Author Archives: Adam Joshua Robinson

The Art of Installation

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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.

Located Through the Kitchen

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.

What use to be

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.

Decay on the Walls

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].

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Dear Grandstand,

Yesterday I learnt that you, although small, seem to appear on every map. That you’re aged and are still there even in the maps dating back to 1845. You are not big and overwhelming but rather sitting there on the edge of each map waiting to be rediscovered.

I discovered that you use to have siblings, that you were not the only one and now you are. I’m finding it difficult to talk about it without Romanticising you. Judging by the maps you don’t want to be Romanticised, you just want to exist. Subtly and quietly on the map, a tiny little building compared to the city of Lincoln with a tiny name tag.

Throughout the years you’ve barely even changed compared to the West End of Lincoln and the commons surrounding you. Perhaps it’s time you changed, what do you think?

Perhaps it’s time you changed, what do you think?

Yours Sincerely

Adam Robinson

What can you see?

What can you see?

An A with no B…

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“In a dérive one or more persons during a certain period drop their relations, their work and leisure activities, and all their other usual motives for movement and action, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there.” (Debord, 1958)

Researching drifting opens up new paths for a performance, drifting suggests ways in which we can experience a site and begin to understand the various ‘little gems’ hidden throughout the landscape. I use the word ‘path’ because the step of drifting I would like to focus on most is the very first step of drifting in the ‘Handbook of drifting’ “the derive lops off the last three and short-circuits flux straight back into separation.” (Smith, 2010) The ‘Derive’ is what I would like to particularly focus on in this post as it is the one word I could not understand without research and really exploring its meaning.

First I’d like to begin with explaining the ‘Derive’ using my own definition in the Mythogeography text it talks of the Derive interrupting a rite of passage and then goes on about separation and integration and creates a very complex sentence without any example and so I shall use an example. Take a rite of passage such as Baptism, firstly the person must purge all other faiths and beliefs (Separation), secondly said person must then question whether they are willing to accept the beliefs of Christianity (Flux in Liminal Space), Finally the person undergoes the ceremony and accepts everything to be thrust back into that community (Re-intergration). The purpose of the ‘Derive’ is disruption, to allow for the purge but prevent re-intergration, to leave you in a constant flux leading back into separation, the place you were with no sort out end, ‘An A with no B’.

An A with no B

An A with no B, The places you discover.

It is with a sense of security and an unawareness of boundaries that you achieve understanding drifting and in particular walking without knowing where you’re going. In a twist, it would seem that the Derive has a deeper understanding with life itself, we never know where our B is until we get there. Site Specific just seems to use this to realise life as a performance.

References:

Debord, G. (1958). Theory of the Derive (Debord). [online] Available at: http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/2.derive.html [Accessed: 12 Feb 2014].

Smith. P. (2010). The Handbook Of Drifiting. Mythogeography : A Guide To Walking Sideways. 118- 121.

Punter’s Paradise

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So you hear you have the grandstand but what first runs through your head with relation to it without any prior knowledge or research, just the object you would drive past on an everyday trip.

To the word itself I imagine gambling, old men smoking cigars whilst their trophy wives parade around in their new dresses (I am aware this is a very 1920’s imagining). The desperate man that bets it all on that one last horse with the ridiculous name like Thunder’s Fury and then watch as the chance inevitably does not pay off. The crushing of hopes and dreams and then that one person who shouts for joy as his unlikely win has paid off in money some only dream of. Then of course everyone who just lost stares at him debating how to steal and to some extremes kill him for the money he has just won when he finally leaves the stand.

I personally imagine the horses and dogs used to participate in the races, the small rabbit that the dogs chase around the track, not because they are stupid but rather hungry (Not that a fluffy rabbit on a runner would fill any dogs appetite). I think to the jockeys required to run the horses and that for once the issue is not you must be above this height but rather you must be below this height to enjoy this ride. It also makes me consider the levels of animal cruelty that must be taken into account when staring at these animals, yes I’m sure throughout the rest of the year they are pampered and well looked after but during racing season it is every man for himself. How the horses are whipped to race that tiny bit faster and if they fall short at a hurdle out comes the gunman to have the horse put down due to the extreme pain it must be in. Forgive me if I am being to harsh but when a Formula One racer crashes because he took a corner to hard you don’t take a gun to his head, you get the safety car out and all other racers must take a slow pace so that the driver can be recovered.

Now throw Lincoln in front of the word Grandstand and a whole new world opens up, dillusions of grandeur begin to fall apart and become something entirely different. A derelict ground comes into play, a space of land that now just stands there as a relic doing very little and serving no actual purpose but rather acting as a reminder to those who drive past of what use to be and that right now they are driving across a racetrack. Not only this but it makes me think of the golf course behind it where horses would be shown off and roam free but now people have the opportunity to swing a club at a ball (admittedly I am not a huge fan of golf either).

That leads to me to finally think of the site itself, the once stables, the architecture that must run underneath the Grandstand into nooks and crannies of darkness. The stables that one use to hold the horses an opportunity to show off their pretty silk fur and outhouses that would be used for various miscellaneous items. Maybe then it acts as a warning that everything decays after a while, perhaps as an idea people should be made to run around the track and whipped whilst horses sit happily in the stand enjoying gambling away and eating and drinking.

So in an overall view it makes me think of money, odds stacked against one another, relics and the thought that everything must come to an end.

Authors Note: Please bare in mind that this is everything off the top of my head and I actually know very little about Grandstands or in fact Horse racing.