderful projects in the pipeline but i feel stuck.
So what's going on is that my work is almost all sculptural, live or experiential. We have a singing walk-about coming up, a new Velobici routine in the pipeline, a theatre design/lighting installation/experiential audience journey coming up in the caves and of course slack-rope, which i'm still kinda shit at. (When i say shit, i mean, not nearly good enough to be professional. I'll do some tomorrow tho and slowly i'll get better.) as well as two potential lighting happenings. Note to self: when I have photos, I should start creating 'profiles'.
My sketchbook is scant, there are sketches but most of my sketches are performed on and with the body. Butoh, movement ritual, yoga, running, swimming in the river... in the context of a live performer these all count don't they?
And how is spending my time looking for a van part of the college experience? From having spent last year working at festivals both as artist-in-residence and the 'hobby' of doing kids area craft/theatre... from dreaming of running away with the circus... from just plain wanting to see folks, i need to be realistic about what i can do if i'm not mobile. This is part of learning. It's a tool for the job, like the computer and camera. I may be settling in for winter but summer will come again. I may have no plans as yet but if i don't set myself on the right track now, there'll be no time when it comes around. So what that's it's a hankering dream, it's also part of a realistic future, especially as I have a child...
...
... Are my choices of how to bring up a child fair or valid? Is creating a life i'd like him to lead unfair on him - trying to live out my dreams via him? Or is it creating the family life I choose to experience myself? It depends, I suppose, on whether I enjoy it or whether I expect him to thank me for it.
And my dreams... they are not deep. A life of variety, creativity and community. From my recent musings I have come to the conclusion that if I'm going to work physically, I should do it now. If I want to parent on the move, with a community, I should do it now.
I'm probably going to apply to a traveling circus school, it's only 5 months and then, perhaps, I could work with say... a small touring circus or a kids circus space at festivals... maybe not a grand plan but then, what should i aim for? 'Cirque' isn't particularly interesting to me at the moment (there is a whole other thought line there...) and I think eccentricity can be fitted in anywhere and/or at other times. If I acknowledge that there are these various strands of my interest then, rather than trying to mesh them together, I can nurture them separately. I do not wish to abandon the conceptual, the meaningful, the deep. I do not wish to leave the visual. But I do also wish to work with my body, my frivolous nature and my nomadic spirit (vomit bucket ready...).
So keep the connections open. Work with Cross Art, with Girl Gang, with Kris, with Cat, with the Motorcycle showroom (if poss!), with the Cube (if it happens!). But remain open to random art happenings, to the bizarre, the eccentric, the beautiful, the deep, the exposing. But train physically, follow dreams that are deep but not necessarily because of the show - moving towards a horsedrawn circus, summer by summer by summer.
So what's going on is that my work is almost all sculptural, live or experiential. We have a singing walk-about coming up, a new Velobici routine in the pipeline, a theatre design/lighting installation/experiential audience journey coming up in the caves and of course slack-rope, which i'm still kinda shit at. (When i say shit, i mean, not nearly good enough to be professional. I'll do some tomorrow tho and slowly i'll get better.) as well as two potential lighting happenings. Note to self: when I have photos, I should start creating 'profiles'.
My sketchbook is scant, there are sketches but most of my sketches are performed on and with the body. Butoh, movement ritual, yoga, running, swimming in the river... in the context of a live performer these all count don't they?
And how is spending my time looking for a van part of the college experience? From having spent last year working at festivals both as artist-in-residence and the 'hobby' of doing kids area craft/theatre... from dreaming of running away with the circus... from just plain wanting to see folks, i need to be realistic about what i can do if i'm not mobile. This is part of learning. It's a tool for the job, like the computer and camera. I may be settling in for winter but summer will come again. I may have no plans as yet but if i don't set myself on the right track now, there'll be no time when it comes around. So what that's it's a hankering dream, it's also part of a realistic future, especially as I have a child...
...
... Are my choices of how to bring up a child fair or valid? Is creating a life i'd like him to lead unfair on him - trying to live out my dreams via him? Or is it creating the family life I choose to experience myself? It depends, I suppose, on whether I enjoy it or whether I expect him to thank me for it.
And my dreams... they are not deep. A life of variety, creativity and community. From my recent musings I have come to the conclusion that if I'm going to work physically, I should do it now. If I want to parent on the move, with a community, I should do it now.
I'm probably going to apply to a traveling circus school, it's only 5 months and then, perhaps, I could work with say... a small touring circus or a kids circus space at festivals... maybe not a grand plan but then, what should i aim for? 'Cirque' isn't particularly interesting to me at the moment (there is a whole other thought line there...) and I think eccentricity can be fitted in anywhere and/or at other times. If I acknowledge that there are these various strands of my interest then, rather than trying to mesh them together, I can nurture them separately. I do not wish to abandon the conceptual, the meaningful, the deep. I do not wish to leave the visual. But I do also wish to work with my body, my frivolous nature and my nomadic spirit (vomit bucket ready...).
So keep the connections open. Work with Cross Art, with Girl Gang, with Kris, with Cat, with the Motorcycle showroom (if poss!), with the Cube (if it happens!). But remain open to random art happenings, to the bizarre, the eccentric, the beautiful, the deep, the exposing. But train physically, follow dreams that are deep but not necessarily because of the show - moving towards a horsedrawn circus, summer by summer by summer.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Friday, September 2, 2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
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