Live art, exhibition and installation, are all things that I want our piece to inhabit. Much like the ‘happenings’ that began in the 1950’s in New York, I want our piece to combine elements of theatre and visual art with sufficient space for spontaneity. To achieve this we are culminating our performance through continuous practical research, learning about the ‘self’ while testing vulnerability and exposure levels of the group, through the confusion of the audience performer role.
Portraying documentation as art is something that intrigues the group because of its link to life. Documentation art can be viewed as similar to life, because essentially both are a pure activity that does not lead to an end result. The lack of an end result links to the work of Higgins and his theory of how artwork connects to what is understood compared to what is not ‘The concept is understood better by what it is not, rather than the what it is’ (Kaye, 2008, P.25), much like Higgins and Newling our piece is more focused upon conceptual art, as the group is more focused upon the ideas presented compared to the finished article.
As a group we are carrying out numerous experiments, firstly testing our levels of vulnerability through exposure but also experimenting with the vulnerability levels of any audience members we may encounter. Our first experiment was one which involved the group, experimenting with how exposed physically and mentally we could become before our own vulnerability took over, this for me also experimented with the role intimacy has within performance and society. “Intimacy enables two sentiment beings, who feel comfortable enough with each other on an emotional and/or physical level, to reveal something about themselves and connect in some form of meaningful exchange” (Smith, 2007, p.1.) I feel that as a group of girls who knew each other it was much easier to reach a state of ‘extreme’ vulnerability due to the comfortable environment. However, when moving this idea to our performance space we may become subject to hurtful reactions from onlookers. Therefore the exposure and vulnerability encountered will be a practice of a direct action, highlighting the idea of the psyche with society and the self and how we communicate with the world. For the second half of this experiment we analysed our personal vulnerability through a group conversation of how we felt whilst ‘performing’, this consequently allowed the group to reach a mental intimacy as ‘intimacy also involves an aspiration for a narrative about something shared, a story about both oneself and others (Smith, 2007, p.1).
Throughout the performance we want to capture the tension between performance and vulnerability, therefore choosing the space we have was key in the creation of Nuditate. I felt that a performance containing exposure within a Theatre is only exposure to a certain extent, as it is set in the context of a performance. Therefore for my second experiment i wanted to test intimacy and the boundaries this has. For this piece i experimented and performed in a shower room, the close proximity of the space allowed for much more intimacy and the repetitive question of ‘touch me again somewhere else’ experimented with the loss of the performer’s power when being intimate versus the power the audience member has when creating intimacy. The creation of intimacy however also lead to a sense of vulnerability, this was witnessed in a couple of audience members due to the intense nature of the question.
The two experiments which we have undertaken so far, have tested my levels of vulnerability but within the context of intimacy and this is something I want to achieve within the final performance through the use of the body as ‘language is not and cannot express what it seeks to describe – an admission of the struggle in everyday life’ (Etchells, 1999, p.102.) I want to achieve a simplified performance through the use of personal vulnerability, experimenting with the self but allowing the audience to be involved with the piece so as not to create an indulgent personal experiment.
The above photos indicate the intimacy of the touch me experiment, and the vulnerable nature which was highlighted through the exposure of the body and self.
Works cited
Etchells, T (1999) Certain Fragments: Contemporary performance and forced entertainment, London and New York: Routledge
Kaye, N. (2008). Site-specific art. London: Routledge.
Smith, C. (2007). Spank (at Intimacy: across visceral and digital performance).
