Boredom Exhibtion

http://www.facebook.com/events/151727791603660/

31st January 2012
6-9pm
The Leeds Library
18 Commercial Street, LS1 6AL Leeds, United Kingdom

Come to the Cure to Boredom Exhibition to see my exciting new art work.
The Sometimes Profound Pain of Boredom is an exploration of the sometimes productive nature of boredom. The piece draws parallels being the pain of being bored and mindless drawing by creating a quasi-permanent place for these drawings to be presented: The artists body.

Boredom

Boredom: a condition that everybody somehow accepts, a fundamental emotion that affects each person while differing from body to body.

“Walking is not included in the salary” Henry Ford.

One could say that the Industrial Revolution gave birth to the notion of boredom, especially when Taylorism and Fordism reached their heights. Before this period in time there was simply no time for leisure or free time to occur unless you were in the fortunate upper classes. There was simply work, eat and sleep, in that order, until you died. The notion of taking leisure time was simply unheard of in the general mass of the population, as you would simply starve. The social gap between the rich and poor was very prominent. This resonates in a contemporary setting as well. This can emphasize on the point of social control within the masses, and what is “free time”? The time is lived by everyone, for example “the invention of free time” is a new invention, and is really the victory of realization of time. In other words, there is a limited time for working and a limited time again is reserved for entertainment as “free time”.

In Bertrand Russell’s essay In the Praise of Idleness he highlights idleness as a fundamental act of happiness and prosperity in modern civilised countries, stating “a great deal of harm is being done in the modern world by belief in the virtuousness of work, and that the road to happiness and prosperity lies in an organized diminution of work.” Russell states that idleness was a necessary period of a person’s day where he/she could reflect on their actions and take the time of better themselves, be it through meditation, introspection or even the development of arts, crafts and other hobbies. Can we propose that the viewpoint of an artist is a privileged one? To take ones time in reflection of ones self and work. A job that doesn’t need to be conformed and sculpted by a system in which “Time” is everything?

Th exhibition is looking into the condition of boredom, and what avenues can arise from the emotion. The artists involved are looking into historical and contemporary merit of what is boredom, while some are looking at this on a more personal note. The exhibition contents are as diverse from audio, photographs, video, performance and music.

That Dark Horse

That Dark Horse are a new performance collective founded by Antonia Beck and Andrew Roberts. That Dark Horse make research led performance that question the audience’s complicity in performance, whilst maintaining an entertaining and approachable style.

That Dark Horse have been selected to perform at A Working Title festival, Lincoln, UK from the 25th to the 27th November. For this performance we will be creating an interactive installation within a venue (TBC) and a headphone guided walk along the canal towpath in Lincoln, where the participant will encounter live performance, projections and live and recorded sound-scaping.

The aim of the proejct is to highlight and bring together various networks;

the canal network

the network of people that use the canal

social media networks to document the experience

We look forward to seeing you in Lincoln.

 

I took part in what is billed as a group action, organised by http://www.artevict.com last year. And I do not know what to expect, and I am, as ever, sceptical that something that consists of so many random unplanned fragments could actually mean anything. The idea for the performance was basically ‘do what you want’.

The performance event begins by one artist walking at speed in circles around the space, whilst another rhythmically stamps face to face with one of the walls. I am, at this point, still sceptical. However some of the events that transpire really affect me. There is a moment where one artist is shouting, A GHOST, over and over and over and over, whilst holding up a plank of wood over his head, the conviction in his tone really added to the dramatic-lie he was telling, we all knew it was a plank of wood, but he seemed convinced of ghost. This was uncannily resembled when another artist mirrors his body shape but is holding a plant, the image is uncanny.

I am always relieved to hear words spoken at live art events.

My other favourite spotting amongst this chaos is a girl who is dancing, as if in a nightclub, to no music. She seems to be having a truly enjoyable time. I kept asking the question to myself ‘is she just really pissed, or is she aware that she is performing, and in this moment I decide that her performance could tell a hundred stories about the performance of social dancing, in clubs, at raves, in the bedroom, on ones own.

Myself, and a friend I have dragged into the performance, are using the detritus of a previous performance. We are tearing up flammable cotton-wool stuff, halving it, passing it to each other, repeating the process, until we end up with millions of tiny pieces of cotton wool. The action is hypnotic for the performer, the mountain of fluff seems to expand, and I find it pleasing to see the product of a meaningless process build up…just as we come to an end of the process, another performer comes over and sets the pile alight. I find this to be deeply beautiful, so much time spent doing a task, then it goes up in flames.

String is wrapping the pillars, people are entwined in it, people are becoming entwined in the architecture of the space, people are viscerally and visually responding to the space, people are showing their own style of art within a wider umbrella of the group action, non artists are joining in, people are looking to see what they can add, what can they to improve this mess, what can they do to take it further?

I am passed the string and carry on wrapping it around and around.

Left at the Theatre

Currently restructuring the way Left at the Theatre operate. Hoping to attain more members of the collective so we can look to make fresh new collaborative works. It is a challenge to get people in the same place at the same time, work commitments interfere, I have erratic hours, RM is studying a PGCE, AB is working in Brimingham and others are based in the north. However this struggle is somehow positive. It is giving me time to scrutinise Left at the Theatres output, from Clutching at straws which we have shown in numerous guises and various festivals and showcase nights, to Intimacy which was a long slow grind, until production day when everything seemed totally worthwhile. I am also deliberating all of the failed studio experiments that Rachel and I have played with.

Without this long stretch of studio time where we created movement pieces based on flirtation, or awkwardness, that piece where scratching was a motif, or the time we experimented with random narratives, writing sentences, rearranging, creating stories to entwine them, the improvisation, the musical stimulus, were all ghosts of performances yet to be actualised. To conceive an idea of to make a performance about, first we must start making, we make blindly, and we agree, and we disagree, and we scrap, and we edit, and we redo, until eventually something is created…or discarded.

Considering this maximal studio practice I am pleasantly surprised with Clutching at Straws aesthetic values, it is somehow poetic in its minimalism, 2 bodies, one glass, a bottle of wine. We would never have physicalised this if we hadn’t improvised a scene about relationship breakdowns.

So now I am looking at Left at the Theatre from a more business like approach, understanfing our strengths and weaknesses, aiming to discover our values, our objectives. And this is giving me great hope, I am lookign forward to collaborating with a wider range of artists, to establishing a shared vision, and to taking this project to a new level.

From here onwards I shall be publishing texts to this blog which are intended to support various performance projects. The texts vary in style, from fiction to verbatim interview, to email correspondence between the people I have been or are collaborating with. Some of these texts are stimuli for performance yet to be actualised, others are responses to performances that I have made, and others are critical engagements with performance work created by other practitioners.

Couple of friends from Leeds are organising something that sounds cool in Hackney Wick:

Myself and Danielle have been having discussions about organising a mass arts night in the Main Yard Gallery- this is a preliminary message just to see who would be interested in getting involved.

We are calling on all actors, artists, musicians, poets, comedians (improv and stand up) and all others we know who work in the cultural industries to join us in creating one mass ‘performance night.’
We envisage a range of performances throughout the evening, with artists work being on show as well. This can be a chance to showcase anything you have or just a chance to get a mass group of artistically talented people together in the same room.

If this sounds like something you would be interested in getting involved in the please email us on either:

danielleelizabethchin@gmail.com or michaelaparfitt@hotmail.com

with a brief outline of what you would like to show. We would also encourage all multi-talented people to maybe do more than one thing (so if you act and play in a band or if you’re a comedian who’s also an artist then please feel free to do both)

Note: We are not just looking for performers but production assistants and managers to help with the organisation side of the project.

We have not yet confirmed a date but we are thinking of early May which gives everyone a month to crack on with ideas etc.

Like we said this is just a message to see who would be interested in getting involved so we can start putting lists together so please do get back to us with any ideas you may have. It should be a really exciting project and a brilliant opportunity to show how talented we really are.

Thank You

Love Kayla and Danielle

Sometimes I am lost, and sometime soon, I will find you

Whilst Left at the Theatre work on Make/Create/Collaborate, I will also be devising my first solo theatre performance.

Sometimes I am lost, and sometime soon, I will find you explores the idea of being missing, and being missed. Using verbatim text from people who know someone that is missing and people who have returned from being missing, stories, movements and puppetry, this performance will look at the theme from numerous perspectives.

A man misses his missing daughter. Another person escapes his home country for a happier life, leaving something behind. A son is searching for his mother after she went missing on a cruise. Two lovers are reunited. A father misses his daughter more and more.

If you know any who is Missing, or have ever been missing and would like to be involved in this project please get in touch with me on leftatthetheatre@gmail.com.

Call out for performers MAKE/CREATE/COLLABORATE

Left at the Theatre
presents
Make/Create/Collaborate

We are looking to meet bands, poets, musicians, beat-boxers and DJ’s for our forthcoming event MAKE/CREATE/COLLABORATE .
(we are especially keen to meet musicians with a classical background)

In this project we are asking performance artists to collaborate with a musician or poet and to create a piece of work which will focus on a given theme. 6 weeks prior to the event we will pair artists with musicians and poets who we believe will compliment each other well. Left at the Theatre will be available to help you develop collaborative work throughout the different stages of the process.

Your collaboration must be between 10-50 minutes and will be presented in July.

Left at the Theatre are an unfunded organisation and therefore are unable to offer any payment for this event. However, we will be available to support the collaborative works that you create in many other ways.

We are looking for film-makers to show short films (up to 10 minutes) between each performance and artists to present work for an accompanying exhibition.

Venue and date to be confirmed. Expected to be mid July.

LEFT OUT ZINE

An independent zine edited by Left at the Theatre, addressing issues arising in Live Art, Performance and Experimental Theatre.

Issue 1.
Endure.

Endurance performance work is becoming ever more popular. What does this mean for the performer? What impact does this have on audience/spectators/witnesses? How can working over long periods of time be beneficial to the final production.

We are looking for articles up to 1500 words to publish in a new quarterly publication that will be distributed at Live Art events and at independent art shops and galleries.

We’d like to hear from people who work in endurance based work as well as people who write critically about it.
If you are interested in submitting an article for this please email andrew@leftatthetheatre.com

 

Deadline: Midday on  Friday 18th February

INTIMACY is this Saturday

Left at the Theatre are very pleased to announce their first event INTIMACY.

INTIMACY

November 20th 2010

a one off festival of performance art, music, theatre and poetry featuring over 25 artists presenting work around the theme of INTIMACY.

We all experience intimate situations.

We all feel closer to some people than others.

How is intimacy created, in reality, in performance, and in relationship to one another?

Why do we feel closer to some people than others?

How does comfort work?

We all divulge secrets, expect trust and allow other people to access our most sentimental thoughts.

Intimacy can be comforting, confrontational and dangerous.

See the following people at INTIMACY (TBC):

Gareth Llŷr
Joanna Crook
Claire BLundell Jones
Kimbal Bumstead
Hannah Forbes black
Benjamin Sebastion
Holly Walker
Hardeep Pandhal
Colin Michel
Tim Gee
Russell Callow
Jamie Lewis Hadley
Todd Atticus
Left at the Theatre (Rachel McCarter & Andrew Roberts)
Richard Makin
Paula Davy
Matthew Lee Knowles
Tiffany Charrington
Antonia Beck and Kim Burnett
Pacer (band)
Guy Harries

Hardeep Pandhal
Plus many more suprises

There will also be DJs to take us into the later hours and Cakes…what better way to spend November 20th?

3pm – 1am, come early to avoid disappointment, this event looks to sell out quickly.

£5 entry (no concessions)

The Others, 6 and 8 Manor Road London N16 5SA, nearest train: Stoke Newington Rail Station, or 106 bus from Finsbury park to Listria Park