Portfolio Day

Back in Chelsea today, to work on a portfolio day- Slightly demoralising when A-level students don't understand any of your work. Fair enough they are not really taught performance art in A-level/ GCSE, but they seemed somewhat disappointed that i didn't do painting anymore. It was also quite hard to explain why working in a collaboration is valid work and not just copying. Which meant that the response to our work from Norway was mainly laughing, with in between choices such as "Is that you?" and "What are you doing!?"
To be honest, apparently we had pretty much the same response from our exhibition piece in Norway- Ellie explained it as being the Norwegian art scene only liking paintings, so in some ways the spirit of our vacation lived on throughout the exhibition, I think it did go well over all though- Ellie was pleased with the outcome and curation, so i wont argue with that.

Camping- Orsett Showground

Guides isn't a group i usually help out with so coming into the showground on Friday evening i didn't know who i was looking for, it was a massive gathering as well which didn't help- a centenary event in a big field. There wasn't much going on on the first night other than putting up tents and for me getting to know each other. There was a massive ants nest in our food tent which was a bit of a problem, lots of screaming girls worrying about their sleeping bags having ants in them. I thought it was quite funny, and luckily we managed to usher them off to get food. Well. It was a burger van- so not really food. It was a big cheek actually, the food situation- all of the girls had paid for their food to be inclusive yet when we got to the vans, there was a choice between a burger and chips or chips and a drink. You would think a meal would automatically come with a drink- but apparently not, even though it has been about 90 degrees over the weekend. On the second evening we had a couple of tokens left over so we bought loads of drinks with them so everyone could have a decent meal (not that we were supposed to, and i got alot of aggravation from the burger van people for doing it).
But anyway, trying not to moan too much about the catering, the next day we had a centenary parade- each district were supposed to dress up as a decade, only we didn't find out ours until the morning of the parade- this is where my artistic talent came in and within an hour, together we had made everybody paper number tags so we would look like Olympic runners for our decade (2010-2020). I must say that some of the groups had really tried with their costumes, but ours were the best for the timeline we had to make them. 
The parade was followed with a fayre which had some entrainment and was open to the public- there were some dog shows and dancing in the main arena, and quite alot  of old fayre games- like the wet sponge 'stock' games and hook the duck etc- so i thoroughly enjoyed it. There was also a very large sweet stall where i spent the majority of my money. It was so hot though that it was quite hard to enjoy anything without wanting to lay down or have a drink. Also, stupidly, after making all of the guides put loads of sun cream on, i forgot to put any on myself, so i finished the weekend slightly crisp and very red.....

The Ties that Bind- The performances

The performances yesterday went really well and were both full to the brim with audience. My main part in the show being stage manager was to move chairs and keep people quiet- but i think i did well. Nobody really needed prompting so i think the main thing about a performance such as this one is to keep everyone's morale up throughout the performance and keep people fed and watered. Yesterday morning consisted of shopping for lunch, cleaning the kitchen up, making lots of tea, and of course collating props and chairs. Overall it was thoroughly enjoyable though, all of the actors are such friendly people- as were the people working with us in the theatre.
We did have a bit of an accident with the director falling over onto his wrist- it looked pretty swollen, but in true theatre style he suggested that the show must go on. That was the only accident though, including audience, so a safe-ish show.
Some of my favourite parts of the show, were of course the singing, my nan and Kitty- both songs very different, my nan sang 'slow boat to china' which got the audience singing along. Kitty's song was much sadder, and left the majority of the audience speechless. I also enjoyed Jeans story about her gran and how she cut a lady's feather off her hat because she couldn't see at the theatre.
The theatre itself was an amazing building, If you've not been there before, it is worth a trip, even for a cup of tea. It really brightens up the street that its placed in, amazing doors- stairs and general interior/ exterior.

Follow the link below to see the video played at the beginning of the show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6k0gnJjido

Anyway, I'm off to get ready for camping this evening with the Guides- hopefully I'll be able to get some more links on here soon of the production.

The Ties that Bind- Tomorrow!

http://broadwaytheatre.ticketsolve.com/shows/25499244/events

Buy tickets for tomorrows performance of  'The ties that bind'- 3.30pm and 6pm at the Broadway Theatre, Lewisham.

The dress rehearsal was today and everything is looking tip top!

The Ties That Bind- final practise before dresss rehersals

Its been a very long rehearsal today, and I've been left wishing that i hadn't had to miss last weeks. Everyone has come on so far since the week before last. The songs in the piece are really nice, they are going to be accompanied by a guitar- and all of the scenes are running through well with people naturally bouncing off each other. Also with the scripts completely gone all of the humour in the scenes are really apparent. There is a monologue that has been written by one of the girls as well which is amazing. There aren't set changes at all, but she tells the whole story perfectly with her actions and facial expressions. I can't wait to see the theatre next week, and how it will look from an audience perspective. Also, a video has been directed to show before the performance which I'm quite intrigued to see. I don't even know what it is about yet.
I'm off to go through my nans lines with her on monday, she'll probably be fine with her lines. But it would be good to stop round anyway.

Face Painting at HWPS!

5000 tiger faces painted today at the Harold Wood school fate. Maybe a slight exaduration, but my fingers do feel a little blistered from painting so many faces in the extreeme heat, i think a couple of children melted today it was so hot, i'm also very knackered after working all week in London (Not enough days in the week!). I don't think i managed to have a drink all day either- we were there for about 7 hours with a constant stream of children. My mum passing the more complex kids ideas to me- "I want you to write this on one hand, this on the other, and maybe a little picture on my cheek... is this enough money?"
"well you only have 5p, a button and a paper clip... go on then"
To be honest, its only the very young children that try and get their face painted for 2p, and actually thier parents have probably had to spend so much in the fete already that they deserve a free face paint.
Anyway, we raised about £80 on our stall- so well done to us!

www.thegalleryistalking.org

The galleryistalking launch this afternoon was recieved well by the public, as we were placed in the octagon there were lots of visitors walking through and they were interested to see what we were doing. Unfortunatly i missed the labour intensive morning of constructing maps in one of the Tate rooms, but i think my fingers were pleased after constructing about 50 maps at home the previous week in preperation.
I had also arranged a couple of events that day in conjunction with the opening of the website and the map. One being Notate which was a piece of work made by myself and Joe as part of our working collective 'No'. It is a work intended to question the usefulness of accessibility solutions by letting individuals make thier own mind up about how they visulise things. It isn't a critisism of the work that has been produced within thegalleryistalking, more of an exploration from an outsiders perspective of the resources that have already been made.
To read more about this go to:

http://thegalleryistalking.org/notate

Infact, go to the website for an insight into the whole project, there is a forum, writings about the website and project, downloadable resources and lots more. There should also be photos of the launch coming soon. I'm quite ecited about where the project can now be taken as the first step has been very successful and i dont think there are or have been any preconceptions as to where the project could and will go.

Nei Vei! After Norway.

Dear Child Have Many Names
29th July 6pm- 1st August

Jomfru gata 4

Trondheim, Norway

These are the details of the exhibition that Ellie is curating in Norway over the summer in a disused shop. The piece of work from Norway that Joe and I made to be put into the exhibition is the video piece made on the first day by the Fjord in the night of us exercising as Edwardian's. Unfortunately we wont be able to see it placed in the exhibition, but if anyone is around in Norway, drop by to have a look.

We have decided after our time in Norway to label all of the work that we have made as the 'Ni Vay' project which in Norwegian is directly translated into 'No Way'- of course the phrase isn't in the Norwegian dialect but we feel it suits the work and experience. We are undecided of where to take our work from here, but if we do exhibit in London, we have a lot to do so with.
For now though, I have to turn my focus to the Tate and thegalleryistalking, and The Ties that Bind.