Connotations – Performance Images is the first part of the ongoing Connotations project. It is a series of 21 photo/text works documenting the fictional career of a performance artist. It was made as both a celebration and analysis of the performance canon, revisiting performances by artists such as Adrian Piper and Dennis Oppenheim.
When exhibited the following text is often used as an information panel:
‘The photographs in the series Connotations – Performance Images are constructed images intended to explore the role of documentation in performance. The photographs in the series were staged and performed by myself with most of the images being taken by the photographer Casey Orr over a week in the summer of 1998. The dates, locations, photographers and contexts for the performances cited in the text panels are fictional. In all instances the action had to be performed for the photograph but did not take place within the circumstances or places outlined in the supporting text.
As a form, performance is often mediated through the documentary image, video, film, text or by word of mouth and rumour. With so few existing networks for the distribution of performances works, it is the image and its supporting text that is given precedence in publications on the subject, creating a handful of historical performances that have become notorious through their own documentation, leaving others behind that have not made the translation into the single image.
Connotations – Performance Images was made as a way to understand how the documentary performance image works in relation to text, as well as creating the context to make work for which there was, at that time, no practical forum. The images chosen for this series of documents aim to evoke ideas beyond the photograph and reflect the ambiguity implicit in attempts to document (capture) a performance within a photograph. The document replaces the performance: the camera authenticates the activity in its position as witness and the photographic image stands in place of the performance and becomes the work itself. When supported by other information such as dates, location, and use of materials, duration and description of events these images provide the forensic link to communicate ideas that occurred within the live performance to a non-live situation.’
Hayley Newman, 2001
Connotations – Performance Images was commissioned by Hull Time Based Arts for the Year of Photography in 1998.
Tagged as:
Attachments:
Essay by Hayley Newman, originally published in: Adrian Heathfield ed., Live: Art and Performance; Tate Modern (2003), ISBN -1-85437-501-6.
All Images:
[ Photo: Casey Orr ] - [ full size version ]
Lock-jaw Lecture Series
1997-1998 Lectures given at Chelsea College of Art, Middlesex University, Sheffield Hallam University and Dartington College of Art
Photo: Jonny Byars
Over the period of a year I was invited to give a series of lectures on my work. Before each lecture I visited a local dentist and had my mouth anaesthetised. With my mouth made immobile, I gave my feeblest apologies to the students and staff before attempting to talk on my work.
[ Photo: H. Newman ] - [ full size version ]
Bass in a Space
David Cunningham and Hayley Newman
15 March 1997
Studio Gallerie, Budapest
Bass in a Space
A Large PA system was placed in a small room, playing back slowed down sound containing frequencies as low as the equipment would tolerate (the size of the room was inversely proportional to the size of the PA). The crack in the wall appeared at 1.30pm, 3 hours and 30 minutes into installation time.
[ Photo: Casey Orr ] - [ full size version ]
B(in)
14 April 1996
New York
Photographer unknown
Sitting in a bin bag waiting for bin men to pick me up in New York. When the bin men arrived at 4pm, I jumped out of the bag and ran home.
[ Photo: Casey Orr ] - [ full size version ]
Spirit
31 October 1995
Soho, London
Photo: Kerry Baldry
Dressed as a ghost for Halloween I ran into various pubs in London’s Soho, stole a drink and then left.
[ Photo: Casey Orr ] - [ full size version ]
Meditation on Gender Difference
21 July 1996
Lexham Gardens, London
Photo: Christina Lamb
For the work I made a suit which, acting like an inverted bikini entirely covered the body except for the genital and chest areas. I sat in the garden at home all day wearing the suit, only removing the inverted bikini in the early evening to reveal sunburn on the areas of the body, which are normally concealed and protected. In the work the body itself articulates emotionthrough a controlled physical reaction expressed in the form of intense sunburn.
[ Photo: Casey Orr ] - [ full size version ]
25th Birthday Party
18 November 1995
Hamburg
Photo: Nina Könnemann
[ Photo: Casey Orr ] - [ full size version ]
Exploding LEGO
1 September 1997
Oxford Street, London
Photo: Iris Garalf
I was asked to produce a musical event for the launch of the new radio station Xfm. I chose to work with the group London Electric Guitar Orchestra (LEGO) in organising a simultaneous busking event. During the event members of LEGO were asked to busk an identical song in unison with one another along the length of Oxford Street in London. Using radio transceivers and receivers to maintain contact with each other LEGO were placed at 30 metre intervals along the north side of Oxford Street, where they played an hour long concert.
Pedestrians experienced the concert as individual parts, walking in and out of the various sound fields as each busker they passed played a continuation of the segment that they had previously heard. The sound of the whole concert was assimilated and broadcast live on Xfm.
LEGO guitarists: John Bisset, Steve Mallaghan, Rick Nogalski, Ivor Kalim, Nigel Teers, Viv Doogan, Jorg Graumann, Richard Sanderson.
[ Photo: Casey Orr ] - [ full size version ]
Human Resources
6 April 1998
Obero Offices, Montreal
Photo Sylvie Gilbert
Over a 9 – 5 working period I sat in the offices of Obero and captured my breath in over 3,000 plastic sandwich bags. During the period, breaks totalling one and half-hours were taken for lunch and tea.
The work was an attempt to quantify and produce a visual record of the amount of breath breathed out during a working day.
[ Photo: Casey Orr ] - [ full size version ]
Smoke, Smoke, Smoke
22 May 1998
Galerie Otto Plonk, Bergen
Photo: Per Gunnar Tverbak
Smoke, Smoke, Smoke was a silent choral work based on a series of pre-written scores and performed by a choir of invited musicians and sound artists. The piece uses the framework of a choir to present a primarily non-vocal work in which cigarette smoke was used to plot the tract of the voice. A conductor gave visual instructions to the choir, which they repeated simultaneously. Each passage performed was written to last the length of time taken to smoke a cigarette.
Choir: Keiko Owada, Alison Goldfrapp, Simon Fisher-Turner, Mitch, Miles Miles, Simon Woods, Hayley Newman, Bruce Gilbert, Gio D’Angelo, David Cunningham, Matt Tarr, Karen Mirza, Sean Roe, Kaffe Matthews, James Young, Steve Malaghan, Mike Sumpter.
Soloist: Charles Kriel
Conductor: David Crawforth
[ Photo: Casey Orr ] - [ full size version ]
The Visit
10 October 1997
Rootless, Beverley
Photo: Casey Orr
Wearing the world’s first punk sleeping bag, I appeared ‘hanging out’ in and around Beverley, not doing anything in particular. The bag was covered in zips, which allowed me to extend my arms and legs through its various orifices.
Over the day, whilst inside the bag, I visited local shops to buy bread, cheese, fruit and soft drinks. At lunchtime I opened up the sleeping bag, laid it out in the market square, had a picnic on it, read a book and then zipped myself up again.
[ Photo: Casey Orr ] - [ full size version ]
You Scratch Mine and I’ll Scratch Yours
12 September 1998
Cyberia Café (as a part of digital summer 1998), Manchester
Photo: Lawrence Lane
Durational 6 hour DJ-ing session with the lovely Matt (Stockhausen and Walkman) Wand. Within the six hour session of malarkey and frivolity Matt and I played golden oldies whilst covered in cobwebs and Christmas music with records embellished by snow.
Other activities included scratching with our right arms chained together, playing records with the needles covered with socks and promoting our new DJ-ing technique ‘The Knob’ – a door knob stuck on the surface of the record to aid a more fluid scratching action.
[ Photo: H. Newman ] - [ full size version ]
Virtual Techno Sponge
17 January 1996
Live video link between my studio in London and The Western Front, Vancouver
Robert Fillou celebrated the birth of art by placing a sponge into a bucket. Since then various Fluxus affiliated organisations across the world have annually celebrated Art’s birthday. Virtual Techno Sponge was part of a live video conference hosted by The Western Front in Vancouver, Canada, to which I contributed the act of shutting a sponge in the door of my studio.
[ Photo: Casey Orr ] - [ full size version ]
You Blew My Mind
Studio Photograph 1997
Photo: Casey Orr
[ Photo: Casey Orr ] - [ full size version ]
Stealth
22 November 1996
Ave, Arnhem
Photo: Alphonse Ter Avest
Over 3 hours I jumped up and down on a trampoline in complete darkness. A small flashing red light attached to my body and the sound of my movements were the only two things indicative of any activity.
Prior to the event I had instructed its organiser to enter at any point during the three-hour performance and take a single photograph with a flash to document the work. This is the only image of the work as no other photography was allowed.
[ Photo: Casey Orr ] - [ full size version ]
Electric Strip
12 April 1995
‘Kleidung’, All Girls Gallery, Berlin
Photo: Nina Könnemann
Standing on two dinner plates while wearing 20 nylon petticoats with positive and negative cables attached to my legs. Audiences of no more than five people were led into the semi-lit room, where I instructed them to stand as close to me as possible. The performance started as someone wound a hand winch, creating a small electrical charge through my body. As I began to remove my petticoats, static electricity darted between the layers of nylon effecting an intimate light show.
[ Photo: Casey Orr ] - [ full size version ]
Football Audio Cup
21 June 1998
Shoreditch Biennial, London
Photos: Casey Orr
A reconstruction of the notorious 100th FA Cup final between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City. The match ended in a draw when Manchester City’s Tony Hutchinson scored for both sides. The 1-1 draw forced the first ever replay at Wembley.
This reconstruction of the 1981 FA Cup Final was replayed in real time using a customised football and two teams. During the game the players adhered to and repeated the actual events by following an audio recording of the match’s original radio commentary, which was playing back from within the football itself.
Tottenham Hotspur: 1 L Price; 2 B Gilchrist; 3 G Newman; 4 K Reynolds; 5 L Taylor; 6 R Withers; 7 S Hart; 8 A Newman; 9 B Williams; 10 R Waring; 11 L Harvey.
Manchester City: 1 J Bichard-Harding; 2 C Shillitoe; 3 S Cope; 4 R Silverman; 5 C Morgana; 6 Tinsey; 7 L Watts; 8 D Clegg; 9 D Guerro Miracle; 10 H Newman; 11 A Rachmatt; Referee: M Thompson
[ Photo: Casey Orr ] - [ full size version ]
Occasionally Groovy
4 January 1997
Demonstration; Kunst und Teknik, Berlin
Photo: Bam Hühnerkopf
Occasionally Groovy was a 12-inch record customised to produce sounds from both digital and analogue sources. Made by sticking a matt black template with holes cut out of it to the underside of a clear vinyl record the altered disc was placed upon a raised record deck with a light source comprising of a series of fairy lights beneath it.
A light sensor attached to the arm of the record produced a sound as light passing through the record hit the sensor. Sound was also created in the normal manner of needle in groove. These two differing sources were played simultaneously: the sound of the original disco music on the record playing alongside the quickening rhythmic interruption of light hitting the sensor on the arm of the player.
[ Photo: Casey Orr ] - [ full size version ]
Crying Glasses (An Aid to Melancholia)
1995
On public transport in Hamburg, Berlin, Rostock, London and Guildford
Photo: Christina Lamb
Over a year I wore the crying glasses while travelling on public transport in all the cities I visited. The glasses functioned using a pump system which, hidden inside my jacket allowed me to pump water up out of the glasses and produced a trickle of tears down my cheeks. The glasses were conceived as a tool to enable the representation of feelings in public spaces. Over the months of wearing the glasses they became an external mechanism which enabled the manifestation of internal and unidentifiable emotions.