I've decided, because my handwriting is poor to very-poor, that i would write about the national review of live art and stick it in my book....or put it in a ring bound folder.

so im going to go through each piece i saw, in no particular order then im going to talk about the show as a whole... then i have some other updates aswell!


Ginny Reed - until my pencil runs out.

In this piece the artist was in a blank white room. she had a pencil and drew a continuos line around the space, stopping only to sharpen the pencil. the performer was dressed darkly and smartly.
The most intresting thing about this piece was that i managed to steal some of the "art". there was a dorrway where Ginny would draw across nothing until she reached the other side of the gap. i stood with a blank piece of paper in the gap and waited for her to approach. she walked by and drew on the paper (it was a small pencil mark barely visable!) but im not sure about this piece at all. its a nice exercise to do within a space, but other than drawing attention to the space i don't see anything else in this piece. it was in no way engaging because after watching for a few minutes you could kind of gather what was going to trancribe for the rest of the duration and uite frankly the imagined version would probably be more entertaining. After amusing myself for about ten minutes i got bored and decided that i would not come back to see this piece. ( i amused myself by following close behind her for a lap of the room, counting how many pencil lines there were, smudging the pencil lines and also standing in her way)


Claire - Flagrante Delicto

Theres something strange, and slightly pretentious about an artist who has a single name/letter/alias as their public name. it makes me think they have something to hide, or they are doing it for the sake of being...'different'. Regardless this piece was quintessentially performance. She had construted a platform with four doors and frames ontop it, they were + in shape and arranggment. For a duration she would open, walk through and then slam the door, then on to the next, open, walk through, slam over and over. The performer was dressed darkly and smartly.
The noise was hard to bear but not terrible, i beileve if the intention was to be irritatingly loud then ampilfication of some sort should have been used.
It looked good, and i can't say that i liked or disliked it, it was engaging but only for a short amount of time, after having walked around a few times and having watched and contemplated it was pretty dull to be there. i went back a few times, the second time i visited one of the door frames had broken and was no longer 'locking' the door in place it swung free. she appeared not to tire which was dissapointing and i noticed she was wearing earplugs, i thought well fair enough because her ears would be shot after that...but felt somehow jipped like i wanted her to be more invested by gruelling this loud duration with more hardship.
Conceptually, it made me recall why doors were slammed in my life, anger and frustration and often the ending of an argument. thereofre this piece made me think that there was some never ending argument with no relif (apology)
It also made me think about domestic violence, for the same reasons above, loud violent arguments, also the fact that the female artist had a shaved head made me recall a skinhead like character, that often nasty men sport as their hairstyle of choice.
Having not been there i would have imagined that the last door slam would have been beautiful....the loud and then silence...very interesting but a little bit...umm hard to appreciate due to the character of the artist and the fact i could not relate to her much...i think... a lack of modesty, but thats just my impression, she could very well be a very loving, kind and modest lady but somehow i don't quite believe it...



Marilyn Arsem - Wintering Over


One of the things i really enjoy about Marilyn Arsem's work is how different one piece to the next can be, but how similaraties pop up in a sort of zig zag graph way. It appears that she has a few ways she likes to work, and to keep things fresh she mixes them up a bit, a very good practice!
This piece Marilyn was in the greenhouse outside, at the far end after entering there was a large mound of dirt or soil, it was perhaps about 13ft squared. the faint outline of a human hip was all i could make out but from that i made an impression in my mind of what position she was in. Every now- and then she would whisper or mumble something, in a very soft pleading almost whimpery voice. the speakers were situated behind the audience and either side of the entrance and there was a slight echo.
She would also occasionally shift a little and you would get a better impression of her form.
This was a lovely piece to sit and watch for a long time, the image was pleasent and you were kept alert and interested by her occasional words.
There was a few dissapointing parts to this piece, she started 2 hours late, which messed up my day plan, i understand things never run smoothly but i can now understand how not starting on time, or not setting realistic times can be detremental to your audience's paitience.
the other slighly dissapointing part was the dirt would thin over her form, and showed that she was covered by some kind of cloth, which shattered my impression of actually being covered in dirt. when this happened Marylins assistant would pick up her mini-spade and scatter dirt to cover Marilyn's exposed parts. this was quite nice to watch, and although it broke some of the awe with the piece it was nice to see that there was practicality behind the image that if it should deteriorate that it was to be kept maintained.
Conceptually speaking i could not divorce my thoughts about how Marilyns work can sometimes be about her dead mother (grandmother?) and since this piece was similar in look and sound to one piece that she said was inspired by her memory of her mother (grandmother?) i couldn't help but think this piece was then about her mother and i could not gather any other conceptual meaning...i realised then how past work can affect new work and similarities are alwasy drawn and how we must be aware when we are making work that previous pieces always come into play.
An enjoyable piece.



Alastair Mc-Lannen - Projection 'Lecture'

Arriving at Tramway in the morning, i visited the Black Market International, there was an annoucment that each artist would be giving a lecture. Alastair Mc Lannen was first so the group and i decided to attend. it was rather busy so i had to sit.
In the large space we went to a corner where there was a blank wall, there was going to be a projection.
I very much expected this to be a lecture, like an informal talk, but Alastair stood next to the projection, motioned for it to start, placed a plastic bag over his head (he was also wearing all black) and the first slide was shown. Alastair would raise his arm slowly and lower it back, when he was lowering his hand the slide was changed. THere were two pictures next to each other, many of lush, green, unspolied countryside, some were of this countryside but heavily littered (with plastic bags and cans) Some slides were of dead (squished) birds, some were of tiny details close up held in somebodys hands (seashells etc)
The lecture carried on for about, 10 minutes after which Alastair took off the bag and bowed his thanks.
I enjoyed this Lecture alot, slow definate performance movements often leave me with a very good feeling (content or mesmerised) the images were beautiful to look at, not superbly shot or composed but very honest and investigative, also i love taking pictures of dead birds myself so...i enjoyed those!
It was good to be able to look at the projection, look over to Alastair and not have either one get in the way of each other but still be able to see each together, but separatly as well.



Black Market International - Eleven participants installed in a space for the duration of a festival.

Well, i don't really know where to start with this!
throughout the festival many of the participants were performing together and separatly, whe n they were hungry or tired they took a break. It was very casual.
Since there was so much going on i couldn't really start to describe everything. there were a few parts that were interesting, i enjoyed watching Ester Ferrer perform with a long table, shoes on the table and a walking stick. She hooked the walking stick to part of the table held on and would run to the other side of the large room and let the table go to hit the far wall, she repeated this a few times.
There was one instance were Alastair Mc lannen placed a full rose into a glass filled with dirt that really appealed to me ( i enjoed the imagery of this single rose in a glass off dirt)
Alastair also stood by this rusty wheel that was sticking out in the air (it was a bicycle wheel sticking from a wrecked car) and he stood for at least a few hours, gently turning it by touching it lighly. He had a fishing net over his head while he did this and was carrying a large white jacket (or piece of cloth)


thats it for tonight im going to write more tommorow.

i'm afraid i've come down all of a sudden with this icky cold that everyone has....am not feeling too well