‘Work emerges from a particular place, it engages intensively with the history and politics of that place, and with the resonance of these into the present’ (McAuley, 2007, p.9) in (Pearson, 2010, p. 10)

Last week as a group we were given the opportunity to visit the Lincolnshire Archives with the intention to gather more historic information about the Grandstand which would allow us to further our knowledge of the site and offer us inspiration for our performance work.

After independent research of the Grandstand through online sources, I felt that I knew a fair amount about our site but when getting to the archives and looking around at the documents that were placed on the tables for us; it was quite clear that there were many aspects of the Grandstand’s history I had no knowledge of at all. The room was full of documents, maps and artefacts from newspaper articles and prints to blueprints and old pictures, revealing this site’s past life which was highly fascinating to look through and explore.

Even though I found the whole experience extremely worthwhile and inspiring, my particular interest was researching more about the Latin/foreign phrases that can be seen on some of the architecture and artistic work within the Grandstand. With help from Adrien, one of the professionals that worked in the Archive, our visit allowed me to explore the meaning and relevance of these phrases towards the site in a lot more detail.

I was able to find out that ‘Per Ardua ad Astra’ which is the phrase featured in the war memorial in one of the rooms translates as ‘through adversity to the stars’. I then went on to discover this was and still is the motto of the Royal Air Force as well as the other Commonwealth air forces and the Royal Flying Corps connecting to the theme of War that radiates from the site. The other phrase I wanted to know more about was ‘Dieu et mon droit’ from what we know now as the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom situated on the roof of the Grandstand. I discovered that this was a French medieval phrase which translated as ‘God and my right’ which Adrien informed me is the motto of the British Monarch in England. After discovering the translations, I learnt that the building was built as a part of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee celebrations which allowed me to make further connections. Now the building wasn’t just linked with the theme of War but also the Monarchy which gave me a unique viewpoint of our site and realisation of the potential this theme has for creating performances.

To echo some of the other posts, we talk all the time about how the site has lost it’s effect/importance on the community and I think we know how much history the building has to show but sometimes we feel the need to ignore this to try and find something ‘out of the box’ to motivate us. The fact is the building has so much character and historical background that it would be ridiculous to not allow ourselves to be inspired. In relation to this I think the Grandstand holds a lot of potential for us to create contemporary ‘performances’ from historic events and topics that we can use after visiting the Archives.

References

McAuley, G. (2007) ‘Local Acts: Site-Specific Performance Practice, Introduction’ in About Performance in Pearson, M (2010) Site Specific Performance. London: Palgrave Macmillian.