Please excuse my lack of entries. The pure honest reason for this is purely due to a block. I find myself stuck right now between the two performances I am in. I feel that there isn’t much I can do leading up to the actual performance until the last few days leading up to it. There isn’t really much for me to add/do at this point in time. Of course this could be seen as a good thing, however when I don’t do something I start to drift a little. I really do have the attention span of a gnat.
I decided to actually look more into the EXPO to cut out the time killing at home. My work with the EXPO team has been good as of recent, as I noticed Samantha’s blog post about the foil dress we shall be showcasing. For the entrance foyer we have decided to adorn the top of it with red and yellow fabrics to give of a chic, jamboree atmosphere almost giving off the impression you are in a circus tent. The picture below shows a very brief glimpse of what we hope to at least replicate:
It sounds weird to say, and I find it hard to actually utter the word as a second year university student approaching his twentieth year in existence… but doesn’t that look nice?The idea of this EXPO is fun. Pure, innocent fun. We are giving the audience food, drink, a metal dress, music, colour and activities in hopes that they have fun. The goal from the start for this project was to humanise the Grandstand and bring this lonely watcher of the original EXPO a party. For me tho I also have set a little side task for myself to make sure the audience have “fun”. How can we make the audience enjoy themselves, and also at the same time give meaning and energy to The Grandstand
In a quest for justification as to why the element of fun is so vital in a piece like this I researched into site specific performance pieces that gave life to area often not looked at. A very specific thing to look for but, surprisingly, I found a rather good post online about a piece called THE SERIES by Nicole Disson. It was a performance art piece that was filmed on the rooftop of The Standard, a boutique hotel in downtown LA. The piece incorporated belly dancers, live music from local band Blackblack, performance artists who were making out for the entire time in the lobby, acrobats contorting and twisting themselves to the sound of heavy metal and Mia Doi Todd singing atop a fireplace.
With all of this activity going on the blur between audience and artist is crossed which is fascinating, at least to me, to have. In the same post online a interview with Mecca Vazie Andrews provided me with however further analytical questions for me to possible delve into. Disson invited Mecca to collaborate with in this project. Mecca went on to explain her choices of movement and dance into the performance and how the space influenced her:
“The process for creating site specific work begins as soon as I see the space. Since I have frequented the downtown Standard since its opening, I have been inspired to make moves and work there. Given the opportunity to direct the series by Nicole is such an amazing treat because the roof top is already aesthetically terrific. First, I decide which spaces make sense logically for audience sightlines, sound and lighting. Then, I consider whether I desire to contrast the style of the space artistically or use what the space offers and feature it. For example, the pool is radical! I think it’s just asking for 2011 future Esther Williams to emerge from it like always. So I’ve created a MOVEMENT movement experimental theatre piece surrounding the pool with dancers and actors inspired by the likes of La Dolce Vita. It’s such a sexy pool so why not rock a sexy artful dance that’s all wet and fanciful?”
One could say that by using all of the LA based actors, artists and dancers that Disson is actually bringing focus to the arts in LA, and by using a building many may not look upon, despite it’s aforementioned “sexy pool”.In doing so this piece could also be a celebration of LA in itself. By doing this she has injected life and art in to a building that had none, and in doing so, used the audience to give it that said life. By what we are doing in the EXPO we are almost using this same archetype. We hope to infuse a event and a building together and make for a dynamic conduction in a mixture of performance, art and breaking down the barriers between audience and art and a celebration to the history of the site.
Below is a really interesting video link to THE SERIES that really inspired me:
Articles used:
Drew Denny. (2011). Nicole Disson’s THE SERIES: Rooftop Performance Art Parties at The Standard Hotel Downtown, Explained. Available: http://www.laweekly.com/publicspectacle/2011/07/05/nicole-dissons-the-series-rooftop-performance-art-parties-at-the-standard-hotel-downtown-explained. Last accessed 23rd April 2014.