THE THINGMOUNT WORKING PAPER SERIES ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF CONSERVATION

A NEAR AND FAR MAP SITE-SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE by

Hester Reeve

TWP 99-08

ISSN: 1362 - 7066 (Print) ISSN: 1474 - 256X (On-line) Published by: Department of Philosophy. Lancaster University. Furness College. Lancaster LA14YCJ. UK Tel: 0152465201 ; fax: 01524592503 e-mail: [email protected]

THE THINGMOUNT WORKING PAPER SERIES ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF CONSERV A TION

A NEAR AND FAR MAP

SITE-SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE

by Hester Reeve

[This performance was presented at a conference on Aesthetic Knowledge and a Sense of Place held at Lancaster University, 15-16 May 1998]

TWP 99-08

Hester Reeve ISSN 1362- 7066 A Near and Far Map was performed by Hester Reeve, Saturday 16th 5:30pm

Hester Reeve is a fine artist (graduating from a joint degree at Polytechnic and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago) who recently completed an MA in Values and the Environment at Lancaster University Philosophy Department. Her main medium of communication is through live 'embodied' ideas. She has been showing these performance works internationally over the past ten years mainly in site-specific locations. Since 1992, when the artist worked with the environmental movement in the Czech Republic, Reeve's work has engaged with revealing and challenging the ways in which we 'know' and relate to 'nature'. Her work methodology is to situate her exploration and the resulting 'event of thought' within liminality (i.e. the state of being on the threshold; a no man's land where the 'voice' desires to climb out of cultural patterns). The resulting language is anti-theatrical and non-literal.

A Near and Far Map took place on the University grounds and focused on the artist's interaction with the notion of a 'sense of place'.

Hester Reeve is currently the artist co-ordinator of the project Other Life Map for the local charity Lancaster Green Spaces. This project aims to challenge: assumptions about the presence of the wild within the urban context, the ocular-centric approach to ways in which humans communicate facts and value about 'nature', and the easy access to 'knowing' what nature is through mapping processes/expert knowledge. This project involves workshops to facilitate community involvement and the resulting 'map', which will be housed at Lancaster Castle, will make a special consideration for the needs of the visually impaired.

Hester Reeve, A Near and Far Map Page 1 of 1 A Near and Far Map

Key:

Whilst maps can be inspirational cultural images which generate new ideas and ways of relating to the natural environment they also epitomise, in today's world, an unquestioned confidence in representative thought and objectivity. Most maps re-present the landscape solely from the human use-come-access vantage, always from the aerial perspective (present-at-hand rather than ready-to- hand) as well as promoting 'nature' as that which can be visualised. Such maps assert the way things are according to authorised knowledge and, through their cultural dominance, fix the human being's relationship to this.

Why not a map which admits to a chaotic element in our attempts to value 'nature'. Why not a map which confesses to the Being and non- Being of the human in the midst of 'nature' (the landscape changes whilst we, the authors of the word "landscape", end and disintegrate into it). Why not a map created as an event which purposes to impart a location or sense of place inside the viewer's mind (rather than one which remains fixed outside in objective reality). Why not map the energy of an individual (Dasein) caught up in the exercise of ripping herself away from the cultural presupposition of what signifies "You are here".

Map this as a mark-making effort which, for once, feels real (energy release taking priority over textual sense making). Near is that which is cared for and gathered in. Far is the horizon of knowability; non- Being, horizontal. The measurement is the human life, fully conscious, vertical.

This is the flag of "pirate Being". It is the same thing as the sky yet the size of a handkerchief.

Hester Reeve, A Near and Far Map Page 2 of 2 Hester Reeve, A Near and Far Map Page 3 of 3 Hester Reeve, A Near and Far Map Page 4 of 4 Hester Reeve, A Near and Far Map Page 5 of 5 The Why of What

Academics, go with my flow. If I could cradle a small river in my arms and walk it through one of our libraries, I ensure you that I would. This riverlet would leak on the floor and penetrate the paper. All the words, like armies of ants, would come and follow me out of the building, through the city and up over the hills. In the very heart of nowhere, we would all lay ourselves out to dry, panting and exasperated. Eventually, the vapour from our breaths would form a little cloud which, resting next to my renegade brow, claims itself as an excess of language and demands to be brought into human experience, to take place and effect us. For thinking is an element like the weather, to which we have the choice to expose ourselves, thankful as much for what is not as for that which is. This is when the alphabet for truth, the first letter being our hearts, shines out from our writing. Our Yes's (which have been frozen for centuries) will be by now ready to melt as rain, down from the heavens above.

Performance art - the action-based/time-based medium that a slim minority of artists prefer to present their ideas through - is one of the most problematic of 'art-forms' both to witness as an audience member and for the 'performer' to carry out. Though heralded as an art form in the seventies, performance art for me reflects a primordial desire to take part in a meaningful experience. Being is intrinsically meaning-full for each individual. The need for drama arises from generosity - wanting to share the sense of meaningfulness together- and from anxiousness - needing to hold hands in fear at the impossibility of discovering the meaning of Being within a universe that defies categorisation. And here begins the problem, at least for me. Drama today and what constitutes meaning no longer connect to anything primordial (I use primordial in the sense of questioning the meaning of 'being-here' and regarding the surrounding world as the source of awe). Not that I wish to return to the ancient forms of ritual and ceremony (which would somehow be a denial of the present situation). This makes the why and what of my practice as a performance artist complicated.

The problematic of what I do is confounded by what people have gotten used to in terms of live performance over the past centuries, i.e. theatre. It is interesting that the word theatre, etymologically speaking, designates the building and not the practice per se. However, the practice and its idea of 'content' has become more or less bounded by the building and the values fixed to it. People come to performance events with the expectation of entertainment - albeit often intellectually based. Even the most avant-garde theatre is usually entertainment based in that it is not dangerous; it is exciting and innovative but completely deferential to what is expected and the everyday culturalised parameters of Being. Often, in the case of well known scripts, the audience know what they will be getting in advance. The performers usually perform because they like performing (forgive me if that seems too obvious to state) and we usually appraise actors in terms of their skill and not because of what they themselves have to say. The more well known, the

Hester Reeve, A Near and Far Map Page 6 of 6 more expert, the author of the theatre piece, the more people want to come and experience it. Theatre posters and brochures help to make people feel confident that they are about to see or have just seen something significant.

I am not setting out here to criticise or de-bunk theatre. It is just that the why and what of my performance practice is so strange and difficult to put into words that starting by stating what I don't do serves best. Of course, some theatre breaks all the 'rules' and other theatre deals head-on with real life situations and human need (for example the theatre work carried out in Sarajevo). These, like entertainment, are valued cultural experiences and practices. In contrast, my performance art craves - perhaps impossibly - to be realer than real, larger then life yet simultaneously smaller than culture (primordial) and to disrupt the every-day-ness of experience. I'm no expert or skilled dancer and no one else 'wrote my script'. Usually, and this is hardest for us all to swallow, noone invited me to perform in the first place! No small wonder that the audience twitches uncomfortably and I am full of dread prior to commencing.

For all the above, my performance work, however individualistic, is not about me but in service of ontological questioning (which causes a trembling within our cultural confidence). In such a way, my performances are not personal or self-exhibitory so much as they are an opportunity to exercise possibilities of experiencing the meaning of Being, to take Dasein from worded idea to embodied signifier. But signification of what?

For me, the what and the why of my performance are fused. If there is a main subject to my performances it is the answer to this very "why?" What I am doing is exercising the need to rip open the possibilities of meaning and experience within the every-day-ness of existence. There is a compulsion to disclose 'un-meant meaning' and the designated performance site - a heterotopia in its own right - becomes a suitable 'present place' to contest the everyday experience of 'reality' in a sustainable and constructive manner. The actual meaning of the thing-in-itself is a risk; if I was in control of what was being said there would be no need to do the deed ( deed as in a feat; something that is done as opposed to presented through words). My performance art addresses itself to the uncanny, the nothing, the awe at Being which, to the truly dramatic soul, is full, is meaning-full, is an excess which demands worlding through Dasein. This becomes an ever increasingly hard 'act' to maintain in today's world. In contrast to the current everyday, these 'acts' of resistance and careful humanity are somewhat profane; I sense this from my audience. Hence, I have come to call the kingdom of my performance "Pirate Being".

Whilst my work could be termed esoteric, an audience is a composite part of my performance event; I am very much working with the semantic dimension, and this is co-created between human beings. My overall intention is to provoke people to receive the world differently. Whilst I do not perform the work for my own benefit, I fully recognise the difficulty that the experience of my work presents for others. Unless one feels the same need to contest the every-day-ness of our experience of 'reality', the work will seem non-sense. In this case, my work serves to demand others to awaken to such a need.

The process of developing the content of each performance is, for me, a process of trust. Each performance, usually a one-off event and often site-specific, starts from "nothing"; or rather, each performance has as its origin the actual decision to do the 'deed'. This decision, which relates to the why explained above, carries a large degree of the meaningfullness of the final work. The agenda of things to "do" which constitutes the live action-come-presentation results from a process of seducing "what needs to be said" once this decision has been taken. I call this a "Field Theory" of performance: the performance process attempts to give expression - and not necessarily clarification - to what is unsaid or un-sayable through our everyday use of language and communication. It is for this reason that I never speak in a piece, I hold my tongue. With

Hester Reeve, A Near and Far Map Page 7 of 7 language, the event of knowledge and fact moves in a medium and this medium is more than we are (we can only literally give it lip-service).The point of my performance making process is to seduce this medium to disclose something which isn't really a fact or a thing but an act of doing which brings something meaningful to bear. So, the planning for the actions of a piece are concerned with the ideas which present themselves to me (usually connected to the issue of knowing and relating to nature). Whilst this process sounds a little ambiguous it ranges from common place activities such as reading text books and drawing to dancing to my favourite music. The trust lies in letting things suggest themselves to me in the context of the actual decision to perform for others. Many ways of communicating the ideas suggest themselves to me, the job becomes distinguishing what is a genuine suggestion and what was directly created by my brain (as in a literal technique to communicate the idea to others). I suppose this is like an intellectual intuition, a metaphorical organ developed through past 're-search'/performance art pieces.

Hester Reeve, A Near and Far Map Page 8 of 8 Hester Reeve, A Near and Far Map Page 9 of 9 The artist would like to thank Floris Tomasini for creating the evocative term of a "near and far map" which was used to title her performance at the conference.

Hester Reeve, A Near and Far Map Page 10 of 10 HESTER REEVE – PERFORMANCE ART WORKS

Unwalled Prisoners Gregson Centre, Lancaster. UK/99

Trompe L 'oeil Saviour (Burn, Hollywood Burn) Rave, Lancaster City Hall. UK/98. Text for the City Square (1) Sun Street court yard, Living Room Gallery, Lancaster. UK/98. A Near and Far Map Roundabout on Lancaster University grounds, for research conference "Aesthetic Knowledge and a Sense of Place" (Helsinki University & Lancaster University). UK/98. Full Circle The Gregson Centre (children's event), Lancaster, UK/98. Trompe L 'oeil Saviour (The Spy & Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?) Valentines Ball, Lancaster City Hall. UK/98.

Off Guard Grunt Gallery (artist in residence), Vancouver. C197. The Toy Book The Alternator, Okanagen. C197.

The Illumination Libkovice Brick Festival, St. Michael's church, North Bohemia. CR/96.

Nothing to Prove - Everything to Show Social-Cultural Centre, Prague. CR/95.

Ark The Social-Cultural Centre Prague. CR194. Defenestration is a Dog with a Good Idea Malamud International Festival, Moravia. CR/94. Untitled The Green Circle's 'Green City Project' Press Conference, Prague. CR/94.

The House That Couldn't Hold On The National Monument, Prague. CR/93. Elaborate Meat (a general suggestion) No-Made Festival, Mannheim. D193.

The In-between (River Run Dry) The Institute of Cultural Affairs international conference, Exploring the Great Transition - Our One World, the Belmondo, Prague. CR/92. My Dog - My God created & performed with Earthlinks, Vsetine. CR/92. Excavation of the Frankenstein Cafe Czech & British Art show, Prague Academy of Fine Arts. CR/92. The Rest of the Rain Forest for Earthlinks members to perform on Earth Day with band Sum Svistu, Wencenlas Square, Prague. CR/92. From Trees to Houses in the grounds of the Chelmsford & Essex Museum. UK/92.

Eventual Material for Institute of Cultural Affairs Foundation Course, mountain side Mezio, P191. Heavenly Bodies The Ultimate Sports Show, Club 950, Chicago USA/91. Trompe L 'oeil Saviour Grunt Gallery, Vancouver C191.

Kingdom Come and the Twentieth Century Fox Chicago Performance Series, abandoned lot, Vancouver C191. Three Poetry Experiments Dreamerz, Chicago USA/91. Hester Reeve for the Monkey Fuckerina The Slow Learner Show, Club Lower Links, Chicago USA/91. Trompe L 'oeil Saviour Bait & Switch, Club Lower Links, Chicago USA/91. Minimum Task - A laxative Tool Ideophrenia (4), Mount Pleasant Community Centre, Vancouver C191.

Hester Reeve, A Near and Far Map Page 11 of 11 A Day In Creation's Creation One World Media Event, Central Park, Chelmsford UK/90. Untitled Thoughts for the End of the Decade, N.A.M.E, Chicago USA/90.

Species Wonders In Space The Tragedy Club, Lower Links, Chicago USA/89. Whirl's Museum Piece Randolf Street Gallery, Chicago USA/89.

Canadian Tour Instigations On The Layby:* 1989

KNEADMAN (the equation with space) EM Media, Calgary , Alberta Improvisation* Jazz Night, Grunt, Vancouver KNEADMAN GETS GOT (survival of the survivors) Pitt International Galleries, Vancouver KNEADMAN (the ghost in the atom) Minit- Tune Car Repair Plant, for the Western Front, Vancouver. Hommage to Tom Sukanen* City highways & Scotia Square Shopping Mall for Neutral Ground, Regina, Saskatchewan Beached* Eye Level Gallery, Halifax, Nova Scotia KNEADMAN (the man who would be constellation) 101 Gallery, Ottowa, Ontario KNEADMAN (the man who would be constellation) Niagra Artists' Centre, Ontario KNEADMAN (the man who would be constellation) Kingston Artists' Association Inc. Ontario KNEADMAN(the man who would be constellation) A Space, Toronto, Ontario Beached* Music Gallery, Toronto, Ontario

You Speck, You Pin-Point The Spoken Word Cafe, Live Theatre, Newcastle UK/88. Bring On The Engines* Sunderland Polytechnic UK/88. Bring On The Engines* National Review of Live Art, 3rd Eye Centre, UK/88. Kneadman Newcastle Polytechnic Theatre UK/88. Bring On The Engines Arts Festival UK/88. Improvisation on Ice Skates Art Schools '88, Newcastle Polytechnic UK/88. Bring On The Engines* Firehall Arts Centre, UK/88. Beached* Last Sweat of Youth, Air Gallery, London UK/88. News Aga-Gar Polytechnic Media Festival UK/88. Action With a Fire Bucket* Lipman Theatre, Newcastle UK/88. News Aga-Gar* Strawberry Slam, Newcastle UK/88. Scapegoat Smiles* Strawberry Slam, Newcastle UK/88.

Beached* AVE Media Festival, Arnhem NL/87. Skin Bomb Newcastle Fringe Festival, Morden Tower UK/87. Sonatas on Decentrification (with Dani K. & Sascha Sumner) Face the Street Festival, van parked on Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago USA/87. Totem of Them Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago USA/87. Lot's Wives (with Vanessa Jones, Vickie Hoch & Marie Grudzien) Ukranian Village Street Festival,Chicago USA/87. Do You Do? (with Dani K. ) Gaspers, Chicago USA/87. strange Words in a Book of Nonsense (with Deborah Hede) Sandburg Village Playground, Chicago USA/87. Vagabond Shoes* Women View Women, Club 950, Chicago USA/87. Stacey Adams Shoe Store Piece* Chicago, USA/87.

Hester Reeve, A Near and Far Map Page 12 of 12 The Waitress Piece (with Vanessa Jones, Marie Grudzien, Jenny Knowelton) S.A.I.C Performance Series, Chicago USA/87. Knife, Fork, Spoon & Y-Fronts S.A.I.C. Performance Series, Chicago USA/87.

Plates AVE Media Festival, Arnhem NL/86. Plates Newcastle Polytechnic UK/86. Active/Passive* West Denton High School, Newcastle UK/86. She Sells Art Sails* Boat in Tynemouth Cove UK/86.

* Created & performed with Vanessa Jones

Hester Reeve, A Near and Far Map Page 13 of 13 PERFORMANCE ROLES IN OTHER ARTISTS' WORK

Sea Values Lucia King Productions. Film role: the "Hypnotist." NL/94. The Farmer in the Astral Planes by Robert Metrick, Pitt International Gallery, Vancouver C191. Don't Look at Me Like That by Neil Bartlett & students, The Riverside, Newcastle Upon Tyne UK/88. I Am What I Am and Things Are As They Seem by Vickie Hoch, Beacon Street Theatre, Chicago USA/87. Performance piece for Television by Werner Heitrich, broadcast live USA/87. Trust Me, It's Bliss! by Vera Frenkel, Hefna's Play Boy Mansion, Chicago USA/87. Stray Parts Return by Vickie Hoch, Organic Theatre Lab, Chicago USA/87.

MISCELANEOUS ART WORKS

Symptoms Exhibition of performance notes & drawings, Living Room Gallery, Lancaster. UK/98. Congregate Here landscape photographs, Folly Gallery (group show) Lancaster. UK/97. A Spy (Hester Reeve Does the Doors) Performance collaboration with video artist Suzy Silver USI91. Screened world-wide including 'Broads make Video' at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London and 'Bad Girls' at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Dr. Wow and the State of Mastication Feature-Iength video spoof USI91. Screened at The Really Fake Show, Club Lower Links Chicago. Exhibition of student performance documentation & notes, Squires Foyer Gallery, Newcastle UK/86. Artists in Schools Exhibition,The Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle UK/86. Alive And Kicking group show, Squires Foyer Gallery, Newcastle UK/86.

Hester Reeve, A Near and Far Map Page 14 of 14