It's Brecht who switched me onto the idea that the theatrical format contains the danger of presenting events as inevitable - or by exciting and purging emotions, like Aristotle says it does, actually pacifying an audience to accept injustice. Political plays, preaching positions I support, might prevent me from engaging more deeply, and usefully, with actual Politics.
Events like the Feast Your Eyes! cabaret have a political aim - supporting a food bank - but their line-up has no explicitly political acts. Of course, all art has a political edge in so far as it talks about power relationships, but unless Leggy Pee and Charlie are a parody of the relationship between Westminster and Holyrood, I don't see any issues in the routines.
Then again, Snookie Mono does swallow a sword, which does remind me of how it feels when I see the latest Tory opinions on the NHS or disabled people working at less than the minimum wage.
So - Feast Your Eyes does not bother me: it encourages the audience to do something (donate food) in exchange for some fun. It's clear and avoids the Brechtian critique that theatre presents a facsimile of life that is, somehow, given power by a passive audience's belief in it.
Here's another event that intrigues me.
UNTITLED PROJECTS presents Pop-Up Migration Museum
Curated by Untitled Projects featuring work by Rachel Thibbotumunuwe and Tawona Sitole.
Untitled Projects are on fire lately - they have got Slope in Glasgay! and Paul Bright is rocking the world on tour. And Tawona Sitole is the poet behind the Seeds of Thought events... a charming and articulate man. The idea of a museum exploring an issue sets the audience in a different position.
1006a Pollokshaws Road, Shawlands, Glasgow, G41 2HG
26th Oct 2014, 6-8pm
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Plus, it is in my local....
Inspired by the diverse cultural populations that make up Scotland today as well as in response to Scotland’s colonial history; artists Rachel Thibbotumunuwe and Tawona Sitole have created an artistic interrogation of colonial and post-colonial migration to Scotland.
Scotland has a loaded colonial history. The nation, and specifically parts of Glasgow, prospered due to its position in the transatlantic slave trade notably the role of Glasgow merchants and plantation owners. Scotland’s role in the British Empire continued in the imperialism of African nations, India and parts of the Caribbean.
The absence of a permanent museum which specifically explores and depicts the Commonwealth diasporas in Scotland was all the more prevalent when the Commonwealth Games took place this summer. This pop-up Migration Museum creates a platform where the artists’ work seeks to foster discussions about creating a more permanent museum or centre of this kind.
Working in close collaboration with the Glasgow Open Museum Resource Centre, the artists have had exclusive access to their collections and have created new work in response to some of the artefacts. The artists’ work will be exhibited with other items from the Glasgow Open Museum’s Collections. There will be Museum assistants on site who will also have a couple of objects which members of the public can examine in more detail.
ABOUT ARTISTS
Rachel Thibbotumunuwe creates artworks and projects that are part of her enquiry into icons of ethnicity and cultural identity, both historic and contemporary. She is fascinated by the history and consequences of photography; its birth at the dawn of industry; subsequent rise of its abundance in mass culture; photography's innate representational quality and our perceptions of it as a medium to create narrative, documentary and referential meanings.
Inspired by the diverse cultural populations that make up Scotland today as well as in response to Scotland’s colonial history; artists Rachel Thibbotumunuwe and Tawona Sitole have created an artistic interrogation of colonial and post-colonial migration to Scotland.
Scotland has a loaded colonial history. The nation, and specifically parts of Glasgow, prospered due to its position in the transatlantic slave trade notably the role of Glasgow merchants and plantation owners. Scotland’s role in the British Empire continued in the imperialism of African nations, India and parts of the Caribbean.
The absence of a permanent museum which specifically explores and depicts the Commonwealth diasporas in Scotland was all the more prevalent when the Commonwealth Games took place this summer. This pop-up Migration Museum creates a platform where the artists’ work seeks to foster discussions about creating a more permanent museum or centre of this kind.
Working in close collaboration with the Glasgow Open Museum Resource Centre, the artists have had exclusive access to their collections and have created new work in response to some of the artefacts. The artists’ work will be exhibited with other items from the Glasgow Open Museum’s Collections. There will be Museum assistants on site who will also have a couple of objects which members of the public can examine in more detail.
ABOUT ARTISTS
Rachel Thibbotumunuwe creates artworks and projects that are part of her enquiry into icons of ethnicity and cultural identity, both historic and contemporary. She is fascinated by the history and consequences of photography; its birth at the dawn of industry; subsequent rise of its abundance in mass culture; photography's innate representational quality and our perceptions of it as a medium to create narrative, documentary and referential meanings.
As well as working with photography, Rachel also makes short films, installations, audioworks and books.Rachel graduated from Glasgow School of Art's department of Fine Art Photography in 1998 and has exhibited in Scotland, Norway, Japan and Germany.
Tawona Sitole is a Glasgow based writer, poet, storytelling and educator. Since moving to Glasgow from Zimbabwe, Tawona has shared his heritage through using traditional influences such as spoken word and mbira music.
Tawona Sitole is a Glasgow based writer, poet, storytelling and educator. Since moving to Glasgow from Zimbabwe, Tawona has shared his heritage through using traditional influences such as spoken word and mbira music.
Tawona is the co-founder of Seeds of Thought non-funded arts group which brings together creative writing, performance, music and art through collaborations with other artists. Tawona has worked with many diverse organisations including Glasgow School of Art, Ankur Productions, The CCA, and the Scottish Book Trust. Tawona is currently the poet in residence at Glasgow Refugee and Migration Network at the University of Glasgow.
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