Transvoyeur
Programme 2006
Part of the Independents Liverpool Biennial 2006
October 2006 - November 2006
| Transvoyeur
Artists Part of Performance Art Programme at Walk
the Plank in association with Bluecoats present
Cosmic Cabaret Performance Art Platform ... |
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Transvoyeur
Performance Art Platform 2006, Potting Shed Goes Psychic,
Walk the Plank Theatre Production Boat, In association
with the Bluecoats, Part of Independents Liverpool Biennial
2006, 10 November 2006.
Co-written by Jean-Paul Debuffet and Lucia Andrea Sweeney.
Saturday 12 November 2006.
(From
left to right and down) Jo Derbyshire's 'Seasons - When
the City Speaks';
Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney's 'Boudicca's PMT in the 21st
Century'; Tony Knox's 'Hero'.
Transvoyeur
artists performed at the ‘Cosmic Cabaret’
on Walk the Plank Theatre Production Boat, Liverpool,
England on Friday 10 November 2006. This live art programme
was managed in collaboration with Walk the Plank and
Bluecoat Art Centre (Liverpool, England), as part of
the Independents Liverpool Biennial 2006 and in association
with the performance programme of the Liverpool Biennial
2006. It was presented as ‘… a Cosmic Cabaret
featuring paranormal activity of a musical, magical,
dancical, theatrical, and mystical nature...’.
The
artists from Transvoyeur included Agata Alcaniz, Jo
Derbyshire, George Lund, Tony Knox and Gaynor Evelyn
Sweeney, as well as guest artists participating, such
as June Rose, Andrew Hodge and many others.
Sweeney
presented a performance called ‘Boudicca’s
PMT in the 21st Century’. This has previously
been in Berlin, London and Liverpool, 2005-2006. This
live art is one that has evolved with each rendition,
reciprocal to the context of the spatiality and urban
culture. This opened with artist dressed in white medical
coat and a white mask reversed to the back of her head.
This produced a dual profile. Sweeney walked into the
audience and conscripted a male and female volunteers.
She guided each to sit either side of her on the stage
and passed them sheet of text. She introduced the text
as ‘Athena Review Vol. 1, No. 1 from The Annals
by Tacitus (AD110-120) Book X1V, which describes the
Rebellion of Boudicca (AD 60-61). This was a translation
from Latin to English describing the rise and fall of
Boudicca.
She
instructed the two volunteers to commence reading the
ancient text and to continue until the last page. The
male and female started to recite, at times in unison
and others a cacophony of words that conflicted when
out of synchronisation. She draped over the two figures
a mass of gold chiffon. She then stood reversed, with
the white mask on the back of her head peering towards
the audience.
Dressed
in white medical coat, she stood arms outstretched while
the rendition of the historical events of Boudicca was
imparted to the audience. She then turned and knelt
to the ground. She collected a mass of paper on the
floor in front of her. On these were printed biological
diagram studies of the female’s reproduction system.
The artist folded layer by layer each sheet to form
paper aeroplanes, which she threw with vigour into in
to the air and audience. To reside back, composed and
calmly fold another.
She
then on the adjacent side took from her side a palette
and pot of blue paint. She emptied the contents to the
palette. She disrobed from the medical coat and with
two hands pressed to the palette covered her palms in
paint. She then applied this to her whole body, working
up the arms, across the breasts and down her abdomen,
stretching precariously to cover her back and finally
her legs.
During
these actions, the male and female continued to read
the ancient text. Sweeney curled into a ball, stretched
her arms forward, head still down she clawed at the
ground. As her hands draw close to her body, she released
a piercing and merciful scream. Several times the shrilling
lament was released from her lowered body. The force
of the energy expelled the affliction, grief and anguish
expressed in the text by the male and female read.
A
woman, Boudicca, who is remembered in the canons of
history who led the Iceni rebellion against the Romans,
after her husband, Prasutagus, as king of the Iceni,
died. The Romans went against their word and Nero was
ruling in Rome and the Britons were forced to endure
huge taxes, conscription and inhumane treatment at the
hands of Roman authorities. The peaceful treaty after
Prasutagus death was forgotten and for more wealth,
the Romans invaded the lands of the Iceni. Boudicca
was flogged her daughters were raped. The essence of
a females strength is re-represented in the ideologies
in this text of 21st century constructs of gender politics.
Sweeney presented a captivating and poignant performance,
as the female, as the lover, the matriarch and femme
fatale to avenge what was lost. Her body painted blue
similar to the Ancient Britons preparing for war. George
Lund, an associate artist of Transvoyeur, was the male
who volunteered in this live art by Sweeney and the
female was Sharlene Squires, a Play Writer.
Derbyshire conceived and directed a production with
a group of artists titled ‘Seasons – When
the City Speaks’. The performance opened with
digital photographic stills projected as a backdrop.
These images are created by Andrew Hodge, a photographer,
whose collection of images are iconic of the city of
Liverpool.
A performer, Sweeney seated on a chair. She commenced
reading a monologue. A text written by Derbyshire of
her experiences of the city of Liverpool combined with
historical and popular culture references. These structured
into the ‘Seasons’ and titled ‘When
the City Speaks’. Some moments later Derbyshire
enters the scene carrying art materials, which she spreads
across the floor. A collection of paints, brushes and
so forth. She departs at each the orator states a seasons
to return with a canvas representative of each term
and another artist enters the scene adjacent to the
placement of the canvas. These canvases a combination
of mixed media, painting and collage. Photographs and
text mixed with abstract and figurative representations.
These
form the foundation of a visual dialogue cognitive to
the subject being read aloud. On conclusion of the monologue,
Derbyshire disappears from the scene and the four artists
sat next to her canvases start modifying the surface
of each.
The
reader invites members of the audience to come forward
and contribute to the seasons on the canvases. The artist,
Derbyshire, compares the seasons within the structure
and semiotics of her art formed by her experiences and
lineage against the urban spatiality. The idea of time
and space is explored and as something has a natural
progression in evolution of a place, so too is that
of the human creatures intervention. The invitation
for the audience to contribute continues with this innate
sequence by modifying the spatiality of the canvas.
An intervention of historical and natural cause and
effect and the linear concept of time by human experience.
The performance finalised with each member of the audience
interacting with the art and becoming part of the creative
seasons of each canvas. This piece was intrigued the
audience and the live art became a type of ‘happening’
in the creative process.
This
production is an organic piece that has evolved from
previous performances in Liverpool and London. The first
explored at the View Two Gallery, Liverpool, England,
and then re-examination in he socio-urban and cultural
context of London. The project evolved from Derbyshire
examining Liverpool as a World in one City through the
seasons with a historical, personal and social perspective.
Through collage and performance, with an interior monologue
narrated by Sweeney, the audience were invited to participate
and add to the four collaged canvases Derbyshire had
prepared for the performance. Each canvas represented
a season in the City, with Derbyshire as the social
historian examining Liverpool from a personal perspective.
The canvases themselves originally looked like an enlarged
page from a journal or a scrapbook where Derbyshire
references and archives what has happened over the last
year. Through each progressive stage the audience become
part of the visual dialogue in the series of canvases.
Knox
and Alcaniz presented a new twist on the performance
conceived by Knox. The piece had evolved to include
the collaboration of Alcaniz to sing in Spanish the
theme tune to the 1960s series of Spider Man. The scene
was set with Alcaniz, as the orator/singer and projected
on either side a digital short movie by Knox showing
asserted demise of ‘Moth Man’, a guise created
by Knox in earlier projects on the concept of the super
hero in post modern life. The Moth Man character moves
through some woodland, digs a whole and then disrobes
to reveal the person underneath. The items of the costume
are then buried in this film.
Knox
entered the scene through a back door from a shed between
the two projections. Alcaniz sat to the right towards
the audience. The performance involved Knox in normal
attire, but the reverse to the film transpires. He is
in his normal clothing, but undresses to show underneath
not Moth Man, but a poorly made costume of Spider Man.
The unkempt nature of the Spider Man costume is something
reflective of this comic book hero in a child’s
perceptions. Knox posed in iconic super hero stance,
synonymous with those produced in comic books and through
to the male gender form in the canons of ancient sculpture.
He then moved through the space, mingled with the audience,
and resided with in them to watch the digital film of
the interment of the Moth Man costume. During these
transitions in the performance by Knox, Alcaniz continues
to sing the theme tune in Spanish of Spiderman. Knox
returns to the stage from the audience and Alcaniz then
changes her tone and starts to insult this dishevelled
Spider Man in Spanish with explications of disbelief,
“Ooh! La! La!”.
She
stands from her chair and points to his stomach and
genitals, shaking her head in disapproval. The vilification
of the character departs the scene and the final stages
of the digital video projection conclude. During the
performance, the audience exploded into a rapture of
whistles and applause at the undressing on the onset
of the performance to change taunts and jeers at Alcaniz’s
derogatory insinuations. The modifications in Knox’s
performance change the constructs of the female inclusion
and considers the roles of gender and sexual politics
to the societal precepts and conventions of masculinity
imbued in the hero.
The
evening of events and performance at the Cosmic Cabaret
of the Potting Shed was a fusion of conceptual performances
through to theatrical, dramatized and musical recitals.
It was an eclectic mix of different forms of live art.
Other artists to this event included Mandy LaRomero,
Jo Docherty, The Gang with Dorrie Halliday, Lisa Wrigley
and many others.
The
platform presented the artists of Transvoyeur and others
the opportunity to present art of an alternative nature
and expand on the philosophies of the Transvoyeur artists
in their practice to examine and explore socio-cultural
parameters and cognative in ethos of ‘Cabaret
Voltaire’ (The Cabaret exhibited radically experimental
artists, many of whom went on to change the face of
their artistic disciplines; featured artists included
Kandinsky, Klee, de Chirico and Ernst … Cabaret
Voltaire. Under this name a group of young artists and
writers has been formed whose aim is to create a centre
for artistic entertainment … The idea of the cabaret
will be that guest artists will come and give musical
performances and readings at the daily meetings. The
young artists of Zurich, whatever their orientation,
are invited to come along with suggestions and contributions
of all kinds. -Zurich, February 2, 1916).
Further
information can be viewed at:
Transvoyeur:
www.transvoyeur.co.uk
Walk the Plank Theatre Boat: www.walktheplank.co.k
Bluecoat Art Centre:
www.bluecoatartcentre.com
Affiliations
to:
Independents Liverpool Biennial: www.independentsbiennial.co.uk
Liverpool Biennial: www.biennial.com
