Opposition at ARC, Stockton

with big thanks to Inua Ellams who was up all night getting the final design ready in time to go to print. & rehearsing his new show too.

See us both at Ferment :Prosthetics by me on the 20th & Black T-shirt collection by Inua 21st

PosterArc

 

 

Plymouth’s Tunnels, Plymouth’s Squid

photo by Georgie Kirrin. ARP shelter Plymouth

I’ve been doing some research for Part 1 of my performance in ‘Ferment’ at the Bristol Old Vic.

It’s one of those occasions where I wrote the description of the work before I’ve actually written it all. I wrote that Part 1 is about ‘Plymouth’s tunnels’.

I have a poem that’s the basis for this idea – I wrote it after visiting the Marine Biology Research Library at the Citadel. The woman who showed me around thought I might like to explore the books and drawings…and I would….but I was especially interested in the stories she told.

In the forties there was a director there who had a parrot. She explained he had to go and get his parrot from the library before going down to the tunnels when Plymouth was being bombed.

She also told us about the research students they used to get there, from Oxford…They wrote poetry every year, which was great. But the thing I found brilliant is that they used to dissect squid down in the basement of the Citadel. As they were cutting them up they’d throw the parts over their shoulders, and they’d land on the ceiling. Now, apparently, they’re still there – it’s a hazardous zone.

So that inspired a poem. Here’s an extract:

Years ago the squid from Plymouth Sound
were massive, brought back to the lab to be
examined then tossed over a shoulder landing
on the ceiling and staying there – stuck, suckers.

The parrot was left in the library
when they went down to the tunnels,
this is not the future we are talking about,
simple bombing, simply bang bangs.

So I’ve been researching Plymouth’s tunnels – apparently there are tunnels under the flat where I live… I’ve come across some great blogs on Plymouth history: This one: http://www.cyber-heritage.co.uk – and this about the tunnels: http://www.cyberheritage.com/plymouth_hidden_tunnels/

& this hardy Plymouthian has done some exploring: http://georgiekirrin.com/

Better get back to it…

Hope to see you there. Ferment Festival. Bristol Old Vic, 20th Jan, 6:30pm

About ‘Prosthetics’, Ferment, Bristol Old Vic

Prosthetics

Composing Speech: An explanation of how I build my sound/poetry piece ‘Prosthetics’.

See Prosthetics on the 20th January at the Bristol Old Vic, ‘Ferment’ festival.

Prosthetics is the final part of a triptych of new work. The triptych explores language – the violence of language, the impact of words beyond meaning. The section before Prosthetics is from the perspective of a ten year old boy. He takes a word, ‘Gaddafi’, and repeats it until it goes beyond its meaning to become sound and then beyond sound to become –

A gaddafi of horses, galloping,
gaddafi gaddafi gaddafi

Sometimes people say things as if they have no meaning….as if they don’t realise how shocking, insane, crazy the   thing is that they are saying. In Prosthetics I wanted to take those things and give them time…pull them apart…examine them…taste their meaning…take them out of their original context and consider them.

I watched a documentary years ago, it was made in the U.S and was about prosthetic limbs.

It was very positive. Positive to the point that the positivity stopped being believable.

 

 

 

 

 

I work with lines that were glossed over in the documentary:

Forty percent of those with prosthetic limbs will go back into war.

Amputation is the first step in rehabilitation.

It’s a positive thing.

There was a story about a little girl who had chopped the arm off and gauged the eye out of her doll. ‘It looks like a monster now’, she said. – Her father came back from Iraq without an arm and an eye.

I start by pulling apart the statistic. I reduce it to vowel sounds, and then consonants. This produces a particular rhythm. I record layer over layer using a loop pedal. Over the top I play with the other lines. I explore ways of speaking ‘Amputation’. I reverse it ‘noitatupma’. I speak it like the word itself is being amputated…I cut it up…taste it….make the word concrete, physical…

‘It’s a positive thing’ is repeated. ‘It’s a positive thing’

The story of the little girl goes over the top.

A little girl cuts the eye out and arm off her doll.
‘It looks like a monster now’, she says.
Just like her father.

At the end I speak the full line:

Forty percent of those with prosthetic limbs will go back into war.

– over and over, pitched a semitone higher on each repetition.

It’s a positive thing.