Reading week 6

Reading – Week 6

Kuhnheim, J. (1998). ‘The Economy of performance: Gomez-Pena’s New World Order’ Modern Fiction Studies 44:1 pp. 24-35

Jill Kuhnheim

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·         This piece discusses Guillermo Gomez-Pena’s work on border cultural life, which includes performance art, videos, CDs, books, sites on the Internet, interviews and theory essays.

·         By boundary crossing he reaches larger audiences and is recognised in different fields.

·         His performing of the marginalised raises questions about the line between performance and text, self and community and subversive/commercial uses of art.

·         As a border artist Gomez-Pena avoids definition and categorization. Phelan writes ‘identity is perceptible only through relation to the other, it is a form of resisting and claiming the other

·         Gomez-Pena shows the need for exchange as it is a channel for communication. The hybrid ‘denounces the faults, prejudices and fears manufactured by the self-proclaimed centre.’ We are not products of only one culture but have identities that are multiple and transitional.

·         Border identity is based on hybrid & contradiction. Gomez-Pena has ‘reworked the concept of border identity in different form since the early 1980’s.’ He makes the marginal visible.

·         Gomez-Pena develops his performance process, from reading a poem in a public toilet, to making a video, to being a live exhibition and documenting public reaction into a ‘techno-drama’, to an internet page where people confess their sins, it mutates into other forms.

·         ‘One of the effects of putting the chronology in the centre is to frame the narrative of performances with pieces that ‘perform’ in other ways. The accounts of the performances are, in effect, ‘bordered’ by other documents.’ Gomez-Pena takes a unified speaking position that reinforces his authority as an artist.

·         Much of his work is English/Spanish, which favours a bilingual audience member, but the written script contains clearer meaning than the visual/aural performance. The performance is dependant on the language skills of the audience/reader, which itself creates borders.

·         Gomes-Pena deliberately plays upon this inclusion/exclusion binary in order to create the other and the self, as well as demonstrating dependence and antagonism between the roles.

·         The New World Border has scripted audience involvement and writing this into the script makes the piece static and more like a scripted performance than a genuine reaction.

·         ‘There is a deceptive hybridity in this text...the speakers identity depends upon an opposition between multiculturalism and a monoculture.’

·         One section of New World Order is an autobiographical piece in which Gomez-Pena ‘closes the distance between his historical self and his speaker when recounting an incident of racial paranoia and cultural misunderstanding.’ He is picking up his child, but he is accused of kidnapping because the boy is white and blond, whereas he is Mexican. ‘The text is a representation of these women’s misperception elaborated by the author’s anger and speculations about the possible outcome for a more Vulnerable target.’

·         Another section is entitled ‘The Psycho in the Lobby of the Theatre’ in which Gomez-Pena challenges assumptions about identity. The presumption is that the man who is questioned is the ‘psycho’ but it is Gomez-Pena’s character that turns out to be the ‘psycho’ because of his aggressive assertion of self-identity. This makes Gomez-Pena and the audience question their own assumptions of identity and race. ‘While Gomez-Pena reveals how his identity is ensnared by others’ prejudices and misconceptions, he is also trapped in his own set of cultural terms and preconceptions.’

·         However, calling attention to border identity does not change it. By moving the border to centre may enforce binaries of centre/margin, speaker/listener, male/female instead of undoing them. Therefore Gomez-Pena fixes himself and the audience in predetermined places that limit the chance for transformation.

·         Gomez-Pena reinforces gendered identities instead of challenging them by poking fun at feminist critics, so instead of challenging, he enforces traditional oppressive power hierarchy

·         He creates a binary in himself and his audience, we are either with or against him, we agree or disagree, in or out, and trapped within a binary with no middle ground or chance to cross identities. He does not explore the ‘multiplicity of both real and imagined identities.’

Reading week 6

Reading – Week 6

Kuhnheim, J. (1998). ‘The Economy of performance: Gomez-Pena’s New World Order’ Modern Fiction Studies 44:1 pp. 24-35

Jill Kuhnheim

Feedback

·         This piece discusses Guillermo Gomez-Pena’s work on border cultural life, which includes performance art, videos, CDs, books, sites on the Internet, interviews and theory essays.

·         By boundary crossing he reaches larger audiences and is recognised in different fields.

·         His performing of the marginalised raises questions about the line between performance and text, self and community and subversive/commercial uses of art.

·         As a border artist Gomez-Pena avoids definition and categorization. Phelan writes ‘identity is perceptible only through relation to the other, it is a form of resisting and claiming the other

·         Gomez-Pena shows the need for exchange as it is a channel for communication. The hybrid ‘denounces the faults, prejudices and fears manufactured by the self-proclaimed centre.’ We are not products of only one culture but have identities that are multiple and transitional.

·         Border identity is based on hybrid & contradiction. Gomez-Pena has ‘reworked the concept of border identity in different form since the early 1980’s.’ He makes the marginal visible.

·         Gomez-Pena develops his performance process, from reading a poem in a public toilet, to making a video, to being a live exhibition and documenting public reaction into a ‘techno-drama’, to an internet page where people confess their sins, it mutates into other forms.

·         ‘One of the effects of putting the chronology in the centre is to frame the narrative of performances with pieces that ‘perform’ in other ways. The accounts of the performances are, in effect, ‘bordered’ by other documents.’ Gomez-Pena takes a unified speaking position that reinforces his authority as an artist.

·         Much of his work is English/Spanish, which favours a bilingual audience member, but the written script contains clearer meaning than the visual/aural performance. The performance is dependant on the language skills of the audience/reader, which itself creates borders.

·         Gomes-Pena deliberately plays upon this inclusion/exclusion binary in order to create the other and the self, as well as demonstrating dependence and antagonism between the roles.

·         The New World Border has scripted audience involvement and writing this into the script makes the piece static and more like a scripted performance than a genuine reaction.

·         ‘There is a deceptive hybridity in this text...the speakers identity depends upon an opposition between multiculturalism and a monoculture.’

·         One section of New World Order is an autobiographical piece in which Gomez-Pena ‘closes the distance between his historical self and his speaker when recounting an incident of racial paranoia and cultural misunderstanding.’ He is picking up his child, but he is accused of kidnapping because the boy is white and blond, whereas he is Mexican. ‘The text is a representation of these women’s misperception elaborated by the author’s anger and speculations about the possible outcome for a more Vulnerable target.’

·         Another section is entitled ‘The Psycho in the Lobby of the Theatre’ in which Gomez-Pena challenges assumptions about identity. The presumption is that the man who is questioned is the ‘psycho’ but it is Gomez-Pena’s character that turns out to be the ‘psycho’ because of his aggressive assertion of self-identity. This makes Gomez-Pena and the audience question their own assumptions of identity and race. ‘While Gomez-Pena reveals how his identity is ensnared by others’ prejudices and misconceptions, he is also trapped in his own set of cultural terms and preconceptions.’

·         However, calling attention to border identity does not change it. By moving the border to centre may enforce binaries of centre/margin, speaker/listener, male/female instead of undoing them. Therefore Gomez-Pena fixes himself and the audience in predetermined places that limit the chance for transformation.

·         Gomez-Pena reinforces gendered identities instead of challenging them by poking fun at feminist critics, so instead of challenging, he enforces traditional oppressive power hierarchy

·         He creates a binary in himself and his audience, we are either with or against him, we agree or disagree, in or out, and trapped within a binary with no middle ground or chance to cross identities. He does not explore the ‘multiplicity of both real and imagined identities.’

Reading week 6

Reading – Week 6

Bonney, J. (2000). Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century. New York: Theatre Communications Group.

GUILLERMO GOMEZ-PENA

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Gomez-Pena is a visionary artist and cultural critic who refuses to let his work be circumscribed within pre-existing categories who performs in theatres as well as art venues, halls, and galleries. He critiques the xenophobia present in society, as well as U.S. imperialism. His audience is metaphorically stabbed in the back because he plays on their ideas and preconceptions, but they might not realise this until after the performance. Most of his work is site specific, and he uses poems and performance texts in his work too. ‘He uses performance as a tool to initiate dialogue on a range of complex issues, including censorship, immigration and Anglo-American attitudes toward Latinos and indigenous people’ in a process he calls ‘reverse anthropology.’ His work ‘explores situations of radical, historical, political and cultural contingency, strategically occupying a mythical centre from which he is able to explain the dominant culture to itself.’ His work looks at what might be achieved, a world without borders and cultures are hybrid, and identities dissolve. His work generally centres on the fears, hopes, desires, and tensions around U.S./Mexican relations at the end of the twentieth century.

Borderstasis

Gomez-Pena acknowledges his performance status as narrator/performer. He infuses humour and multiple languages. He looks at what might be a utopian society and critiques the government and says that citizens hold more responsibility. The piece is split into sections, and one of them looks at U.S. attitudes to Latino workers, and what will happen to the country if a law is passed regarding immigration. Is not a utopian society, it is one where no ‘American’ wants to do the minimum wage jobs of the Latinos because health care is not included. It is a society that fails, and becomes bankrupt and corrupt within days because of an epic self-deportation programme by the Latino population. ‘Are you guys truly, truly aware of the logical consequences of your anti-immigrant politics?’. The following section discusses the scapegoat of society’s problems and completely ridicules it. El Nino sounds Latino, therefore he is to blame, but this is not the case, and is made to seem ludicrous. He calls it ‘Mexi-fobia.’ The following section discusses a real life situation that occurred to him, he was detained for answering back to a border patrol guard simply because of the phobia around immigration. He has a ‘suspicious’ look. He reveals that he lives in a society of irrational fear that demonizes Mexicans. The next section discusses the fear around stereotypical character, but looks at the other side of the story and shows the fear of the oppressive American character. The penultimate section mocks the immigration laws and shows a society that is twinned with other cities across the world that are nothing like each other. The final section looks at what the world would be like if there were no identity borders separating society, and talks about the Americas as one land mass that could be travelled without crossing a border, and is humanized into a living being which one can travel from head to toe.  Gomez-Pena is interested in the borders and what separates people and societies. His work is political, but not controversial, and he discusses the utopian potential of a new society.

Reading week 6

Reading – Week 6

Bonney, J. (2000). Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century. New York: Theatre Communications Group.

DAWN AKEMI SAITO

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Saito works with material deeply personal to her, but this material is shaped by her culture and background. Saito has Japanese and American routes, and her father’s role in the Second World War in the Japanese Imperial Army impacts on her work. ‘She takes the stuff of her life, often chaotic stuff, often unbearable stuff of pain and ugliness and despair and casts it in an aesthetic form.’ She presents nightmare-like text and juxtaposes it with beauty and elegance in her physical embodiment. She is greatly influenced by Butoh. Saito performs on a bare stage and wear a long flesh coloured latex dress. She plays all of the characters within the performance, young man, old woman, animal etc. ‘The real world is rendered as hallucination.’

Ha

This piece is centred on the relationship Saito had with her grandfather. After she saw him for the first time she was so horrified by the sight of his mutilated face that she stopped speaking. The piece is very personal and is highly descriptive, it sets up the story with visual clues as to the location of the story. She discussed eating white food when she was young so that she could change the colour of her skin, which points to race as an issue. There is discussion around drugs and the use of them when she discusses her sister, who only eats white powder and smokes. This is shrouded in metaphor and symbols because it is still a child discussing her sister. The story moves on to discuss Saito as an adult who moves in next to a stripper and a man who is seemingly unstable. She discusses her reactions when she hears of this man’s repulsive actions, but she takes the middle ground. The reaction to the sickening actions of this man avoids confrontation. The piece has several characters in, including her grandfather, grandmother, mother, father, a monkey and herself. The final part of the story gets dark, Saito finds out that her grandfathers facial disfigurement occurred because he took part in torture and experimental biological weapons testing in Japan during the war, and it is a very dark and descriptive explanation. This changes Saito’s opinion of her grandfather and she goes from a regretful person who wishes she could have spoken to him, to dreaming about him, being horrified about his position during the war, and she now hates him. He is blamed for everything that goes wrong. There is a suggestion that some of the scenes are hallucinations. Saito’s performance is very dark and very personal, but she embodies the characters within the play.

Reading week 6

Reading – Week 6

Bonney, J. (2000). Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century. New York: Theatre Communications Group.

BRENDA WONG AOKI

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Aoki is a storyteller, actor, narrator, dancer, monologist, and uses tradition in her work. She draws on ancient Japanese folklore, but her performances are contemporary multiethnic and American as she is. She has trained across a broad sweep of theatre and performance, from Commedia dell’Arte, and Noh, to jazz and piano. Her work is minimalist, but the attention to detail is not. It contributes a sense of depth to each moment. ‘At times, she seems to be acting as much with her thighs as with her voice.’ Her work started by looking at dramatizing traditional Japanese folktales, but she has increasingly moved towards auto-biographical. She looks at aspects of her own family history too.

Random Acts – To Fa, Lia.

This piece is about the death, and funeral, of her nephew Lia, and the reactions to his death. The piece is charged with passion, hate, anger and mourning. Lia was shot by an unknown person the day before attending college. The piece discusses the mourning process, but also highlights the multitude in languages, cultures and religions present at the funeral, and how each culture deals with the death of someone that crossed and spanned so many cultures. There is humour and grief within this highly personal account. There are touching moments when members of his football team place their jerseys around his coffin, and when his brothers break down in front of the coffin. Sounds are used and expressed in the piece, like ‘clomp clomp’ and ‘haaaa.’ Reading the script is probably not as influential as seeing the performance itself, but just from the script it is clear that the piece is very physical and emotionally charged. There is a moment when Aoki herself breaks down and becomes violent towards her nephews unknown murderer.

Mermaid Meat

This is a Japanese folktale that has been dramatised. It is hard to know how this piece is performed visually as the script does not give much away. The story is about a fisherman who has a relationship with a mermaid, and she brings up his daughter as her own, but the daughter grows up to finally eat part of the mermaid which makes her immortal. The mermaid goes back to the sea and the story moves on by 100 generations, until the daughter reveals she has loved and lost many husbands and children because she is immortal, and asks for the mermaid to end her torment. Her life is taken from her and in place, there is a huge scarred tree that grows. This is obviously a moral tale, but there are no stage directions to say how it is performed, or what with, whether Aoki plays all the characters or just reads the story.

Reading week 5

Reading – Week 5

Heddon, D. (2006). ‘Beyond the Self: Autobiography as Dialogue,’ in Wallace, C. Monologues: Theatre, Performance, Subjectivity. Prague: Litteria Pragensia.

Dee Heddon

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·         Explicit use of personal experience within performance is traced to the first wave of the feminist movement where ‘personal’ as also seen as ‘political’.

·         From the outset autobiographical performance has aimed at political aspiration and change through personal and own life experiences. The vast majority of autobiographical performances draw on personal stories to bring the political into sharper focus.

·         Autobiographical performance has been criticized for being too self reflective, to be shown to an audience of one, the self, it is accused of being an ego trip of the ‘I-did-it-my-way’ with amateur staging and mini personalities, and as being self indulgent and encouraging egos for actors to ‘jumps start their me-machines’.

·         However, this is just a stereotype that will remain until there is a shift in understanding.

·         Gammel notes that when personal experiences are expressed via the female voice it is perceived as informal and without authority. Live performance is considered a ‘less socially elevated form’, and autobiography presented in this less socially elevated form has traditionally been seen as a female genre.

·         Autobiographical performances are rarely about the (singular) self.

·         In solo autobiographical performance the performing subject and the subject of performance are one and the same, the self is in dialogue with itself.

·         In autobiographical solo performance there are 3 types of self; 1- the self who is performing, 2- the self who performed, and 3- the self who lives beyond the performance. These selves might then be split into more selves, E.g. husband, father, son, teacher, lover, driver etc.

·         It is near impossible to tell an autobiographical story without describing other people’s roles. Eakin – ‘our own lives never stand free of the lives of others’. Solo autobiography should be called auto/biography as there is the self and others.

·         Ethical questions surrounding the act of appropriation; how to understand the experiences of another and how to practice empathy. In Kron’s Well most of the words come from her mother, who read and advised on drafts so that the representation of her was not negative.

·         The experience performed is only an interpretation of what happened, not necessarily true. The performer can interpret many cultural locations and readings, it is therefore biased.

·         Holquist summarises that dialogue is split into 3, 1- an utterance, 2- a reply, 3- the relation between the two. It is in this relation that change happens.

·         There is a utopian aspect of solo autobiography that Uyehara recognises, ‘performance is transformative...it challenges us to imagine a new world in which to live.’

·         Kron – ‘the goal of autobiographical performance should be not to tell stories about yourself, but instead, to use the details of your own life to illuminate or explore something more universal.’ This is a good mantra to work by, and one which I intend to follow.

·         Most performers create a mode of address that acknowledges the presence of the audience.

·         A mode of autobiographical is to offer no closure, in that it is up to the audience to make the ending because it has not yet happened or not written. For example, a change in law.

·         Autobiographical solo performance can confront cultural and historical taboos, such as McCauley’s Sally’s Rape that addresses slave labour, rape and racism in history. ‘Choosing to confront the racial tensions in wider culture, and most particularly the existence of racism, McCauley conducts that exploration within the making and performing the piece itself.’ The audience is welcome to contribute to the performance at key moments. The piece resists closure.

·         A different type of autobiographical performance is made with the audience’s participation as crucial so that they are physically and verbally active in the process of shaping the piece. Pearson’s Bubbling Tom was made in this style so that the audience would wander around the streets listening to the stories, but to Pearson’s surprise, other stories were exchanged, the audience changed the performance. It unwittingly became a model for participatory theatre. The ending was also different every time because nobody could agree on where the brook that the title of the performance is named, was located.

·         Howells performance of Salon Adrienne was set in a salon and he gave every member of his ‘audience’ a haircut, but whilst he prompted, they discussed similar autobiographical stories. The piece is entirely improvised and is as much to do with your own self reflection as his.

·         There is a fine line between me and we in performance, and it has the potential to tell the past as well as the future. Autobiographical performance acts as a bridge between performance and the world.

Reading week 4

Reading – Week 4

Auslander, P. (1989). ‘Going With the Flow: Performance Art and Mass Culture’ TDR 33:2 pp.119-136

Going With the Flow, by Philip Auslander

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·         This essay looks at the use of technology in performance, particularly video and projection.

·         This has been called “the media generation” by Goldberg. The previous performers were concerned with physical presence in performance, now the spoken word is more important.

·         Primarily, video and film was used to document a performance that was otherwise lost in time.  Video was used to record and preserve evidence of the performance.

·         Nowadays video and film is a commodity, like sound and photograph it is used to create a virtual performance. Technology used in performance has opened up new realms of possibility that was unthinkable 100 years ago.

·         Wegman’s video performance brings into question the demystified performance.’

·         The essay moves away from film and video as a technique to television and film as performance. Theatre and performance was no longer constrained to a theatre, but could now be seen in millions of living rooms worldwide, and not just on television, but through sound recordings and other media outlets like the radio.

·         Laurie Anderson uses ‘highly sophisticated state-of-the-art gadgetry’ to create something visually and aurally spectacular.

·         The essay discusses the relationship between art and mass culture and whether art can remain important or equally as powerful through mass media outlets. If something is not successful through television or other form of mass popular media/culture, then it is seen as a freak show. High art has moved culturally and is now more accessible for the majorities.

·         High art is no longer restricted to high culture or high classes thanks to mass/multi-media.

·         Burnham argues that ‘performance can retain its integrity only by only by choosing to remain in the margins.’ This opens the question, does performance lose something when turned into a mass-media product of television for example.

·         Forte believes that popular/mass cultural performance cannot be marginal because the television makes things mainstream and famous.

·         Is there a line between marginal and marketable? If so, where?

·         The essay goes on to argue that the above may not be true, that it is facile to believe that performance loses its subversive potential when introduced to mass culture. However, it is possible for mass cultural performance to challenge the mainstream, for example, the television performance may do this by denying closure and disrupting the narrative.

·         The essay highlights Raymond William’s view on Television, that it is made up of three levels; the overall impression of the day of entertainment including all breaks, adverts, etc; images that occur; and the flow of words.

·         Polan also discusses these flows and agrees that each image and word adds up to the overall impact of the ‘performance’.

·         However, live performance cannot (generally) be controlled by the audience, whereas performance through media, such as a television programme, can be turned off, down, over. Therefore, media has shifted power from the performer to the audience.

·         Live concerts have to be rehearsed and the recording is usually available beforehand, and this turns performance on its head, because an audience for a TV programme will not read the script beforehand.

·         Film, music, television and plays all have the same thing to offer the audience, the performer’s persona. This can only be a good thing for a practitioner/performer if they have a selection of media outlets.

·         Performance through mass culture (television, film) can be liberating.

·         Even though mass culture is based at a large audience demographic, it may only be viewed/witnessed by individuals. This means that the mass has turned into individual.

·         Owen’s point is expressed, ‘ postmodernist art does not position itself outside the practices it holds up for scrutiny. It problematizes, but does not reject, the representational means it shares with other cultural practices.’