Shrimp in a box

Shrimp in the box came about after I had to help Jodie Smith carry a plinth upstairs for her work in the show 'Everything wrong with the world' in PS3. After I realised I could fit in the plinth I realised that this was going to become Spontaneous Performance Piece #2. (see below for Spontaneous Performance Piece #1) The name 'Shrimp in the box', obviously refers to the toy 'Jack in the Box', where a handle is turned on a box for a certain period of time before a clown jumps out of it. The idea of these toys is that the player of the box will not know what is going to jump out at them and when, and this then provokes a reaction of shock, and then usually, laughter. 

I wanted to find other ways of displaying this spectacle in a gallery environment and also incorporate a performance aspect. I like these short performances because they require no commitment and I can see how ideas might play out really quickly and easily. For the end of term film screening during the briefing I submitted the really really really short film above, and there were multiple giggles and laughs from the audience, which is what I wanted; for the audience to not know whats going to happen and whats going to jump out of the box, and for this to then provoke some sort of laughing reaction. 

During the mental preparation for this short performance - the spectacle is very, very warm to wear - I was actually rather cold, so put it on as a blanket of sorts. Jodie realised that wearing it in this way could potentially lead people to believe that it is actually some form of avant garde fashion piece, because of the way the appendages fall into shoulder pads and the way it drapes around the body. Whilst not the intention, I like the fact that this spectacle can be appropriated to suit many different contexts. 

Professional Practice!! (puppets)

Me and Jodie are still very much wanting to develop our puppetry to take around festivals during the summer, however it has taken a backburner temporalily while we get our dissertations out of the way. Come January we plan to develop what animals we want to make including both real and fantasy animals, as well as develop the way we perform the puppets. I am most interested in whether it is possible to 'become' the animal we are performing to make it the most realistic animal encounter we can. Our concept is very much about staging an 'animal encounter', to capture the magic of the natural world and to bring people back to nature.

We have already begun to put the wheels in motion for the summer. We have contacted Hogsozzle festival, which Jodie worked at last year, pitching an idea for multiple walkabout puppets, including a flying pig based on the name of the festival. This project is ambitious but Hogsozzle are definitely on board, and it will be good to have a deadline and something to work towards to push us. Having worked at festivals over last summer, this will be a good opportunity to interact with the organisers of the festival on creative professional level not just in the hospitality and catering side of events. I will also be able to network with other designers and performers within the festival context. The festival is the 24th - 26th May 2019, which is early on in festival season, so we will be able to develop our performative skills throughout the summer at festivals (as Jodie and I both are planning on working at festivals over the summer and intend to bring the puppets with us regardless of whether we have talked to the organisers or not). We also plan to hand out small leaflets/business cards explaining our concept to the public and engage them with the environmental issues at hand so that our work also becomes educational. We will also say that our puppets and our services ae available for hire for children parties, workshops and events, with a vision to form our own business out of this.

At my initial professional practice meeting I spoke with Will from the Ideas Factory at NUA. He specialises in starting businesses, so he would be able to help Jodie and I if we wanted to take the puppetry further. If this goes well and I enjoy puppeteering, Will also mentioned the NUA internship programme for September next year. I think it would be good to look into whether it would be possible to do this programme at somewhere like the Puppet Theatre, or another Norwich based theatre, as I am very interested in a possible career in the costume industry.

Hogsozzle 2018 teaser

Drag in the Gallery

As part of the second instalment of Drag in the Gallery, one of the performers from the House of Daze asked me if I could perform in one of the pieces I had on display. I didn't know what song George would be performing or how he was going to interpret my work, but it was amazing to see my work in a different context and how someone can change the meaning of a work through performance. In terms of professional practice, I hope that this will lead to future collaborations with the House of Daze if they ever need a more abstract costume, as this will allow me to get my work out there with an already established performance collective, and will hopefully allow the performers to be more expressive and elaborate in their outfits.

INTERIM SHOW - UNDER CONSTRUCTION - EVALUATION

When I arrived for the interim show there wasn't much time to look around the event because they had already started setting up for Drag in the Gallery, which meant that I wasn't able to get any documentation of the audience taking my pieces off the hooks and putting them on which is a shame but if anything this should be a kick in the right direction to get better documentation of my work. 

I enjoy the way they come off and away from the wall - they are so tactile because of all the different textures, I think this helps with audience interaction. When they are on the wall they are static, and even though the expectation is there that they could or should be activated in some way, they don't have the same impact that they have when there is movement involved. Perhaps if I had put some shoes underneath them - similar to the experiment I did in my studio space with the netting piece - then the expectation would still be there but they would hold their own as static pieces too. Or maybe even if they were hung slightly lower, so that they touched the floor, so it looked like they were rising up out of the ground, then they would have worked as a stand alone piece of exhibited work. Ultimately I feel like I concentrated more on the idea of audience interaction rather than thinking about all aspects of the work. 

DRAG IN THE GALLERY PART II

Devil Child 

Devil Child Full Performance

When I spoke to George about why he chose that piece of mine to wear, he said he loves to be more experimental with his costumes, and he knew he wanted to have lots of clownish make up, so he wanted a costume that would compliment the make up well. Wearing my piece also meant that he wouldn't have to spend any money on an outfit. The pink of his face and neck really picked up the pinks of the netting and really brought the whole thing together so much that I almost felt that I had made it specifically for George to wear. 

I am still unsure what to call my pieces - are they pieces? Are they costumes? After watching Devil Child perform in one of them I have realised that they are spectacles. My research for my extended essay led me to look at Mikhail Bakhtin's 'Rabelais and his world', which led me find the idea of the carnival spectacle. Spectacles have a strong visual presence, and Devil Child performing in my piece definitely had that, and I think that all of my pieces have that too. So I have decided to call them spectacles from now on. Carnival also does not acknowledge the distinction between actors and spectators, as the audience live in it, and at Drag in the Gallery there was no barriers between audience and performer because we were sitting on the floor and you could here the movement of the costumes and the rustle of the audience as they watched. 

When he first sat down on the floor to start the song I was dubious because what I like about my spectacle is the movement and the way the material moves. The spectacle was also supposed to be all encompassing of the body and in my experiments in and out of the studio with it I had failed to really achieve this. While he was sitting on the floor, the netting was surrounding him completely from the neck down, and it was really full, which definitely helped to create an all encompassing outfit. When the song started Devil Child was so expressive in his movements that it didn't matter that he was sitting down because the material still moved but just in a different way than I had been previously playing with it. I especially enjoyed the way he kept moving his body backwards and forwards as it really got the full movement of the netting which meant you could see all of the colours. Even though the song was sad, it was also about empowerment and release, which was clearly expressed through the movements of both the body and the costume, as when the song reached its crescendo, the netting was released so you could see its full potential. The netting just came into a life of its own and you could really see the full movement of the material. He moved energetically and sporadically which gave a chaotic and electric feel to the performance and had he moved in this way without wearing something that was tighter fitting, I don't think it would have been the same. His yellow tights too really complimented the yellows of the netting, which was good because there wasn't that much yellow in there, so with the pink of the face paint it really felt like a full finished spectacle. At the end of the performance, Devil Child stood with an arm around his head and the other over his body for a few seconds, perfectly still like a statue, which reminded me of when I dressed up the Greek sculptures, which is a contrast that I really enjoyed. 

After I finish a piece and I get someone to film me in it, my initial reaction is not to just move, it is to dance. I think this is because I am ultimately picturing my spectacles in a festival context, and I am always dancing at festivals. Seeing my work being worn and performed in a choreographed routine has confirmed to me that dancing is an aspect of my practice that I want to possibly explore further and that maybe instead of seeking performance artists to work with I should consider asking dancers if they would be interested in working with me. 

Devil Child's Insta:

At the first Drag in the Gallery installment ^^^^

Thom Ketchup Drag in the Gallery part 2

^^^^ Knowing little about the world of drag, I was intrigued to discover that performances could be this reserved and intense - I assumed that drag was all about exaggerated movements and being flamboyant. The amount of work that went into the costumes was stunning, and all of the performers had really thought about how the costume and the music could reflect and respond to each other. 

THE INTERIM SHOW - UNDER CONSTRUCTION

This is what I initially proposed to Oliver my curator for the interim show:

For the interim show I basically want to have a dressing up box filled with all my costumes/wearable pieces that are in progress. I hope that the audience will feel like they can put them on and wear them while they look at the rest of the exhibition. The pieces themselves are going to be a variety of things including more clothing and fashion based pieces as well as pieces that abstract the senses.

This has obviously changed since then and for the show I am no longer putting any fashion/clothing based pieces in. I brought everything I had made recently on Thursday for set up, including a piece from last year as well as a couple of masks and two abstract textile pieces I have made this year. Me and Oliver had discussed potentially hanging my costumes on a rail alongside Jiji's work, as she is also submitting costume pieces. This would be instead of the dressing up box that I had proposed. I was happy with this as I found out from putting up my work is PS5 last year, a rail definitely brings the invitation for the audience to try on a wear the work. However, when I brought my work in for install there was no rail and I was worried about how my work was going to be shown. Curator Sophie came and spoke to me, and asked me which of my pieces I most wanted to be in the show, as there wasn't space to show all of my pieces I had brought with me. I chose the two most recent textile pieces as I feel the colours work well together and they are also the most abstract of my pieces. They are also the pieces that require the most curiosity from the audience in order to figure out how they can be worn because they are not obvious pieces of clothing. 

Sophie asked if I was happy to have them hanging on a wall together on hooks with a sign next to them saying 'wear me',  so that the invitation for the audience to put them on is there. Honestly I am happy with the way that Sophie envisioned my work and that we were able to work together to figure out what the best way for them to be shown was. It helped that I already knew that my pieces worked hanging on the wall as well as when they are worn from experiments in the studio. Obviously my work is being shown in a gallery context and whilst the invitation to wear them is being offered they are still being hung on a wall instead of being worn. Like I said before I am happy with this, because when they are hung on the wall they still spark the audiences curiosity just as much as if the audience saw them for the first time when they are being worn. There is also a sense of expectation and anticipation when they are hanging. Once you see someone wearing a piece its very difficult to imagine the piece as anything else other that how it looks when its worn. When its on the wall it can be anything. Thinking about my work in different contexts, I think that this is the same in both a gallery context and a festival context – people will find it hard to imagine the pieces as anything else once they have seen them on a person. As I found out last year from the interim show in year 2 people are less likely to interact with a work in a gallery environment unless there is some sort of sign saying they can. However at a festival because of the playful environment people are already in they do not need the same written invitation.

My work is in PS1, alongside a mixture of sculpture, painting and costume. Because of the colours people have used in their work, as well as subject matters and the way people have chosen to present their work, I think the room has a playful feel to it which works really well with my pieces. I haven't had a chance to look round the rest of the show yet but I am excited to see how this part of the show compares with the rest of the exhibition. 

After the install Oliver contacted me to ask if I was happy for some of the guys from House of  Daze - who are doing the Drag in the Gallery show during the closing event - to use some of my pieces for their performance. I am happy for the house of Daze guys to perform in my pieces without any direction from me as I am curious to see how they use my pieces in another context. The fact that Oliver contacted me to ask me if they could, shows that people are willing to wear my pieces without any formal direction from me. Ultimately I am thinking about my work in a festival context which is why the videos of my work are normally just me dancing around in them as I envision people dancing in them to music. Drag incorporates dancing, music, and performance, and is often a feature of many festivals so it is actually quite fitting. I must keep an open mind at the closing event, and ask myself whether what they do with my pieces is something I want to repeat or whether it will serve as an indicator that this is not the way I want me pieces to be used.

Thoughts on Performative VS Performance

So if something is performative, it doesn't have to necessarily be performed in, it just has to gesture at it or suggest that it could be performed but it also exists as its own thing. But its not necessarily without an audience and someone can still witness its performative qualities. even if its not being performed.

So does a performance have to have an audience? 'An act of presenting' - can you present something without an audience and it still be a performance? I think yes because if you perform a task or a function you don't have to do it in front of something. everyday tasks have to be performed but they don't have to be a performance unless you want it to be.

CONTEXT. Does the context allow us to see if something is performative or a performance? A costume hanging on rail is performative, but does seeing it on a body on a theatre stage makes it a performance? But is that the costume becoming the performance or is that just the body performing I wonder. The context of a place changes the meaning of the performance and the context can change whether or not a piece is performative or not. If one of my pieces was on the floor in a pile in a gallery it wouldn't look performative because there would not be a suggestion that it was wearable. However if it was hanging on a hook or on a rail it might be more suggestive that it could be worn which would make it performative. 

Cardboard

After looking at the Pet Shop Boys and the costumes that their designers have created for them I wanted to try and use cardboard to get some sharp, angular and geometric shaped headpieces.

I began starting with paper to create a cone and large glasses to recreate an outfit from their music video 'can you forget her' where the duo where orange and white stripey cone hats with sunglasses. The paper is flimsy and doesn't stay upright, and overall I am not pleased with this piece because I am recreating something that has already been done rather than basing it off one of my drawings. I like how the pointed form of the piece elongates the body and reflects the length of the legs and I do like the way it covers the face, which is becoming a recurring theme in my pieces.

After making the cone headpiece I was thinking about the Pet Shop Boys and the media and how our generation is very reliant on the media and technology. When I began making this headpiece I again had the Pet Shop Boys in mind with their iconic neon cube head costumes, and I had initially intended for it to be a giant cardboard coloured cube. However, because I was thinking about the media it began to take the form of a TV and i just rolled with it. I began using materials that I had to hand like tape, faux fur and animal masks and it became this peculiar mask type headpiece. It was fun to think through making in this way and not worry too much about the final outcome. I think this piece definitely has a slightly sinister and unnerving feel to it because of the giraffe mask being embedded into a TV and not just on a head normally. This is because usually you would see the wearers eyes through the mask but now they are just hollow and dark. This feel is heightened for the wearer because they can still see through the material and the eyes of the mask as I cut holes in the material. This creates a disjointed and detached view of the world which i like because the wearer can see but for all the audience knows they are blind. Again this piece wasn't based on an initial drawing or planned idea of my own, which is why I think the outcome isn't as strong as some of my other work. This makes me think about the importance of my drawings and whether I need to be considering them as works of art i their own right as they are clearly an integral part of the process. 

I don't think I'll be continuing either of these ideas further, but it was good to think through making again as I haven't done that since the start of the year with the puppets. 

Carrot

Working with cardboard and paper briefly has been good as it allows me to see things on a big scale quickly and cost effectively but as the final result it doesn't have the same materiality that fabric has. I think that fabric has the most potential when it comes to realising my drawings so that they are recognisable from the drawing. The idea for this costume actually came to me in the shower when I was thinking about what I wanted to make next and sketching on the shower glass. I had been thinking about making giant fruit or vegetable costumes purely to entertain my flat mates but got distracted by the idea of a giant wobbly carrot costume. You see the the 'wonky veg' sections in supermarkets where they sell all the fruit and veg that isn't 'perfect' but why not just throw all of them in together? Who cares? This exaggerated and elongated shape will cover the face and distort the body like I have been wanting to explore, and the natural form of the body will be almost unrecognisable. 

For this piece I chose to use felt. This is partially because I like Joseph Beuys ideas that felt is can absorb nearly anything, its an insulator and it can also muffle sound. As this piece is going to cover the entire face and body, having the sound of the body and the breath muffled as well really adds to the detachment from the 'human', to create something more alien and otherworldly. When I went into the fabric shop to get material for this piece I knew I also wanted a material that was slightly rigid and would be able to hold up on its own more so than a material like cotton. I had considered hessian as I had used on a previous piece but hessian is very scratchy on the skin. I thought I had wanted to keep as close to the original drawing as possible but when I saw the pink felt that was long in width in knew that it would be perfect for this piece, despite the fact that carrots are not pink. However, now I actually think in the end that the pinkness of this piece adds to the 'otherworldly' aspect of this piece. 

I had planned to add pattern and decoration onto the piece after I had cut out the outline and stitched it together, so that I could definitely make sure it fit and worked the way I wanted it to, but I realised this would be near enough impossible because of the scale of the piece. So, I decided to use this circus-type striped material I had, to add more bright colour, and to add texture I cut the stripes, so that when the piece moves so will the 'flaps'. I began stitching with machine, but because of the vast quantities of material it was difficult to negotiate. So I tried hand stitching (as above), but that made the material bunch and pucker and I felt like it detracted from the work because it looked messy. I don't mind if my stitching doesn't look neat and professional because that it not what I want the audience to take for my work, as long as it doesn't detract from the work. Even though machine stitching was trickier, I have learn to persevere with it and to have patience, which ultimately resulted in a better outcome. 

I decided not to do both sides with the stripey flaps because I worried I would run out of time before the interim show, and I wanted this piece to be in it. Instead, so the piece would have continuity on both sides, I stitched a single stripe of the same material down the back, which kinda reminds me of  the ridge of a dragon, which I like as it makes the piece look like a creature of some kind. My flatmate in the video states that I look like a shrimp, which is a far departure from the carrot costume I had initially intended to make, and it is because of the transformative qualities of material that this is possible. I think the most important aspect of this piece is the movement created by the wearer. I thought that I wanted to cut arm holes so that the hands would be out, as I thought this would help it hold its shape, but actually I think it works better if it left loose. Because of its extreme size, the wearers arms are able to alternate between the different appendages, meaning that the pieces shape becomes fluid and there can be much more movement. The flaps move by themselves which is what I like about certain materials, as its like they have a life of their own. This movement, along with the fact that you cant see the face, helps to create a character that is otherworldly, and also adds to the comical aspect of this piece. I would like to see this piece in an everyday context, and I think it would work better in terms of getting a reaction out of people than the netting piece, because it is much more creature like and alot more ridiculous. It is very much like a creature from the sea, so it would be interesting to take it to the beach and play around with filming it in different locations there; maybe coming out of the water, or jumping up from behind rocks or running along a pier.  Like the piece I made out of netting, i'd like to see how this piece looks hanging up, to see if the meaning of the piece changes at all. 

peeping tom

I was playing with covering the face to create a more 'alien' look. At this point in my work it is about aesthetics I think, the weirder looking the better, and how can the context of the work make it look more alien?

I am also enjoying playing with how the audience perceives the work differently to the wearer. I cut out a section of the lining in this headpiece so that the wearer can see through it. Vision is still restricted but you can make out shapes and forms of things which makes movement easier. However, unless the audience is really close to the piece, they are unaware that the wearer can see, making it more bizarre because movement seems impossible. I am imagining the audience looking at someone in this piece and asking themselves - how are they moving around so well?

Humour is an important part of my work too which is why I think I am always dancing in these short experimental clips of my work. Dancing means I can exaggerate my movements and be as expressive as possible which animates the costume and gives it vitality which I think everyone can relate to. The form and colour is also playful and it is the combination of all of these elements that adds to the comical aspect of my pieces. It is important to me that the audience have a reaction when they see my work and ideally this reaction is laughter (or even a subtle look of bemusement). How can I provoke this reaction? The costume itself being as bizarre or alien as possible will automatically aid this. The environment will also have an affect.

I have been researching the notion of the carnivalesque as part of my research report. John Huzinga talks about play as having its own space and Michael Bahktin talks about the carnival as having its own space too. Whilst in these spaces of both carnival and play, nothing exists outside of them, and within these spaces is laughter. Because everyone is equal and there are no hierarchies in this space this laughter is 'festive' and universal and reaches everyone. I agree with this not just in a the context of carnivals or play, but in all aspects of life. Laughter is universal and if my work can make people laugh or if my work can even be slightly comical then my work is therefore accessible to everyone.

Old works revisited

I made this piece last year and I got it out again as I believe it still fits in with what I am working on this year - especially in relation to ways of covering the face. The best thing about this series of pictures is that I didn't even instigate them. I was out on my lunch before going back to uni and my friends saw the piece sticking out of my bag. Their curiosity got the better of them and without me even saying anything they were trying it on and running around in it. It is also reassuring to know that as an artist I don't have to explicitly tell people to wear something, that if they are the right sort of person and in the right environment their curiosity will just get the better of them.  

It was nice to see my work out of the studio and into an everyday environment, and the everyday context is something I have thought about throughout my practice. I think seeing my work in this everyday context gives the piece more of a character, especially in the last image, as the orange shape looks like hair and makes it look more 'human'. This has also made me think about the documentation of my work vs. The live performance or action. The documentation is obviously important for evidence for grading but the fact that I had to get my friend to repeat the dance for the purpose of documentation takes something away from the spontanaity of the action, even if the audience seeing the documentation doesn't know that. 

adjustments

When dressing up the Greek statues i realised that whilst using rIbbon to tie onto different places to the body meant that i could have stronger colour in different areas it also didn't stay put very well at all. Looking back at all my drawings they all seem to incorporate one oversized poncho-type aspect. I then had the idea to thread the strips of tulle through a netting of some kind! The netting i chose was garden netting - i think the stuff that goes over ponds to stop birds eating the fish?? I cut a head hole in the top so that the netting covers the body from the neck down to become this all encompassing tutu poncho. It is important for me to have the body covered because I think this helps to create a more alien character as you cant see the person underneath. 

In order to thread the tulle through the netting it was easier to hang it on the wall. I had taken my shoes off and left them against the wall and when I walked back into the room I realised that it looked as though there was a person in the room. Having it on the wall like this is obviously different to the intention I had for the piece but it still works. Whilst there isn't a person inside the piece there is still an impression of a person and therefore an expectation that it could be worn. All of this is suggested just by having a pair of shoes underneath the piece. I also hung the piece across the gap between studio spaces so that the people behind the wall have to pass through the piece in order to get to their studio space. The piece then becomes interactive in another way. Does it become a hindrance to others or is it just a playful way to walk through a space? When its worn I want both the wearer and the viewer to feel a sense of play which I think I achieve through the colour and exaggerated size of the piece. I think this sense of playfulness is also achieved when it is hung in between the studio spaces. 

The tulle has even more of its own movement when it is on this net because there is a lot more freedom of movement, as the wearer is not worried about whether or not the ribbon will come undone. Because of the large poncho shape and the colour the piece becomes like wings which helps to create this playful and alien feel.

Dressing up the statues around uni is still a great way to see how my work looks in different poses however I am beginning to realise that whilst these are humorous they are also static and my work revolves around movement. It is the movement in the costumes that activates them and makes them exciting. Even though I enjoy it when the piece is hung up on a wall, there is no movement and the full affect of the piece cannot be seen. 

I wore the piece out to go get a coffee from St.Georges to St. Andrews - in total about a 10 minute trip. All I did was put it over my clothes so there was no thought into what was underneath the piece. I have always toyed with the idea of wearing my costumes in an everyday environment, and trying to do simple tasks in a piece that perhaps inhibits the senses or movement, but this was actually the first time I have done it. I got a lot of curious looks, a lot of giggling and smiles, but noone came up to me to ask me what it was about. I guess that is the British way - way to polite to ask. Not even the guy I bought my coffee off asked me though! Walking through town in this piece clearly wasn't weird enough to provoke a big reaction of any kind and this is something I want to change. I think maybe I looked too normal still as I didn't have my head covered. I definitely felt as though it was normal for me to be wearing it - as I guess it's just an extension of my personality.  I don't know yet if feeling normal in my pieces is something I want to keep or not. In my dissertation I am exploring what is is about festivals that make people feel they can dress differently than in their everyday life. I am exploring this because I think I dress pretty much the same. So if I am thinking about my work in the context of festivals, and I wear the piece in the every day, I should feel normal in it even if other people think its not normal to be wearing it? I guess I want to provoke a reaction from people and spark their curiosity, and for this to happen I don't think it matters whether or not I feel normal in my pieces or not. If my work is shown at festivals then there is an expectation from the audience that everything they see there will in some way be playful or otherworldly. I think this is the reason I feel the need to cover the face in my work, as then there is a barrier between audience and wearer. It is this detachment that helps to create something alien that will peak peoples curiosity when they see it, both in everyday life and at a festival.

^^^^ Covering the face already looks more alien! How can I cover the face? Masks maybe?