I like to consider myself as a nice person. I smile when I say I am grumpy. I put out as many previews as I can on this blog, because I believe in the importance not only of art but its ongoing discussion within society. I'd go so far as to say there is nothing that I have seen, ever, that wasn't worth my time and attention.
However, today I have had way too much of Tramway's industrial strength coffee and I am in the middle of a big temper tantrum. I also had a flashback to my first ventures into criticism.
Once upon a time, I was a teacher who lived around the corner from Tramway. One day, I went to see a show there that made me reconsider the very foundations of my assumptions about life and love. When the panic subsided, I realised that art has a way of reaching the emotions and the intellectual simultaneously, presenting ideas in a manner that can engender epiphanies.
At that point, I decided that I had to become a critic. The Vile that is now sitting at Tramway, cutting and pasting press releases, is the result of that moment. I threw away my career as a Latin teacher to join the circus.
My intention to become a critic was enforced when I read the description of the show I had seen on the internet. It was gibberish. There was nothing that would have persuaded me to see the show. It sounded pretentious. It was described in words that I did not understand.
This art was too important to be hidden by the use of a specialist language.
This art was too important to be occluded by the utilisation of specialist language.
This creative discipline is too important to be occluded by the utilisation of specialist idiolects.
This creative discipline is too salient to be occluded by the utilisation of idiolects comprehensible to the active practitioner.
This creative discipline is too salient to be occluded by the utilisation of idiolects transparent only to the active practitioner.
I am declaring war on this use of language. From now on, I am going to take the worst examples and translate them.
Tuesday, 26 February 2013
RIP IT UP SEASON’S FINAL MONTH
Since I am sitting in Tramway, using their internet connection and enjoying their coffee, I feel obliged to give a mention to the final month of their Rip It Up season. I have had my Young Critics at every event so far, and the fruits of their hard work will be revealed in the next publication of their magazine, Clingfilm.
The first piece in March isn't even happening in Tramway. Although the main space here is my favourite venue in the world (with the possible exception of the amphitheatre at Ephesus, where I once performed an extract of Hippolytus to a bemused audience of tourists), it makes perfect sense for Janis Claxton's Chaos and Contingency to be taking place at Kelvingrove Art Gallery. Claxton has previously used Edinburgh Zoo as a stage for her work, and while Chaos and Contingency does represent a different movement vocabulary to her recent studies based on primate behaviour, it is a fine example of how Claxton's choreography uses space as well as the body.
Using simple mathematical patterns to begin, Claxton builds up towards increasingly complex designs, which can be viewed from all sides (hence the use of the Kelvingrove, which allows the audience to stand on all sides).
Since this is free, there is no excuse to miss this. Claxton regularly tours the world, and it would be a shame to miss this number, which is uncompromisingly experimental in form yet very easy on the eye.
This looks like fun, right up until the press release mentions that these elements "brought together to create a temporal collapse." Which either means that T5 is going to be playing host to a black hole, which will devour most of Glasgow over the next six months, or that there will an interesting mixture of styles which come from diverse historical periods.
Usui gets a new gig
Although my usual beat is Glasgow when it comes to New Composition (and I know there are exciting times ahead for composers in Scotland, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group are one of the few reasons that I might want to live further south. However, their latest appointment, of Edinburgh-based Shiori Usui as its Apprentice Composer-in-Residence for 2013, suggests that BCMG are trying to get my attention by supporting artists in Caledonia.
During her time in residence, Usui will compose two new works - one on a small scale (promising the original line up of oboe, trombone, percussion, piano and cello) and one on for a chamber sized ensemble.
The press release mentions that The Times described Usui as a composer with “individual ears.” I am trying to resist a joke about how the press ought to stop concentrating on the way composers look and talk about the music.
Over to the press release for more information....
More about Shiori Usui
Originally from Japan, Shiori Usui moved to UK at the age of seventeen and studied composition at the University of Edinburgh with Nigel Osborne and Peter Nelson. Her works have been performed in Japan, Europe and USA by diverse range of soloists, ensembles and orchestras, including performances by Rolf Hind and the Duke Quartet at the Wigmore Hall, London; by A Far Cry at Jordan Hall, Boston, USA and by Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Naoto Totsuka at Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall in Japan.
In May 2012, her orchestra piece Warai was awarded the 3rd prize at Toru Takemitsu Composition Award (judge: Toshio Hosokawa) in Tokyo, Japan with highest acclaim.
Ms. Usui is also a recipient of the prestigious Civitella Ranieri Music Fellowship in conjunction with UNESCO-Aschberg Bursaries for Artists Programme, and has worked as a composer in residence for BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Cove Park from October 2010 until February 2011.
Ms. Usui has produced works in both radical instrumental music and with motion capturing sensors; many of her compositions are inspired by the theme ‘using the body as a musical instrument’. She enjoys playing in the improvisation groups in Edinburgh and Lisbon as a “noise” vocalist and pianist. Ms. Ushui is a co-founder and a secretary of Edinburgh Contemporary Music Ensemble.
More about Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group celebrates its 25th anniversary season in 2012/13. Emerging from within the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in 1987, the Group quickly established a reputation for brilliant performances, ambitious commissions, innovative collaborations, and a vibrant learning programme. With a central commitment to composers and the presentation of new work, BCMG’s open and inclusive approach takes people of all ages through the rich and fascinating world of contemporary music.
BCMG has premiered over 150 new works, many commissioned through its pioneering Sound Investment scheme. In addition to a busy schedule of concerts in the UK and abroad, BCMG runs an extensive learning and participation programme, working with young people in and out of school and with adults in a range of community settings, as well as presenting ground-breaking Family and Schools’ Concerts.
The Group has two Artists-in-Association, Oliver Knussen and John Woolrich, and Sir Simon Rattle is Founding Patron. BCMG has received a host of national and international awards, has an extensive catalogue of CD recordings and broadcasts regularly on BBC radio.
Peace Is Not What You Believe-SB 11
For fans of international visual art, Kamarstudios was commissioned by Yuko Hasegawa, SB11 curator & Hoor Al Qasimi, President Sharjah Art Foundation to create a multimedia installation for the Sharjah Biennial (11 March 13 - May 2013). At this time, the VileArts has no plans to attend the Sharjah Biennal, although any festival that has a website which mentions an essay called Re:emerge, Towards a New Cultural Cartography in its first line is alright by me.
Intriguingly, Kamarstudios describe themselves as "the first private Franco-Moroccan cultural enterprise." It fits with the theme of the Sharjah Biennal, which is all about undermining the idea that "the west" is the centre of culture (having a studio in Morocco and an office in Paris means that Kamarstudios have taken the post-modern idea of "not having a centre" quite literally.
That Kamarstudios go onto claim that they "continue to explore the question of the body as a live archive in contemporary terms and time" might be excused if I assume that English is not even their second language. However, I embrace pretension, and I am tired of these meaningless phrases describing work that, when I get a look at it, is worth a gander.
The name of the piece - Peace is Not What You Believe - rewards a bit of a ponder, too. Are they saying that Peace is not defined in the way I understand it? Or are they saying that the beliefs that I hold preclude the possibility of peace?
Jack Webb
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Jack Webb has been knocking around the Scottish dance scene for a while - he was part of Dance Base's Fringe season in 2011, and has been seen strutting his stuff at The Arches as a soloist and all around the nation in Do You Nomi? and David Hughes Dance's The Chinaski Sessions. However, like the rock'n'roll stars that have inspired his choreography for GlitterGrid, Webb is hitting the road hard for spring.
"I'm doing it because I think it's important to make and show," he says. "I've been a huge amount of research in the past two years and then it comes to a point when you actually have to do it and stop thinking and talking about it, so I am. This isn't the first time I'm travelling about doing lots of shows like this but it is the first time I'm calling it a 'tour'. It's very exciting."
"I love touring and I love showing my work, I think it's very important to be present in on the scene because without touring and performance then work ceases to exist," he continues. Recently, touring has included time in some of the more intriguing new choreographies of the past year: Do You Nomi? was something of a performance supergroup, bringing together rising stars from live art, performance poetry and The Arches Christmas show. But this tour sees him take the stage alone.
"Being in a company is a great comfort to most people because you're surrounded by people that support you and who you support, you share all the good and the bad and it's a wonderful thing," Webb admits. "So going on this tour is slightly daunting, because it's mostly just me, my ideas and me supporting me, except for one of the new pieces which is a duet, so I won't always be alone. Working independently on your own work can be punishing and very lonely, it's something that is very rewarding and isolating all at the same time."
The dates feature various combinations of Webb's work, and include workshop antics and community projects, but the core triple bill is made up of a solo, a film and a duet. GlitterGrid studies the transformation of identity, but has a very faniliar influence. "With GlitterGrid I'm more influenced by some of his movement language and particularly David Bowie's ability to transform physically, performatively and his sense of style," Webb says. "Many of his ideas about collecting and taking on the guises of others influence this work greatly. I share desire for transformation, just like he did."
The film, Katy-Ann is a new venture for Webb. "In Dundee last year, I was commissioned to make a piece on the final year students and Katy-Ann was one of them. She's a compelling performer. The film started as a side project, just by myself: I wasn't taking it seriously," he remembers. This vague interest, however, developed into something more and - given Webb's vigorous performance style, a film makes for a good break for him to recover between the two live dances. "I was looking through a book that said something about making side projects in to something, so I did. It was initially supposed to feature other people but I filmed Katy-Ann and realised she was more than enough. It's a simple film and a bit of an experiment."
The third piece, FLESHnote is a duet performed by Webb and a female dancers (either Jessica Todd or Madira Gregurek). For someone who has made plenty of solo pieces, it is an intriguing new direction, although Webb doesn't see it as such. "I need someone to relate to on the stage: I love doing solo work but it's isolating and tough.
"Jessica and Madira, who are sharing the part, are friends of mine and people who I can trust to be left with the ideas I give to them and make something with it that will fit with my work and practice. It's taken a while because I haven't met anyone who I would want to or indeed trust. But they are both incredibly compelling and just as horrifying as myself."
As Webb showed in Do You Nomi? he can be a little saucy as well as horrifying, but his choreography does play with the boundaries of elegance and ugliness. The polish of his training is increasingly connected to his expansive ideas and willingness to challenge conventional movement. Or, as he explains it, more succintly: "Mental. But life affirming."
MARCH 10TH/NOTTINGHAM
Performance of FLESHnote by Jack Webb at NottDance festival
Performance of FLESHnote by Jack Webb at NottDance festival
MARCH 22ND/DUNDEE
Performance and workshops at the Scottish School of Contemporary Dance. SSCD students only.
Performance and workshops at the Scottish School of Contemporary Dance. SSCD students only.
MARCH 24th/ABERDEEN
'The Moment Has To Arrive' - A day of live art and performance by artists and students from Gray’s School of Art. Curated by Conor Baird in collaboration with Citymoves Dance Agency. This event is inspired by the performer and choreographer Jack Webb and the unique setting of Citymoves space as you have never seen it before.
MARCH 28TH/NEWCASTLE
MARCH 29TH/ABERDEEN
Performance of GlitterGrid by Jack Webb and Squish by Tony Mills, part of March Moves
Performance of GlitterGrid by Jack Webb and Squish by Tony Mills, part of March Moves
APRIL 5TH/EDINBURGH
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