In exploring the Grandstands endless possibilities you stumble across that one idea that sets a chain reaction in your head leading you to concepts you would never have originally thought about. In the event of my chain reaction I stumbled across installments and their importance in contemporary performance as an art form in their own right “INSTALLATION ART is a broad term applied to a range of arts practice which involves the installation or configuration of objects in a space, where the totality of objects and space comprise the artwork.” (Irish Museum of Modern Art, 2012) Through this research you understand that you have to define the space used for the configuration, through looking at maps of the grandstand and using my own experiences of drifting I decided upon what looked to be a decaying set of toilet cubicles.
The space appeared to still be used but simply as a convenient storage closet. The paint was coming off of the walls, the toilets would not flush and the was a wild variety of wildlife growing within the space. Yet, all of these flaws I simply took on as quirks, qualities that made the space what it is because after all this process is not about finding the negatives but twisting them and transforming them into positives. Already through my own judgements it could be seen that this acted as a piece of installation art, it showed years of decay “These values concern a desire to activate the viewer – as opposed to the passivity of mass-media consumption – and to induce a critical vigilance towards the environments in which we find ourselves.” (Bishop, 2005) I wanted to take this idea of ‘crucial vigilance’ one step further by presenting all of the decaying environments I saw into this once space.
Therefore, I looked through my own documentation of the grandstand I had created on my first visit and what I saw was consistent decay and objects relevant to the site with items such as the windows being painted on the back rather than being actual windows. With abandoned stables and litter everywhere. I wanted to present this documentation and so created something to show the modern age against the past, through the use of a video.
I entitled the video ‘What use to be’ and presented it in the space on the cubicle seat using only the dim natural light of the blocked out skyline windows. I then thought to myself how could I continue this concept of documentation and decay and did this through taken pictures of people as they walked into the space. I wanted to capture the look of shock as they saw the decay that had occurred. Through adding the audio of the start of the Grand national Race I believe it explored the further history of the site and how it use to be used as a race course.
This proved to me to be a huge leap in the understanding of Site Specific performance and that it is not about acting it is about representing the site in a way that is not usually perceived “Site-specific performance… reveals the complex two-way relationship between the person and the physical environment.” (Harrison, 2010) This is the main creation I have made, fusing people with the physical environment with the atmosphere of the space and the documentation showing what may have been missed.
References:
Irish Museum of Modern Art (2012) What Is – Installation Art, Dublin: Irish Museum of Modern Art.
Bishop, C. (2005) But is it Installation Art? Tate Etc, 3 (Spring). [online] London: Tate. Available from http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/it-installation-art [Accessed 5 March 2014].
Harrison, B. (2010) Theatre Style: Site Specific Performance. [online] Scotland: Scottish Arts Council. Available from http://www.scottisharts.org.uk/1/artsinscotland/drama/features/archive/themesitespecifictheatre.aspx [Accessed 5 March 2014].