Catherine Hayes – SITE SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE

The Drawing Board – Traci Kelly and Rhiannon Jones

Catherine Hayes / March 23, 2015March 23, 2015 / Main Page

Our group today focused on Traci Kelly and Rhiannon Jones and their work centered around a staircase. The performance art is similar to the work that our group are investigating at the moment regarding mod-rock surrounding the stairs. What was particularly interesting was the way the concrete used in the performance appeared to have been crushed down so that it had become dust that was spread over the stairs and surrounding area. The artists had then stepped in the concrete to create footprints that were leading up to a pair of shoes. What I liked most about the performance art was the simpleness of it. In the photographs the crushed concrete appears to lie naturally on each step with only a few materials added in to enhance the performance.

Kira O’Reilly

Catherine Hayes / March 20, 2015 / Research

When looking for inspiration for our performance, our group looked towards performance artist Kira O’Reilly and in particular her performance that surrounded stairs and the exploration of movement on them. Obviously as our chosen space for our performance is the library’s back stairs, this was extremely relevant to us. Watching the performance, it became clear how although a simple part of a building, the stairs can be explored in many different ways. O’Reilly presents this by ‘falling’ down the stairs in slow motion, which creates a sense of pure concentration on each step and the impact that has on her body. A particular theme that I took from the performance was danger and how that fitted in with stairs and the movements we take when exploring that space. I found that the slow motion of the piece really helped to focus on the damage that can be done to a body when falling down the stairs. O’Reilly also interestingly focuses on using the entire staircase, taking particular care to go step by step, touching as much of the stairs and handle rails as is possible with her body.

Salon Adrienne

Catherine Hayes / February 16, 2015February 16, 2015 / Main Page

Adrian Howells creates an artistic piece centrered around a hair salon and explores the bonds that can be made with the clients that visit there. He investigates the relationship between the hairdresser (portrayed by himself as Adrienne) and the client he is looking after. The video shows the break down of certain boundaries we may expect these two people to have; normally at a hair salon there would be a certain amount of small talk between the client and the hairdresser but to a certain point, not usually revealing anything that could be seen as ‘personal’. Adrienne asks the clients to take ‘a long hard look at yourself in the mirror’, commenting that usually people start to describe the superficial things amount themselves such as ‘the bags under my eyes’ but Adrienne pushes them further, getting them to concentrate on the metaphorical things they see when they look at themselves. To enable his customers to share more about themselves, Adrienne will always give something back to them, a personal thing about himself that then creates a bond of trust and respect, meaning that the client can then respond and share something equally as personal. What’s interesting to think about with this video is what effect the piece being set in a hairdresser has upon the performance. Personally, I think that it symbolises how a hair salon can be quite a personal space, where people become very aware of themselves, thinking about both flaws and positives about themselves and how exploring this is important in understanding the mindset and emotions of people in certain places compared to others.