Time and Tidal Flow Forum

'Red Beast' - Sarah Spanton

2008-07-27T10:29:00.000-07:00

Time & Tidal Flow, Red Beast - Sarah Spanton
Friday 25th April, 6.30pm, Dance Studio 2, Hull College Horncastle Building

Red Beast was a movement and projection based performance and installation. The performance took place in a small scale studio and contained no text or spoken words with only a soundtrack of abstract noise - like hooves scratching and scraping - punctuating the movements of the solo performer. The ‘Red Beast’ was positioned on a low platform seemingly asleep and perfectly still in front of a velvet curtain, with a screen to one side. The screen showed a slow moving video of the beast alongside other animals in cold stark settings, creating a wintery atmosphere in the space. Wearing a white medieval style robe, with cloth cut from the under-arms the beast was clean and well dressed laying before the seated audience, curled up on the platform. After some time the beast lifted its head and stared at the audience, conjuring a sense of unease from those who sat before it, powerless and slightly unnerved in not knowing what would happen next. After the first few minutes of anticipation slipped away and the rousing of the beast seemed complete, it lifted its arms high and took to a crouching position. It became clear that it would not move from the platform and a sense of ease spread amongst the audience.

The woman before us - performer Sarah Spanton, was the human ‘beast’. The on-screen animals were clearly wild, shown in a natural, positive and sympathetic light. The female beast however was clothed and tamer, with long red locks, showing her ‘naturalness’ only through the underarm hair on display.

The beasts' movements on the screen did not seem to reflect those in the live performance, but represented the 'Red Beast' in a more dream-like and natural twilight. The images of foxes, wolves and horses drew out the animalistic nature of the performance, yet as the images were still, it was difficult to compare human and animal directly. The audience had to re-remember the sounds, movements and reactions of wild animals, interestingly that we are now so estranged from - making any comparison of the ‘Red Beast’ to a real life animal require a vivid imagination.

The performance evoked ideas of humans as both mammals and beings and conjured thoughts of how we have surpassed in modern culture the raw essence of what we need and do for our own survival as a mammal. There was also a strong connection to gender, sexuality and the very issues of what is perceived to be 'feminine' in contemporary society. Examining the ‘red beast’ as ‘other’ was a clear objective provoked in the performance and worked as a mechanism in objectifying the female performer on display. Yet there is cause for examining whether an intentional ‘presentation of the other’ is the most effective way of engaging an audience in a meaningful dialogue. Particularly as 'Red Beast' brings such deep, diverse and significant cultural themes to the floor, for the attention of a well addressed and acknowledged audience.

Sarah Spanton’s ‘beastly’ stares were purposeful, picking out individual audience members and looking them straight in the eye. In this way, Spanton was provoking an unsettling reaction in the audience, creating a feeling of anxiousness in the space. There was an attitude about her movements and assertion in the space that also created an assertive discourse, whereby the beast communicated to us; ‘you do not know what I am, and you do not know what I will do’. And indeed, who she was, or what she was doing remained unclear. Yet it was the costume and the connections between the woman in front of us and the animals on the screen that distracted me the most.

The 'Red Beast' performance seemed to have further streams of narratives and ideologies than the images; with costume, wig, platform and curtain presenting her almost as an 'exhibit' rather than in a 'natural' environment. These framed the beast in a presentation of the Other, which stems from an old concept, discussed at length in philosophy, psychology, gender studies and performance. The concept that the self requires the Other to define itself has been expressed by many writers and philosophers including Sartre, Hegel, and Jacques Lacan. More exclusively relating to 'Red Beast' would be writers such as Simone De Beauvoir, who specify gender, in particular the female, as Other to man. The Other has thus become an important concept for studies of the sex-gender system and this line of interrogation for a performance is a fascinating area. In Sarah’s staging with platform and cutain, the ‘exhibiting of the other’ can be seen as a dominant theme of ‘Red Beast’ – yet not a solitary one.

The use of both the stage and velvet curtain referenced a traditional theatrical setting as well as one of an 'exhibit' and the audience quickly fell into the collectively learnt pattern of theatre norms; sitting in rows to watch the ‘action’ unfold, with no overt participation required. The set up of the space is integral in our understanding of how to behave and our perceptions of how to act to ‘fit in’ and be comfortable in the moment. Once the theatrical standards of passive audience and active performer were affirmed, the task of enforcing any heightened awareness or fear in the audience for ‘Red Beast’ was an uphill struggle in this non-verbal performance, if this was to be Spanton's intention. The Red Beast’s movements, which were small and limited to the platform - including the connections made with the audience through eye contact - would have made for a much more intimidating and immediate experience if the beast had free roam of the room and moved amongst the crowd. Spanton's decision to remain captive on the stage limited the audiences ability to interact or physically engage with the work and therefore encouraged spectators to 'watch' from arms length. Spanton in this way not only caged in the actions of the ‘beast’ of her creation, but simultaneously those of the audience.

These theatrical devices created a barrier, highlighting vulnerability in the work, or alternatively, vulnerability on the part of the performer. The devices removed Spanton from being the sole object of our attention and therefore worked as a protective mechanism for keeping a beastly audience at bay. The spectator was left at a loss to who was under scrutiny in this scenario and who truly needed protection from whom; as they were intimidated by the beasts provocative movement, yet simultaneously comforted in the knowledge that they could sit and observe, a safe distance from the performer, cushioned by familiar staging techniques.

The performers’ vulnerability in ‘Red Beast’ is easily countered by the vulnerability of the audience in attendance at Time & Tidal Flow, a festival in which both artist and audience take risks in work that is new and in flux, all the time proving that Live Art is still the provocative and vanguard art form of the 21st century, whether in Hull or anywhere else in the world.

This performance took place as part of Time & Tidal Flow a free festival of new work and Live Art from Hull Time Based Arts and New Work Yorkshire.

Joanna Loveday

Joanna Loveday is a writer based in Yorkshire, UK specialising in writing for performance and live art. www.joannaloveday.blogspot.com. Contact: joannaloveday@hotmail.com

Please only reproduce this text with permission from the author.

Time and Tidal Flow - Jo Ashbridge 'Full Time Indecisive'

2008-05-16T03:30:00.000-07:00

Saturday 26th April, 2pm (15 minute performance) 3pm (15 minute performance)

As the audience walked in to the performance space, Jo was already in her opening pose - stood on a chair on the small stage, cradling a dozen eggs in her skirt. One by one she picked them out and dropped them from the height of her chair, letting them smash into a hanging basket on the floor. Smooth easy listening accompanied, as Jo played out a sequence of gesture-based movement (dance) vignettes, her serene facial expression fixed in a half smile throughout.

In Full Time Indecisive, Jo could neither be pigeon-holed as a dancer, an actress or even a story teller, as she flitted through all of these personas with ease. Working with her props of eggs, two chairs and armfuls of baskets, she moved about the space - twirling, posing, idling and acting out minute narratives and moments of seemingly spontaneous movement. The movement was at times lusciously romantic, stylized and rehearsed yet simultaneously rushed, slapstick and statuesque. Jo began what seemed to be a complete choreographed phrase of work, to stop abruptly after just a few moments. She dropped her props, moved to a new position on stage and started a completely different act in a new style. For example from nervously throwing and catching eggs, higher and higher, on breaking one her focus immediately switched to balancing a chair on its side using only her foot. This abrupt ending and change in direction re-occurred throughout the performance, demonstrating Jo’s ‘indecision’ in just quite what and how to perform.

The soundtrack was played alternatively on a mobile phone in one of the egg baskets, an ‘i-dock’ and a turntable. It included two key tracks: I Only Have Eyes for You written by Al Dublin & Harry Warren, sung by Art Garfunkel and Ella Fitzgerald, and Waters of March written by Antonio Carlos Jobim and sung by Art Garfunkel. The music evoked both a sense of nostalgia and humour that complemented Jo’s movements, as it cheerily clunked along in the background regardless of how little or small her gestures were. The over-dramatic soundtrack, slightly out of key with the events happening on stage, gave a surreal overtone to the whole performance, almost evoking a trance like state in the audience.

The surreal mood and musical theatre style glimmered through the gaps in the fragments and was at the very core of what made Full Time Indecisive work. Bouncing her ideas around, with a nod to cabaret and the west end magical ingredients of what it is to be true 'performer', Jo had a grin about her that gave the whole show a bit of the old 'razzmatazz' . Pulling away the layers of narrative, the set-design, lighting, theme and even focus of a performance, it is amazing what a cheeky smile and some raw honesty can achieve.

The songs were repeated throughout and eventually merged and overlapped at the climax. Jo circled the audience once and finished the piece with this pinnacle moment of ‘indecision’ - over which song to chose and just how to exit. All of this indecision added up to a predictably fragmented performance, yet with clear starts and endings to each vignette. Trying to connect each of the segments truly would be a ridiculous task, and probably pointless, as Jo points out in the programme, the performance shows the theme of indecision in a ‘loose and conceptual way’. What was particularly interesting in Jo’s acting out of her own indecision in this way, was that through the numerous artistic ideas she shared with her audience, the pressure she put on herself to give a clear, entertaining and succinct performance, was itself on display. Her reluctance to disregard any one idea, yet simultaneously her dissatisfaction in presenting any singular idea became a frustration yet a fascination for both performer and audience.

In a cultural climate where droves of regular theatre attendees hand over their ready cash to see well polished shows, Hull Time Based Arts created a niche opportunity in programming a festival where ‘change’ was actually the core theme under examination. Jo made the most of this opportunity, bravely performing nothing but her own indecision. Despite the lack of narrative or interconnecting elements that could be read as whole, with a clear artistic statement, her performance remained playful and unapologetic in its simple staging and 'indecisive' content. The use of music and the innocence of the indecisive acts lent themselves to comedy as opposed to torturous or mundane acts of frustrating pointlessness. These acts came from somewhere genuine and this authenticity carried the piece, keeping it light and simple. In this sense, Jo can be proud of the statement that Full Time Indecisive makes – which is that our own individual complexities and everyday interactions in life work and play, are at the very core of what fascinates and captivates us. She tackled her own indecision through performing not one, but many of her own artistic thoughts, and through this sincerity, gave the audience live moments of comedy, boredom, beauty and bizarre brilliance.

When approached with an open mind, Full Time Indecisive provided a heavenly spot of relief from our heavily saturated, mediatized and hectic urban lifestyles. It was playful and honest, letting us step outside ourselves for a moment to take a look at our own inflamed ambitions and dissatisfactions in life, desires to be ‘perfect’ and accept out shortcomings. The performance dealt with an aspect of our very human condition and taught us once more how to laugh at ourselves. The work was raw in its very ‘indecisiveness’ with no element over rehearsed or re-worked to the point of no return. The performance was well suited to the Hull Time Based Arts Time & Tidal Flow festival that had change, experimentation and development at its core. The performance was the epitome of the philosophy ‘learning through play’ and its experimentation and unwillingness to be ‘fixed’ made for a changeable and transient fifteen minutes, that was a delight in and amongst the three day festival.

This performance took place as part of Time & Tidal Flow a free festival of new work and Live Art from Hull Time Based Arts and New Work Yorkshire.

Joanna Loveday

Joanna Loveday is a writer based in Yorkshire, specialising in writing for performance and live art. www.joannaloveday.blogspot.com Contact: joannaloveday@hotmail.com

© Joanna Loveday 2008 – seek permission before reproducing this text.

The Work

2008-04-28T15:43:00.000-07:00

What a brilliant weekend of Live Art! From Friday 25th - Sunday 27th April 08 Time & Tidal flow took residence at the Albermarle Music Centre and Hull College with a mixture of Live Art, Installation and participatory works from local artists. Now all is left is to do let us know your thoughts!

Which work did you see?

What did you particularly enjoy and what didn't work so well?

Was the event what you thought it would be?

How could an event like this be improved?

What were the highlights?

Reviews, comments and random musings welcome.....

Please also link to any further blogs and full reviews of the event as appropriate.

How is the theme of change present in the work?

2008-04-17T08:04:00.000-07:00

The Time & Tidal Flow live art and performance projects are linked by the theme of change. If you are an artist performing, how does this theme relate to your work?

Largely, how can a work reflect tiny or momentous shifts in time, place and history? Does this make the work have an overall purpose/story to tell and should these themes be obvious to the audience or used as a starting point?

Lets talk about Live Art...

2008-04-12T09:28:00.000-07:00

So, to kick things off, lets talk about Live Art....

What is Live Art? and what will a weekend full of Live Art performances be like? What should we expect, and why should we turn up to see it?

Please post your comments below...

Time & Tidal Flow Programme

2008-04-11T09:37:00.000-07:00

Time & Tidal Flow
A weekend of Live Art and Contemporary Performance

A collaboration between Hull Time Based Arts www.hulltimebasedart.co.uk& New Work Yorkshire www.newworknetwork.org.uk/newworkyorkshire

25/26/27 April 2008Hull

Fri 25 April 5pm – 9pm
Hull College, Horncastle Building, Freetown Way, Hull, HU1 3DG

Sat 26 April 1pm – 7pm
Albermarle Music Centre, Ferensway, Hull, HU2 8LN

Sun 27 April 12pm – 4pm
Hull College, Horncastle Building, Freetown Way, Hull, HU1 3DG

FreeProgramme in brief below – go to http://www.hulltimebasedart.co.uk/ for more info.4 new and original live art and contemporary performance projects linked by the theme of change have been developed through HTBA’s new commissioning scheme.

Reflecting both tiny and momentous shifts in time, place and history, Andy Abbott, James Brown & Rose Butler, Sohail Khan and Sarah Spanton present performance, installation, moving image and digital works, seen for the first time in Time and Tidal Flow. The weekend also presents projects developed by emerging artists on NWY’s mentoring scheme, Live Connections; Jo Ashbridge, Claire Blundell Jones, Hannah Bolland.

The programme comprises 7 works exploring and commenting on change; social change, historical change, environmental changes, changes in emotional states and change as a pure physical process.

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COMMISSIONED ARTISTS:

Andy Abbott Participatory Installation
A Game of Pastimes
Fri 25 April & Sat 26 April
Take part in a specially designed board game about the pastimes of the people of Hull.
James Brown & Rose Butler Participatory Installation
Untitled
Sat 26 April & Sun 27 April
Interact with and impact on the play-back of this video-based installation, using footage from the natural world.
Sohail Khan Performance
White Man’s Ghost to Available Light
Sat 26 April & Sun 27 April
A performance in two parts that explores the transition from an outer to an inner world.
Sarah Spanton Performance & Installation
Red Beast
Fri 25 April & Sun 27 April
Keep your eye on the red-head’s shifting image; there’s a shadow of the animal about her.

LIVE CONNECTIONS ARTISTS:

Jo Ashbridge Performance
Full Time Indecisive
Sat 26 April
A movement-based performance looking at the artist’s own acts of indecision.
Claire Blundell-Jones Performance
Individually Wrapped Human
Sat 26 April
Motivated by the problem of climate change, wrapped in a sustainable form of cling-film, the artist shuffles slowly towards St Stephen’s shopping centre.
Hannah Bolland Performance
Blueprint of the Mind
Sat 26 April
Witness the artist attempting to reach a state where automatic drawing can take place.
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Tidal Flow Networking Event
Fri 25 April – 5pm–6.30pm
For details go to http://www.hulltimebasedart.co.uk/

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Tidal Flow Chatshow
Sat 26 April – 3.30pm
For details go to http://www.hulltimebasedart.co.uk/
Meet some of the artists, find out about and discuss their work.
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Tidal Flow Artists’ Travel Bursaries
For details go to http://www.hulltimebasedart.co.uk/
· FREE transport to Hull and back from Sheffield, Leeds and York (on Fri 25.4.08 and Sat 26.4.08)

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Supported by New Work Yorkshire, Hull Time Based Art, Arts Council England, Yorkshire and Hull City Council.