ANDREW POPPY & JULIA BARDSLEY WORKSHOP

AT THE NATIONAL REVIEW OF LIVE ART WINTER SCHOOL

MATERIALISING: DE-MATERIALISING

(image, body, text, sound, thought)

The Ideas

All cultural objects are grown in the memory of other objects. The world appears fragmented but we live in a continuity of consciousness and the body, time and material. The unique work appears to be an orphan to those in the audience who have not witnessed the midwives with their forceps. There would be no Bausch without Beckett and Balanchine. No Sherman without Monroe and Goya. No Cage without Satie and Schoenberg. No Beatles without Elvis and Mrs Mills. But the idea that we invent our artistic selves through the contemplation of existing objects is nothing new. It's an eternal creative process latterly called deconstruction but which is as fundamental as the fertilised egg. And our age of genetic science is one of improbable progeny.

The Artists

Bardsley & Poppy have collaborated on creative projects since 1989, often using found texts as starting points. By extracting the residues of content and structural frames from these texts, they work to build new visual, theatrical and music experiences. Uranium Miners Radio Orchestra Play Scenes from Salomes Revenge, a chamber opera, cross-fertilises Wilde's Salome with the miners strike. Avalanche Thoughts, a merging of photography, treated text, film, piano concert & object, interprets a Ted Hughes short story through the sensibility of a Canadian experimental filmmaker. Hamlet is split in two & made to move in Hamlet Dances? leaving the jilted lover to sing with herself in Ophelia/Ophelia. And most recently, Trans-Acts, a performance installation, asks a female Jesus to audition for a minor role at her own Last Supper.

The Workshop

During a week of practical work, looking, listening & discussion, Andrew and Julia will share and develop their processes with a group of performers, artists and composers. Some of the areas covered may include: 1. Disguise, garments and persona. 2. Listening as a creative process. 3. The work of juxtaposition. 4. Visual scores. 5. Maps & the psychology of space. 6. The point at which language becomes music. 7. Transformation of objects. 8. Sonic modulation of visual events. 9. Strategies for generating text. 10. Repetition and its disruption.

For further info NRLA and THE WINTER SCHOOL see:
www.newterritories.co.uk/winterschoolintroduction.aspx
www.andrewpoppy.com/ | www.juliabardsley.net/