This week explored the difference between curated performance art and casual, straightforward everything as art. The two inform and tug on one another. They are made of loose ends where their fabrics overlap.
Monday July 25th
Title: “san diego lady on a mission ”
Instructions: jog in place and improvise voice.
Why? I need to work out.
Rehearsal discoveries: written on whiteboard: “come with me. stay awhile. I want to walk all innocence around you. running thoughts. Is the mission good." I figured I should set up something textural to sing my melody over that I had in my head.
Performance write up:
Local artists, Robert and Emiko came to the performance. A couple people on the streets stopped to watch for a moment. We talked about how for some pieces, 15 minutes feels really long, but others 15 minutes short. We discussed composing pieces in relation to endurance, and when certain endurance challenges are set, the piece is then defined by that challenge. This particular piece, 15 minutes felt perfectly comfortable given my medium fitness level.
I expected the jogging thing would get more difficult, but unexpectedly, it was the warming up that proved more challenging than 10-14 minutes in. If one of the pillars of value I had for this performance was to perform with tight, musical/vocal refinement, I would say that warming up the cardio element prior to beginning would be an effective tool. However, everything is art, so the process of struggling into it was perfectly valuable. By the end, I had more coordination between jogging and breathing than when I began and felt energized by it. The only exercises I had done prior to beginning were toe circles and a light vocal sighs. I had also woken up around 9am, so there was a lag in my overall physical energy.
I had a melodic concept in my head that I really wanted to realize in that moment. I wonder when I am ever going to record music again, and I figured this is an interesting method to get some documentation of that melody in case I die. A lot of my artistic thoughts center around this. Everything else was in the moment, and I don't recall pulling from any other pre-existing ideas.
Singing to the pace of the jog became an obvious answer in this performance. Keeping time with a jog makes sense. It's so built in.
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Tuesday July 26th
Title: “poor pour”
Instructions: pour everything you could possibly pour.
Why? Catharsis.
Rehearsal discoveries: Utilize levels. perhaps lighter objects to heavier. Talked through performance concepts with the great, Nancy Ross on Monday night. Couldn't decide if I wanted to make a story out of this performance or a 'happening event.' We defined the difference as, stories have conflicts, resolutions, and thematic messages. Mainly that stories have conflicts. She recommended I make "decisions" to take steps up the ladder, and that there is symbolism within the steps, the objects, and the pouring. In some ways, I didn't want to turn this into a story, but in other ways, these acting elements helped play a role in allowing me to make the performance last 15minutes without running out of things to do.
Performance write up: I totally did not end up making a solid decision as to whether or not I wanted the "performance" to be a straight happening or story. I was torn between the two ideas. I had a friend text me they were coming, and I think the person in particular made me want to give more of a show instead of deliver the pouring actions plainly. I was able to monitor the time throughout the performance since I was going back stage to get more stuff to pour, and realizing the time was not passing as quickly as I thought, I utilized the dramatic tools given to me by Nancy to take up more time. I think this worked in my favor by creating more drama to the circumstance. My ending was dumb. I was looking for something more to pour after I had run out of things, wanting to pour myself in some way. I could've just done that physically, but I went backstage. The timer went off, and I simply ended it. I'm curious what the performance could have been with a more straight face, task approach. Is more entertaining good? I dont know.
Also, part of the performance became that I was so shitty at pouring stuff, consistently missing where I was pouring into as if even on purpose as a performance element. I wonder how that came across.
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Wednesday July 27th
Title: T-Shirts
Why? I need to design t-shirts. To try and do so. Demonstrating a process seems like a good concept. The art of a process without all the performative effort.
Rehearsal discoveries: The “rehearsal” for this one was driving to south park to pick up a home made light trace box by the one and only Kbeezy (katieberns.com). Rehearsal was driving to my ex’s place to pick up my t-shirt paints. I had a bunch of silly ideas about creating a mandala out of past performance props and turning this thing into a full fledged ritual. Rehearsal was deciding not to do that and putting a different foot forward by just executing some straight-forward process tasks. It’s fine. Everything is art.
Performance write up: Painting thin lines with that t-shirt paint proved to be a bit difficult under a time constraint. This one could have been a bit longer, and I could’ve perhaps worked a bit faster. I don’t really know. I wanted to be happy with the design, but I’m just meh about it. There will be T-shirts eventually. I bled for some reason. I think a paper cut, and I saw the blood on the corner of the shirt when I lifted my hand from painting. I was surprised, but figured it was a sign to add some red. I had hoped to get further and cover the shirt with more paint and detail.
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Thursday July 28th
Title: “Bread of the earth”
Instructions: pondering with baguette. Hold a baguette. Record spontaneous audio on the theme “bread of the earth.” Move with the baguette and perhaps live vox with the recorded track.
Why: My friend Natasha, who performed ‘still a stone dancing in a circle’ came to my birthday party last Friday and said, “You should do a performance with a baguette and call it bread of the earth.”
Rehearsal discoveries: Light review of the audio in the car to check on the vibe. Didn’t rehearse really outside of just wrapping the bread up and holding its warmth to my belly. It was one of those take and bakes. I baked it in the morning, so it was still a little bit warm when I began the performance.
Performance write up: I’ve been trying to make each performance as easeful and intuitive as possible. It’s interesting how this one is made from the process of brainstorming along the topic, “bread of the earth.” I really enjoyed “Hit it like you’re never gonna hit it again,” because the audio prompts movement, so I figured having an audio to prompt bread movement would be a simple, effective concept. I think it was. I even thought I should do some audio editing, like add some layers or reverb to it all, but then, I realized that it was cool the way it was. I figured it would be just fine.
The authenticity of the audio portion being completely unfiltered, straight thought to vocal expression made the experience of performing with it a bit revealing and vulnerable. It’s different from live, improvised vocals, which I tend to make equally as authentic and unfiltered, but, because I was observing the unfiltered chaos outside of creating it, I witnessed it from outside of myself, just as the audience does. I had a single moment of concerned reflection during a portion of the audio’s raucous, wild woman singing where I felt the vulnerability of being witnessed. It didn’t last long, and I actually ended up breaking the feeling down by reminding myself in the moment that everyone is a ridiculous universe of wild, raucous thoughts. People are just more or less practiced in the unleashing.
Watch for free on youtube-----> https://youtu.be/PZnTEmG6iqM
Friday July 29th
Title: “Blackberry Blood”
Instructions: Get blackberries. Think blood. Blood carries oxygen and nutrients. Blackberries have tons of seeds.
Why? Ate some wild blackberries and saw the striking red on my finger tips. Figured if that moment was such a massive explosion of art, the piece would write itself. Other why's: Blood evokes. Blackberries are delicious and nutritious.
Rehearsal discoveries: Went to a canyon in South Park to harvest those wild berries. A fun, frantic morning with unexpected hugs and the daring difficulty of walking up to an overgrown blackberry patch taller than myself with living critters I guessed to be of the rodent variety. Setting up at Tenam, I was wondering how to develop the performance and found some ideas like poking my head through curtains for a build up of curiosity. I wrote, "I really want to embrace it once I have tried a berry." I came up with generalized symbols. The berry is the passion. Spikes are the pain/intensity. Did a light bit of interacting to find where to place the cuttings in relation on the stage.
Performance write up: I found a way into this performance. It seems the best of these have felt this way, as if I entered a frazzled, sleepy woman and exited as a character defined by the past 15 minutes of experience. I didn't know exactly how I was going to handle it, but I moved as intuitively and conversationally as possible. I have been speaking to myself lightly in some of these "silent' performances (silent for people on the street and not the gopro shot watchers), basically just conceiving them in the moment.
The berry blood concept seems a bit cliché. I suppose a lot of things are. It was never about commenting on the cliché. I just wonder what the difference in potency is between this trope of berry blood and something like playing with plastic fabrics in their abilities to make us question what life is about and why we are here.
Watch for free on youtube---> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ1lyppxc7s