What does a train station mean? To a performer its a space with potential to convey ideas. It is an area whose nature can be solidified through the work or a site where some ideas can be strongly contrasted allowing for exploration into the possibilities of what a train station can actually be. To the public a train station can be many things; "potential, order and history" (Kearny, D, 2014), "Adventure, solitude, quietness" (Stephenson, S, 2014), "Somewhere where I tend to wait for a very long time" (Smith, G, 2014).
These are themes brought about from the 'average commuter', and these words that be converted into themes that the train station possesses. A journey, a sense of time and a sense of the unknown. This is
what a train station means to me. It will always be the beginning, middle or end of the line. There will always be a connotation of losing and gaining time. Then there is a whole new idea of the people. It is a site of hellos and goodbyes. It is a about finding someone new and learning about something. It is about walking without looking and following the lines on the ground. Practically it is a means of heading somewhere else, and it being just a notch in one's journey. And finally it is about awkwardness, and intimacy, self absorbed people either oblivious or too scared to look at a fellow train stationer in the eye.
Using this intimacy and idea of site specific performance it became a spring board which propelled me into the concept of accidental audience and non-accidental audience. This idea, originating from a man named *insert name here*, explores the two different types of audience. Non-accidental: "I've come to see a show, I know what I am seeing and I am making an active effort to engage…" Accidental: "I was walking through the street and suddenly a flash mob started up. I just came here to do some shopping…" This accidental audience starts to become a large part of performance when doing work in such an active/public site. There is no stage, no spotlight, no offstage onstage and no audience seating and yet the public can still become an audience accidentally. This is a pretty clear cut concept however whilst working in the train station I've come to the conclusion that there must be subcategories. When does accidental audience become non-accidental. If we are 'presenting' our work at the train station surely the audience is non-accidental. It is by no means accidental that we are performing and performing to them. Ultimately I believe that the different between being accidental and non-accidental is knowledge and understanding of what you are seeing. I've been asking myself whether or not there is such a thing as accidental performers and non-accidental performers.
Moving on from this, another thing I wished to explore was audience viewpoints and how they differ between people. During the piece 'The Bodmin Escapists' a train will enter the station and pull alongside platform 3, coming to a standstill. Out of the window, two people can be seen holding each other in a calm yet genuine embrace. The man's eyes are closed and the women's are fixed at the floor some distance down the platform. Are they saying goodbye, which one will be getting on the train, which one is leaving and what is their story? Alternatively from platform 2, as the same train pulls way the couple can be seen hugging, then train having left their company. Are they embracing after a long time apart, are they happy or sad, what is their story? Work with an accidental audience has the potential to create many different perspectives within a group of a people and even though the embrace is still and unmoving because the site is very much working around them and constantly alive their story is alive.
Here is a list of artists that I have drawn inspiration from varying from site specific performers to durational performers. Hsieh for example, also explores intimacy in a piece of work he created with Monato, a durational piece that pushes the concept of performance and the performer.
- Hsieh, Tehching
- Monato, Linda
- Burden, Chris
- Bannon, Jo
- Buren, Daniel
- Segal, George
- Flavin, Daniel
- Haas, Richard
- Bijl, Guillaume
- Holt, Nancy
- Mitchell, Bill (Wildworks)
- Marina Ambramovich
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The piece itself, to be performed on the hour, every hour, for half an hour explores the embrace. A movement found to be a expression of strong emotion, a way to communicate without talking and a durational action varying from 10 seconds to 30 minutes or more. A piece that ties into the very concepts of what a train station represents and directly explores intimacy between performers and audience viewpoints. This is what happened during one performance:
"During one such performance a man who was giving us a scattered commentary whilst sitting nearby called us 'The Bodmin Escapists'. This got my mind wandering and whilst at the time it seemed as though we were doing a site specific performance in Truro Train Station reviewing emotion and duration we inadvertently created a performance that was applicable to not just the train station but to Cornwall in general. The history of Bodmin shows that there was a Gaol situated there."(Young 2014)
Wikapaedia entry: operational for over 150 years but now a semi-ruin, was built in the late 18th century, and was the first British prison to hold prisoners in separate cells (though often up to 10 at a time) rather than communally. Over fifty prisoners condemned at the Bodmin Assize Court were hanged at the prison. It was also used for temporarily holding prisoners sentenced to transportation. This realisation not only gave us the title for our piece but also the ability to see our piece as a site specific piece but also a county specific piece. The themes of saying goodbye, intimacy, transportation, escapism etc the list goes on.
No comments:
Post a Comment