#bmwtatelive #bmwtatelive Claire Tancons

Up Hill Down Hall? claire Carnival Performance in the Turbine Hall: between tAnCons Institutional Critique and Instituting the Public

‘Mas in the museum?’1 This query The question began reframing the succintly framed the ambivalences debate, if unintentionally, by using of the experiment that resulted in the Caribbean colloquium mas’, Up Hill Down Hall: An indoor carnival short for masquerade, rather than on 23 August 2014 in response to the European appellation carnival, Catherine Wood’s invitation to the name of one of the seasons during present Carnival at Tate Modern, which masquerades take place in in the Turbine Hall, as part of the the Caribbean – as a more adequate BMW Tate Live 2014 series. description of the new cultural phenomenon that evolved in the Americas. 2 In doing so, it began pulling at a first layer of historical ambivalence by pointing to the colonial dominance of an allegedly emancipatory practice. The implied skepticism of the question’s

(detail) 2014. formulation also unravelled a second layer of institutional ambivalence: bringing such a historically anti- institutional cultural practice as carnival within the context of a premier cultural institution like the museum. Finally, the possible curated by Claire Tancons. Photo © Akiko Ota curated by Claire Tancons.

No Black in the Union Jack punning of mas’ and the masses revealed a third layer of ideological ambivalence: leading the masses, historically construed as unruly

Up Hill Down Hall and mob-like, to become pacified as ‘the general public’ within the museum’s normalising framework. Fig.2.3.1 Marlon Gri$ith, Fig.2.3.1 Marlon Gri$ith, As part of

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The colloquium mas’, most frequently Trinidadian carnival traditions These tensions likewise played Mas' in used in Caribbean English and and mas’ artistic practices played out in the organisation of U p Hill attributed to the artistic component a significant part in the formative Down Hall and within Tate Modern’s of the Trinidad Carnival, influenced events that culminated in the Notting institutional politics against the Museum both my curatorial process and the Hill Carnival – with the indoor town the broader context of London’s artistic practices of Marlon Gri$ith hall balls of Claudia Jones of the carnival history and the politics and Hew Locke, two of the artists in mid 1950s; the steel pan processions of institutionalisation. Up Hill Down Hall. The practice of of Russ Henderson in Rhaune Laslett’s mas’, which includes costumed bands Notting Hill Fayre of the mid 1960s The location of Tate Modern across competing to live and recorded musical and the first costumed bands designed the river from the City brought to my accompaniment, has become the template by masmen Peter Minshall and Lawrence mind the long history of carnival in from which most diasporic Caribbean Noel in the early 1970s. 4 This process London to which two recent upheavals carnivals have evolved in the US and attests to the successful cultural bear witness: Reclaim the Streets the UK. Brooklyn’s Labor Day Parade and dissemination and metropolitan waged its Carnival against Capital London’s Notting Hill Carnival are the appropriation of both an artistic in 1999 and Occupy London staged its most notable examples. process and a festival model and, own carnivalesque protests in 2011–12 as such, a measure of institutionali- in front of St Paul’s Cathedral. Contrasting each of the three terms, As a performance art form, mas’ was sation of what has now become a full- Like most other historic European mas’, Carnival and the masses on the as unlikely to enter the purview of fledged multicultural event, Europe’s carnivals, London’s dates back to one hand with another set of terms, art historians and the realm of museum largest street festival. the medieval era; the Notting Hill Museum, Turbine Hall and Tate Modern galleries as western performance Carnival presents its latter-day on the other, I will attempt to art itself until the second half In Trinidad, whether following colonial legacy. provide retrospectively, alongside of the twentieth century. As mass emancipation in the nineteenth the collaborating artists, students performance staged in the streets century or leading up to Independence and participants, a critical analysis stemming from African diasporic in the twentieth century, Carnival of what emerged, or was instituted, aesthetics, mas’ was even less likely became as much an oppositional with Up Hill Down Hall. to cross the threshold of the museum instrument for the a$irmation of space. The Brooklyn Museum continues freedom by the formerly enslaved as to remain mostly insulated from and an integrative tool in the formation oblivious to the West Indian American of a modern multi-ethnic nation. Day Parade, the o$icial day of the The tensions between the resistant Caribbean Labor Day Carnival Parade and accommodationist tendencies even as it rolls past its doorsteps of the complex socio-cultural The Masses on Eastern Parkway.3 phenomenon that is Carnival keep playing out, though the former continue to be the privileged anti- at Tate colonial narrative while the later is dismissed as counter-emancipatory.5 Modern

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Although too large in scope to be Starting across the Millennium Once within the Turbine Hall, encompassed by the BMW Tate Live Bridge on the other side of the Carnival it appeared as though all the colours programme, both the carnivalesque Thames from Tate Modern, Marlon of the visible spectrum had been protests of anti-capitalist Gri$ith’s No Black in the Union Jack assembled and were being disrupted activists and the anti-racist established the connection between in the by a sea of black, making black demonstrations out of which Claudia London’s carnivalesque protests undoubtably one of the colours lining Jones’s 1959 Caribbean Carnival grew and its current Caribbean-inspired up the fabric of the British flag. informed the making of Up Hill Down multicultural carnival no less Turbine Hall Choreographed as a charging army Hall. In keeping with BMW Tate Live’s powerfully for being essentially of masqueraders bearing costumes stated interest in concentrating on visual. Documentary photographs designed as angular black and metal- the Notting Hill Carnival, I chose provide the striking sight of his coloured shields in reflective to focus on its historical origins army of masqueraders marching down material reminiscent of anti-riot in order to draw out the underlying the bridge, their wings framing police gear, No Black in the Union social and political function of the dome of the cathedral in the Jack was a reminder of the perils Carnival and expose Tate Modern and background (figs 2.3.2). Though the of being black in the streets and its audience to the deeper currents performance began at the foot of of the power yielded through fighting that convey its substance beneath St Paul’s as the artist requested, back. Blending visual and tactical the seductive sea of masks. it was not advertised in the o$icial references from the traditionally announcement of the project. opposing forces of the police and Reading o$icial Up Hill Down Hall black youth in the streets, be it announcements, you would only expect during riots or at the Notting Hill the performance to be within the Carnival from which riots have also Turbine Hall. Were the street masses historically sparked, Gri$ith put the Fig.2.3.3 Gia Wol$, Canopy, 2014. potentially uneducated in museum As part of Up Hill Down Hall public into an equivocal position. manners, too untamed to risk being curated by Claire Tancons. allowed to enter Tate Modern? Or was Photo © Oliver Cowling for Tate Photography If the public, coerced back against this institutional distanciation the wall and away from the entrance from ‘behind-the-bridge’ popular with the relay of red ropes handheld audiences a re-territorialisation by volunteers at the ground level in a symbolic of cultural power instead?6 mirroring of Gia Wol$’s Canopy above, Was the spectre of Liberate Tate had been corralled into taking sides activism too menacing to risk spatially speaking, there was no easy inadvertently advertising a carnival side to be on. The powers blended performance as an invitation to together as one in Gri$ith’s darkly a carnivalesque protest? futuristic masquerade. (figs.2.3.3 & 2.3.4) . The handling of red ropes – taught by Wol$ to volunteers – provided insights into one of the ways some Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs in New Orleans (the city where I have Fig.2.3.4 Marlon Gri$ith, No Black in the Union Jack under lived since 2007) channel the crowd Fig.2.3.2 Marlon Gri$ith, Gia Wol$’s, Canopy, 2014. away and funnel performers within the No Black in the Union Jack (detail) As part of Up Hill Down Hall 2014. As part of Up Hill Down Hall curated space cleared for the street parades, curated by Claire Tancons. by Claire Tancons. Photo © Akiko Ota known locally as 'second lines.' Photo © Oliver Cowling for Tate Photography

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In the Turbine Hall, Canopy Another carnival space of reference The Level 4 bridge, as of yet further outlined the architectural was that of the Notting Hill inaccessible to the public, enjoyed monumentality of the largest indoor Carnival itself. The Notting Hill a soft opening: throws of helicopter- public space in a museum. It also neighbourhood provided a shaped paper ticker-tape descended provided a spatial frame of its own topographical blueprint against towards the crowd dispersing the within which the mass performance which to reimagine Carnival in and cloud of The Sky is Dancing, a project could be amplified. A space so outside the Turbine Hall: the canal developed in collaboration with the large, it is referred to as The by Harrow Road was substituted by XD Pathway BA students from Central Street and indeed treated as such the River Thames; Ladbroke Grove Saint Martins. Beyond the atmospheric by health and safety standards; extended into The Street and the e$ect, the falling helicopters for Wol$ and me, the Turbine Hall Westway flyover downsized to fit under harkened back to the hovering threat was also reminiscent of an actual the Turbine Hall. The setting of of police surveillance (fig.2.3.5). street in Rio de Janeiro, Avenida Dubmorphology’s sound-system above Marquês de Sapucai, around which the Level 2 bridge was the most In response to Gri$ith’s foam-board Brazil’s national carnival stadium direct reference to similar musical armada of masqueraders and Central was built: the Sambadrome. Both the arrangements under the Westway flyover Saint Martins’s paper helicopters, stadium and the museum share in the at Carnival time (fig.2.3.6) . Gary Stewart and Trevor Mathison’s institutionalisation of culture and Sonar soundscape mixed up sounds of pleasure of entertainment. Both their police sirens – harrowing enough to monumentality conveys into concrete briefly alarm, yet su$iciently playful a sense of authority and functions to dispel any long-lasting feeling as a safeguard: where the Sambadrome of threat – and the voices of Notting Fig.2.3.6 Dubmorphology regiments the parades until they Hill Carnival participants to provide (Gary Stewart and Trevor Mathison), exit through Oscar Niemeyer’s iconic Fig.2.3.5 BA Fine Art X.D. pathway at a historical background. Yet, with Sonar, 2014. As part of Up Hill Down Hall triumphant arch, Herzog & de Meuron’s Central Saint Martins, UAL. The Sky is Dancing such spatially embedded carnival curated by Claire Tancons. Turbine Hall contains the general through Gia Wol$'s Canopy, 2014. memories, the punning title Up Hill Photo © Oliver Cowling for Tate Photography As part of Up Hill Down Hall public before accessing the museum’s curated by Claire Tancons. Down Hall left the literary register collection and exhibitions. Photo © Oliver Cowling for Tate Photography. of the carnivalesque to emphasise the embodied experience of its staged carnival.

Fig.2.3.7 Gia Wol$, Canopy, (installation shot) 2014. As part of Up Hill Down Hall curated by Claire Tancons. Photo © Gia Wol$

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Bookending Up Hill Down Hall, which Notting Hill Carnival revellers have started with the charge from Marlon regularly been intimidated to take Gri$ith’s No Black in the Union Jack the festivities out of their historic armoured masqueraders descending neighbourhood. Unlike street from the tip of the Turbine Hall, was masqueraders and even much less so the sweeping motion of Hew Locke’s protesters in demonstrations, museum Give and Take masked devils giving goers and performance participants impulse from the deep end of the were protected by health and safety hall (fig.2.3.8). Under the curtain legislation, ensuring that the push falls of Canopy’s uncut excess rope, and pull of Give and Take remained lined up in military formation, within balance. the performers festive drumming, colourful attire and playful My immediate perception following demeanour belied far less benign the end of the performance was motives than the carnival cover up not widely dissimilar from what seemed to suggest (figs.2.3.9). I had anticipated: the public’s reception made clear that no amount Using kettling crowd-control of curatorial framing and artistic techniques perfected by anti-riot cunning could easily overturn the police to break up demonstrations, institutional safeguards cast within

Locke and his collaborators from the the museum’s superstructure and 2014. Batala Samba Reggae ensemble pushed encoded within the public’s acquired both the audience assembled for the behaviour. With every attempt to performance in the Turbine Hall break through into the museum’s and unsuspecting visitors to Tate core, the inner sanctum of its Give and Take, Modern caught in the fray outside gallery spaces was quietly but the museum’s premises (figs.2.3.10). assuredly preserved. Sound had to Photographs of façades of the Notting be kept low so as not to distract Hill neighbourhood printed onto Matisse exhibition goers from the the performers’ cardboard shields silent admiration of masterpieces. brought home the experience of the The meandering of performers through physical displacement the artist the upper level gallery spaces was curated by Claire Tancons. Photo © Oliver Cowling for Tate Photography intended to provoke. Older Notting discouraged to protect artwork from at the start of Hew Locke’s Hill residents have been priced out or inadvertent damage. Canopy evicted from their homes – including the artist himself whose residence

in Notting Hill was commemorated by Up Hill Down Hall a blue plaque on one of the buildings featured on the shields – and Fig.2.3.8 Gia Wol$’s As part of

140 141 #bmwtatelive Claire Tancons #bmwtatelive Canopy, under Gia Wol!’s curated by Claire Tancons. Photo © Akiko Ota No Black in the Union Jack Up Hill Down Hall Fig.2.3.9 Marlon Gri!ith, 2014. As part of 142 143 #bmwtatelive Claire Tancons #bmwtatelive Claire Tancons

Preemptive security measures became prescriptive of any engagement with the museum outside its dedicated space for public performance. Even so, the margins of manoeuver were slim and overstepping boundaries seemed worthless. Respecting the institutional framework of the invitation I had accepted, honouring the vision of BMW Tate Live curators Catherine Wood and Capucine Perrot and ultimately complying with museum rules seemed the better course of action. Not because of the pointlessness of an exercise in power imbalance, but rather out of the belief that putting into Foucauldian perspective the relationships Hardly an act of radical curatorship, between institutions of order and owing to the paradoxical premise of Fig.2.3.10 Hew Locke, Give and Take, 2014. As part of Up Hill Down Hall curated by Claire Tancons. Photo © Indra Khanna institutions of culture – the police mas’ in the museum, Up Hill Down Hall mimicked by the masqueraders, the nevertheless o$ered an example of museum play-acting itself through the intentions of radical museology its rules and regulation, the stadium harnessed by the BMW Tate Live series materialised in a temporary mise-en- by bringing Carnival within the scène – would point to the expanded constellation of the art historically horizon needed for a public to be challenging, curatorially critical instituted beyond the institution. and artistically risk-taking 7.

Claire Tancons December 2015

Fig.2.3.11 Hew Locke’s Give and Take under Gia Wol$’s Canopy, 2014. As part of Up Hill Down Hall curated by Claire Tancons. Photo © Gia Wol$

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Up Hill is almost absent. I feel at times as if society has become numb to what is going on, it has become normal so Down Hall that the public that once expressed a certain spirit and challenged the status quo has disappeared among Artists Q&A the glamour and deafening thumping of music trucks. Bringing a renewed interest to Carnival as a social and Marlon Gri!ith, political platform is no easy task. No Black in the Union Jack (NBUJ) I have discovered that such a goal requires a very intimate connection with and presence within communities. I knew from the beginning of the The action, however, cannot just be project that I did not want to be limited to Carnival. Its presence confined to the space of the Turbine and socio-political presence must Hall. The streets of Notting Hill and extend beyond the carnival period. ‘The Street’ of the Turbine Hall have My activity as an artist working very clear rules and boundaries: the outside of the space but using the Turbine Hall does not allow the same process has/is creating a new kind of amount of flexibility or spontaneity, dialogue around the role of mas’ as a or the same public for that matter. socio-political platform. What I have What first came to me when thinking been attempting with my practice is about what happens in the Hall, to re-think the way things are done as compared to the carnival procession well as challenging tradition. route, was that while the carnival has basically one (ground) level Through the process of working with

of viewing, the Turbine Hall has Elimu Paddington Arts from 2006 to (sketch) 2014. several. So I felt in a way that the 2008, I have learnt that the mas’ camp work had to function on these planes or any site has and needs to be more as well. This is where Dubmorphology than just a space of production but came in creating several spaces also one of discourse and engagement. within the Turbine Hall using sound, Likewise every space is di$erent, with di$erent tracks playing di$erent that is why when creating a project,

levels and frequencies to create especially when it relates to an curated by Claire Tancons. Courtesy of the artist. No Black in the Union Jack di$erent environments, so wherever event or a community, it is important you were in the hall, you had a that everyone involved is part of the di$erent feeling or interpretation. process from the beginning. There will always be a desire for self- For many generations, Carnival representation. Carnival allows this Up Hill Down Hall was a major social and political for many but, through a pedagogical platform. In recent years we know approach, it creates the necessary As part of there has been a shift and that voice exchange that both need. Fig.2.3.12 Marlon Gri$ith,

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Ansel Wong, Founder of Marlon’s designs is the use of the embraced by the band, its members and crunch; computer-aided design; the Elimu Paddington Arts Mas’ Band masque and for many Londoners such a corporate sponsors. For a start, the social network and digital marketing costume restricts their enjoyment as use of the word and colour black posed of mas’ bands; the production- they require recognition. It is only di$iculties for many people. Some line manufacture of costumes The traditional performance framework a few who can appreciate the anonymity members were unhappy with having to being overtaken by the Chinese and enables the mas’ player to engage in an of the masque and the importance don any costume that was all black. their made-to-order costumes; the ostentatious parading of costumes and of being in character for such an The association of Carnival with popularity of synthetic fabrics, movement – wukking up, jumping, waving extended period of time on the road. glamour, colour and bacchanalia also fishing rods, beads and feathers; the and wining. For many, the essence of influenced this attitude. emergence of the entrepreneurial this performance is self-enjoyment But for the performers at the producers and performers as band and any engagement with the audience Tate, there was no such concern or Marlon’s involvement with the band leaders; the dominance of T-shirts is usually to take a selfie or encourage restriction. In fact, the performers through this project challenged and ‘fun’ and ‘Dutty’ mas’ and the the spectator to join in. For others, revelled in the shield, using it as the orthodoxy and cultural ecology fitness craze with Zumba and aerobics. this ostentatious parading is to protector, aggressor and a symbol of of Carnival. London’s Notting Hill display the mas’, in character, and to foreboding and as a mirror of the self. Carnival, as both an event and an elicit any reactions of appreciation, There was uncritical co-operation from art form, continues to be shaped by fear or avoidance. our performers as they immediately society. Over its forty-nine years, understood what Marlon intended. the carnival in London has seen Fig.2.3.13 Marlon Gri$ith No Black in the Union Jack, 2014, The costumes made such a parading women's liberation; the popularity under Gia Wol$’s Canopy, 2014. As part of very di$icult for the seven hours of Marlon’s theme – No Black in the of soca, bashment and Zouk; the Up Hill Down Hall curated by Claire Tancons. the Notting Hill show. The brilliance Union Jack – was not universally runaway cost of living and a credit Photo © Oliver Cowling for Tate Photography

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Applied concurrently, these deceptively Up Hill Down Hall, took Carnival unrelated components had the capacity closer to its essence and moved to irretrievably alter the form and it beyond the ‘Jump and Wave’ content of the Notting Hill Carnival. pandemic, into a far more edgy and The danger we are facing is that contemporary realm where it ‘said carnival in the Grove is changing something’ and explored issues such from a carnival with a cutting-edge as State and race, gentrification creative crucible to a market-driven, and marginalisation. Up Hill Down manufactured commodity. Hall in my view essentially broke down barriers not only between Cleo Lake, an organiser of St Paul’s performers and audiences, but also Fig.2.3.15. Gia Wol$, Canopy, Carnival in Bristol, participant in between Carnival and institutions (technical drawing) 2014. As part of Up Hill DownHall workshops at Elimu Paddington Arts that may traditionally appear to be curated by Claire Tancons. Courtesy of the artist Mas’ Band and in Marlon Gri$ith’s No at the opposite end of the cultural Gia Wol!, Canopy Black in the Union Jack project. scale: unsuspecting audiences were exposed to carnival culture, whilst My fascination for Carnival came The natural catenary-curve shape of traditional carnival goers and out of a convergence of interests the canopy of rope both framed the participants witnessed carnival in performance, theatre and music space and drew viewers through it. culture dissected into rather intense as mediums outside the field of Suspended lengthwise, 168 metres social and political commentaries. architecture that I turned to for long and seemingly hairline-thin inspiration. I realised that Carnival pieces of rope physically connected was a unique medium that encompassed to the building’s roof truss on the all these elements, but at the scale east and west ends of the hall, and of architecture. The parade float visually connected the vast space transforms the city. Its scale makes with ten catenary curves. At the the streets into interior rooms of lowest point in the curve, the ropes a street theatre. split paths and wove above and below the bridge to bring viewers inside

The monumental scale of Oscar the space of Canopy. Up close, but Niemeyer’s Sambadrome and the just out of arm’s reach, the ropes Turbine Hall was a serendipitous revealed their massive size and commonality. Yet each space has its rough twisted texture. own personality. I wanted to figure

Up Hill Down Hall out how to play with and enhance some What surprised me most about Canopy of the inherent spatial qualities of was how powerful such a simple the Turbine Hall. The grand length element could be. We were concerned No Black in the Union Jack, and height of the Turbine Hall is that there weren’t as many ropes as that of an exterior street, and the we’d hoped for, or that they were not challenge was how to bring the scale thick enough, or that the colour was down to that of a person. not saturated enough – but as soon as they were in the air, there were just enough of each of those elements to transform the Turbine Hall into Fig.2.3.14 Marlon Gri$ith, Fig.2.3.14 Marlon Gri$ith, (technical drawing) 2014. As part of (technical drawing) the artist curated by Claire Tancons. Courtesy of a carnival space.

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Stephen Carter & Anne Eggebert , The Sky Is Dancing

Under the auspices of the Black Arts Anne Eggebert: This was an All of these elements provoked a and Design initiatives chaired by opportunity to critically examine richer sense of what the street Sonia Boyce and Paul Goodwin, and what Carnival, mass protest and might o$er, how this o$er might be through workshops facilitated by celebration might o$er as practice exploited – can these events only Stephen Carter and Anne Eggebert, per se, and, in this regard, the take place (and perhaps this has BA Fine Arts students from Central street and the public as sites for always been the case) at structured Saint Martin’s contributed to The practice. We began the whole process moments, so that they are, after all, Sky Is Dancing including working with with an investigation into the under control? Dubmorphology on a soundtrack for subversive power of mass pageant, the Turbine Hall. procession and the carnivalesque The diversity of participants included as an apparatus of suppressed or students from Korea, Spain, Singapore, diasporic communities, and an France, Barbados, USA, Portugal, UK inversion of dominant discourses regions (Newcastle), UK London with Fig.2.3.16. Gia Wol$, Canopy, (technical drawing) 2014. and hierarchies. We looked at public roots in the Notting Hill Carnival and As part of Up Hill Down Hall curated events that sit outside dominant Erasmus students from Cluj-Napoca, by Claire Tancons. Courtesy of the artist power structures (the ‘Other’ Romania, witnessed, among others, of religious, regal, military, by Progression into HE (Higher commercial pageants): historic Education) students and invited carnival in relation to the Church guests, including Age UK Islington. with its blasphemous extravagances, It has been immensely helpful for the boy bishop, the Feast of Fools, the students to think of the public London Borough Fairs (Southwark and as a site for the potential of art’s Bartholomew) which were ‘devoted to plurality of approaches to contribute everything loose and irregular’, the to new forms of subjectivity. Tyburn procession and carnival from Newgate Prison to the Tyburn hanging There is something else too – how tree with its desire emanating these public ceremonial practices from the crowd for the victim to that invoke participation, rail against the State before performance, social and community execution, the Su$ragette marches engagement o$er a moment of synchron- Fig.2.3.17 Gia Wol$, Canopy, (detail) 2014. and contemporary political rallies, isation – dance especially o$ers As part of Up Hill Down Hall curated Reclaim the Streets, Lewes’s bonfire the potential of being in sync by Claire Tancons. Photo © Gia Wol$ night, football parades, Notting with the other. Hill Carnival (Claudia Jones and its history at St Pancras Town Hall) and the political and social provocations for this (1958 Race Riots). We looked too at contemporary practices that reflect on Carnival, such as artist Sonia Boyce’s Crop Over.

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Stephen Carter: For some this was Hew Locke , Give and Take a first experience to perform/ stage an event; others brought I felt the important debate around considerable experience with them. the Notting Hill Carnival was about Some had grown up with carnival control, and so I decided to use the and had a good knowledge and direct opportunity of this enclosed space to experience of carnival; others explore the idea of control. Carnival came to it fresh. For all the in London has become about security participants, it was an amazing issues and crowd control. These issues experience which required them have intensified, so I feel much more to collaborate and interact controlled and coerced attending The with a live and diverse audience. Notting Hill Carnival today than I did What performance is was opened up in the 1980s. to include performing the self as an object of the audience’s gaze, What was interesting about doing it through to performing ancillary in the Tate Modern was that it was or invisible roles, through to contained. If this had been done on the performing health and safety street, as some might imagine I would and audience-management roles. have preferred, it would not have had Throughout the many discussions, as much impact. there was talk not only of the carnival event itself, but also It was the first time I produced a piece about its transformative socio- of work where I was not in complete political e$ects. control. I am usually very hands on with every element, even when I - involve assistants and fabricators. This was the first case in which success Alexis Maria Serra, Student at or failure depended very much on other Central Saint Martins: The Sky people, not just on myself. Is Dancing gave a new perspective of the massive space above people’s The time-based element was new for me – heads. Without the audience, the idea that something was going the performance would have been to exist for a very short time; like a ritual without followers, I hoped it would stay in people’s a festival without visitors, memories for a long time. a lifeless, lacklustre dance. Being at the Tate brought new audiences to my work and also I could present a work that the audience probably expected to be pretty- pretty masquerade, with decorative and detailed costumes, but then I gave them something starker and Fig 2.3.18 Hew Locke, Give and Take (sketch) 2014. © Indra Khanna. As part of Up Hill Down Hall more political. curated by Claire Tancons.

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Liam Emerson, former Musical Director of Batala Samba Reggae, who worked closely with Hew Locke on Give and Take.

Batala has thirty bands all over the sound that doesn’t usually sit with globe that wear the same costumes and what is upbeat carnival music. Our play an identical repertoire and the normal carnival experience is an Notting Hill Carnival is an annual eight-hour rehearsal on the Sunday event that over 250 of us attend. and a five-hour procession on the It brings the Batala family together. Monday, filling the streets up with In the run-up to the event, we sound and colour as 250 drummers bring attended every meeting and rehearsal the music of Salvador to London. and made sure that as many of the Batala family, who had come to London It was a unique experience, with specifically for the carnival weekend, the shields acting as riot police, were included in this very important kettling members of the public artistic statement. With the six into corners of the Turbine Hall, drummers and the many others who held coupled with the sounds of a vibrant, the shields, it created a powerful if quiet, samba-reggae band drifting image that moved many of the people in the background. The piece finished who took part. with us lining up as two huge lines of shields and forcing the public We had strict noise controls put in out of the hall. I hope the public place for us. We play on the Monday understood what the message was and of Carnival and in 2014 we had 258 were aware of the point Hew and Indra drummers. Our smallest possible were trying to make. sized band is six players, and even (mask detail) 2014. (mask detail) 2014. that was too loud for the Turbine Hall as it would have disturbed other curated by Claire Tancons. Courtesy of the artist curated by Claire Tancons. exhibitions. What we were left with

Give and Take was the six players playing quietly and developing a strange drone-like sound that filled the hall with the

Up Hill Down Hall thwacking of the shields around them creating an intimidating look and As part of Fig.2.3.19 Hew Locke, Fig.2.3.19 Hew Locke, 156 157 #bmwtatelive Notes #bmwtatelive Notes

1 See Varala Maraj, ‘Mas in the Museum? “Up Hill Down Hall: An Indoor Carnival” at Tate Modern’, ARC Magazine online, posted 11 September 2014. http:// arcthemagazine.com/arc/2014/09/mas-in-the-museum- up-hill-down-hall-an-indoor-carnival-at-tate-modern/ (accessed 18 February 2016).

2 For more about Carnival as a misnomer to account for the street masquerading traditions of the Caribbean, see Claire Tancons, ‘Farewell, Farewell: Carnival, Performance and Exhibition in the Circum-Atlantic Economy of the Flesh’ in Claire Tancons and Krista Thompson eds, EN MAS’: Carnival and Performance Art of the Caribbean, New York: Independent Curators International), 2015, pp.16–31. http://www. clairetancons.com/writing_farewell-farewell.html (accessed 18 February 2016).

3 See Claire Tancons, ‘Curating Carnival? Performance in Contemporary Caribbean Art’ in Curating in the Caribbean, Berlin 2012, pp.37–62.

4 For the most complete and accurate illustrated narrative of the formative years of the Notting Hill Carnival, see Ishmahil Blagrove Jr ed., Carnival: A Photographic and Testimonial History of the Notting Hill Carnival, London 2014, and for a timeline of the influence of the Trinidad Carnival across the arts in the Caribbean, US and UK, see Claire Tancons, ‘Broadway to Biennial: A Carnival Timeline 1930–2015’ in Tancons and Thompson eds, EN MAS’, New York 2015, pp.37–45.

5 For a critique of the discourse of resistance in the Trinidad Carnival, see Kobena Mercer, ‘Theorizing Carnival: Assemblages, Becomings, Cross-Cultural Machines’ in Tancons and Thompson eds, EN MAS’, New York 2015, pp.58–69. For a critique of the essentialisation of carnival and politics in which Mercer’s o$ers a Caribbean analysis, see Peter Stallybrass and Allon White, The Politics and Poetics of Transgression, New York 1986, pp.12–7.

6 ‘Behind the bridge’ is a reference to a popular neighbourhood in Port of Spain considered disreputable according to class. It is also where some of the most notable carnival characters come from.

7 Claire Bishop, Radical Museology or, What’s ‘Contemporary’ in Museums of Contemporary Art?, London 2013, pp.55–6.

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