During the second session in the Grandstand, I was given the task by Michael to sketch out the areas of the site that we had been exploring last week. I took this opportunity to also draw some of the areas that were given less attention but still have a lot of character and performance potential. The drawings are a bird’s eye view of the specific area which highlights important/characteristic features that possibly interact with the site’s history and narrative in one way or another. ‘The real power of site-specific work is that it somehow activates, or engages with, the narratives of the site in some kind of way. That might be with its formal architecture, or it might be with the character of the building. It might be to do with the history of that building. (McLucas, quoted in Morgan, 1995, p. 47) in (Pearson, 2010, p. 35)

I felt that sketching the site and focusing on the architecture of the building was extremely helpful towards my further knowledge and understanding of the site as a whole. I found myself thinking and imagining about how the individual spaces would have been used in the past in comparison to how they are used now; picturing scenes of wartime and horseracing events, casting inspiration from many of the architectural features. ‘Site may directly suggestive of a subject-matter, theme, dramatic structure: it will always be apparent as context, framing, subtext’ (Pearson, in Pearson and McLucas, no dates, p.7) in (Pearson, 2010, p. 35)

References

Morgan, R (1995) Y llyfyr Glas; Brith Gof 1988-95. Cardiff: Brith Gof.

Pearson, M (2010) Site Specific Performance. New York: Palgrave Macmillian.