Pollocks Toy Theatre
A shop and museum, both in London, have a collection of old and new toy paper theatres. They stem back to victorian times when they were used as recreation. Now they are more of a collectors item.
Eyes, Lies and Illusions
I got Eyes lies and Illusions out from the university library which was a book to go alongside an exhibition at the Hayward gallery. The book and exhibition 'explores the art and artifice of optical invention from the Renaissance to the present day.' The 'optical invention' just mentioned comes in projections, the use of light and shadow, the use of photography, film and animation and the explored the deception that can be used in art. The main inspiration and principal source for the exhibition was drawn from the collection of the German experimental film-maker Werner Nekes.
'And the same objects appear straight when looked at out of the water, and crooked when in the water; and the concave becomes the convex, owing to the illusion about colours to which sight is liable. Thus every sort of confusion is revealed within us; and this is that weakness of the human mind on which the art of conjuring and of deceiving by light and shadow and other ingenious devices imposes, having an effect upon us like magic.' Plato, The Republic. 1894. (From Eyes, Lies and Illusions, 2004, Laurent Mannoni, Werner Nekes and Marina Walker).
This quote I included because it talks about how the creation of something fantastical, imaginary or dreamlike - unreal can be created by using very real methods like stagecraft and projections - simple or complicated - and that creates something new and magic, like the quote by Plato states.
There were a few things I picked out that I thought were really interesting and/or could be useful in my project.
First was 'Peppers Ghost', a trick that emerged from the rise of magic illusionism through the second half of the 19th century. The Pepper's Ghost could appear by use of a glass panel and projection, the image shows it working much better than I could describe it. At the same sort of time Houdini was making elephants disappear and the Davenport Brothers where elevating from chairs they were tied at hand and feet too - all by tricks of mirrors and projection (The Davenport Brothers claimed it was supernatural at the time Spiritualism was highly popular, but Houdini was a skeptic of spiritualism and wanted to expose frauds claiming supernatural phenomena)
(Engraving by Theodor Eckardt, 1881)
I am really interested in this time in history and have always been intrigued by performers, magicians and illusionists of this time - including the whole spiritualism and belief in the supernatural that there was at the time. So I think partly the interest in the fantasy and surreal that I like in fairytales stems from this as well.
The book also showcases contemporary artists who use similar techniques or ideas. Christian Boltanski has created some installations that use light and shadow to blow small objects up to large, obscure shadows on the surrounding walls.
The work has a slight melancholy feel and usually centres on those gone; either dead or moved on from a certain time or place. I feel like the use of shadows in this instance is juxtaposed; shadows are created by something present. The pieces creating the shadows are present in the exhibition, would hiding the created pieces change the interpretation? This is something I can consider when creating pieces for my own project; considering the meaning and content and how that projects onto the way the pieces are created as well as what they look like.
This installation is very similar to how I am imagining my final pieces to be; using shadow as part if not all of the artwork. The subject deals with ideas that are similar to the the story of The Snow Child. Here the pieces centre on what has passed, and the narrative looks at love and loss, heartbreak and hope.
Théâtre de Complicité
Complicité is a theatre company based in London whose devised productions have "an emphasis on strong, corporeal, poetic and surrealist image supporting text" (Stephen Knapper, 2010, Contemporary European Theatre Directors). Their performances usually involve dazzling use of technology, such as projection and cameras, as well as lyrical and philosophical contemplation of serious themes. Their main principles of work are: "seeing what is most alive, integrating text, music, image and action to create surprising, disruptive theatre."
After reading about this company I think they have a very strong emphasis on communication to audience or viewer. It also integrates performance and movement.
Forkbeard Fantasy
Forkbeard Fantasy is a collective of artists whose work includes stage shows, films, animations, publications, peepshow installations and their hugely popular interactive exhibitions.
Forkbeard Fantasy are a multi-media theatre company. The idea of Forkbeard Fantasy came in the early 1970s with three brothers - Simon, Chris and Tim Britton. Simon was a painter and maker of kinetic mechanical sculptures; Chris, fascinated by experimental and physical theatre, devised constructions and gadgetry to perform within; and Tim, a poet, writer and cartoonist, could see how his imaginative world might be realized in live performance.
Very much out on a limb in the early days, Forkbeard soon found that they fitted most comfortably within the new wave of British experimental performance and performance art that had been burgeoning since the 1960s. It was a time of much mixing of media, kinetic and ‘living’ sculptures, performance art, happenings, poetry performance and squeaky-bonky jazz, all elements, art forms and media which were fast becoming as much to do with live theatre as the play and the text. But the mainstream theatre was reluctant to accept any of it at that time. As a result, much of it happened in galleries, pubs, music venues, clubs, festivals, fairs, streets, church halls and shop windows...and in the then tiny handful of arts centres which were only beginning to emerge.
Forkbeard have been producing and presenting their highly individual brand of comic surrealism, creating performances, theatre shows, films, cartoons, automata, sculptures, special events, installations and interactive exhibitions across the UK and abroad without stop since the mid 1970s. As such they are one of the UK’s longest surviving independent performing arts companies and certainly the oldest with the same original members still writing, producing and performing in all the shows. The work, always true to its struggling origins, still combines theatre with special effects, mechanical sets and contraptions, outsize puppetry and automata, and their particular trademark interactive mix of film, animation and cartoon live on stage – a medium now widely seen on the stage today but in which FF have long been seen as pioneers.
Forkbeard will happily talk of inspirations and influences as varied as Ealing Comedies, The Goons and Edward Lear, of Flann O’Brien, The Theatre of the Absurd, Frank Zappa, Tintin (to whom there’s rarely a show without at least one reference), to P.G.Wodehouse, Stanislav Lem, Tadeusz Kantor, Bruce Lacey, the 60s Happenings in the USA, Joseph Beuys and La Grande Magique Circus. But there are of course always many more. Forkbeard have always as enthusiastically embraced the old, the trickery and magic of vaudeville, Victorian stage illusion and early cinema pioneers, as they have modern art, technology and the endlessly unfolding possibilities of new digital media
(From forkbeardfantasy.com)
This seems to be a projection onto a sculpted face. This reminds me of the work of Terry Gilliam.
(all artwork/models created by members of Forkbeard Fantasy)
So there we go, I quoted Plato. I didn't think this project would get that deep. I think I was told to look at these various companies and creations to help me think about the possibilities in creating images. It would fit with what I'm interested in working with very well to create simple illusions and continue using light and shadow in my work. It also helps when thinking about possibilities of working with paper and paper craft to push the medium forward and make something different and new with it.
Christian Bolkanski image:http://artplafox.blogspot.com/2010/11/6-eme-montrez-le.html
http://zepizzabox.blogspot.com/2011/07/sapotille_29.html
theatre illustion:http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/24/Warner.php
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