Transvoyeur Performance Art Platform 2006, " ... powerful and entertaining ...", Independents Liverpool Biennial 2006.
Co-written by Jean-Paul Debuffet and Lucia Andrea Sweeney (Edited by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney).
Saturday 21 October 2006

The third Transvoyeur Performance Art Platform 2006 was held at the View Two Gallery, Liverpool, England on Friday 20 October 2006. The artists an inspirational collection of performances from George Lund, Suzy Walker’s Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, Jo Gough, Emma Sweeney and Lisa Jane Wrigley.

The first artist was George Lund in his synonymous guise as the ‘Funkadelic Chicken’. He danced and paraded to a selection of mixed alternative and electronic Funk music fused with abstracted annotations of animal sounds in particular that of a chicken. The age range of the audience this evening included a broader spectrum of young and older generations. All cried with laughter at the antics of the juggling and jiving alter ego of Lund, especially when he provocatively raised the upper garment of the chicken costume to reveal an artificial human bottom. His dancing he describes as “… a hybrid of Rudolph Nureyev meets James Brown’ (Lund). In Lund’s performance art there is the apparent satire of the jester, an element of Norman Wisdom, but from the aspirations of the alter ego and what appears as the asinine frolics of his character, it can be recognised from crescendo of mutual laughter in the audience there central relevance of his art is that idealised and that for quintessence of harmony and contentment. The philosophies he carries through in his utopian ideals in his paintings and other artwork are embodied further in his performances.

The next performance followed onto Wrigley. In collaboration, Wrigley performed a piece from the Play Writer, Sharlene Squire. This is a work in progress and interesting in concept that it takes from theatrical constructs of writer and performer, but the status of development places it in a live art context of one where it is evolving and comparable to the parameters of intervention, but here determined by the creative insight and direction of the writer. Wrigley presents a performance that is of a narrative nature and opens with a scene of a female patient and a psychiatrist. The performance is one set on the source of origin of creation and cosmology through matriarchal dictates of the female gender and institutional structures of western religion in terms of Christianity. Inferred through the expositions and neurosis of the female patient we are presented with a text and performance that both deconstructs and reconstructs in an abstracted framework of these societal precepts in the canons of philosophy and the human creature within the universe. The performance explodes into a personification of the assertions.

From cosmological to the Biblical, the subjective and objective of the philosophical intent is tested in the audiences perceptions of the text and performance, whether interpretation is derived by direct understanding to the cosmology, the abstraction and inclusion of Adam and the females position shifting in the fusion and transitions allows for miscomprehension. A suggestive element of the Oedopus complex, the mother and son syndrome, incest. Not intended, but this response and interpretation one which is reflective of a postmodern culture desensitised by intrigue of mass media and consumption of the extreme. The performance has a universality and empathy of insight on the subjects touched in the text, but the conceptualisation further exposes the dispositions of contemporary society. This was a provocative and compelling performance by Wrigley with a profound and enlightening text produced by Squire.

The next performance included Jo Gough and Emma Sweeney with acoustic guitars, who performed a collection of their own musical compositions combined with some popular music. The selection was one noted of female experience in love and life. The audience was captivated by the powerful voice of Sweeney and the enchanting harmonies of Gough. The range of vocals by the artists was exceptional and their presence intoxicating, as the audience were engrossed in the musical renditions. Sweeney and Gough have distinct vocal ranges that are full of energy and vigour.

The last performance was the group managed by Artistic Director by Suzy Walker called ‘Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and living in Paris’. The artists in this group in the performance are three females and a male. A selection of songs from the famous singer-songwriter Jacques Brel captivated and beguiled the audience. The songs contain poignant poetry by Brel and have been covered from David Bowie to Nina Simone. They annotate the socio-political environment of Europe in 1950s and 60s. The performance represents Brel’s astonishing song writing and those relative to war are all the more poignant in the current global climate. The performance was a combination of physical theatre, poetry and dance to imbue the concepts of Brel’s relative to contemporary society. The performance was implicit of contemporary ideologies and experiences, as well as immensely entertaining.

The range of performances considered the theatrical and narrative in the history of performance art within a cabaret formula, but the concepts imbued relativity to the post modern in culture, art and society. From the distinctions of the gender status through history, each with a philosophical critique. Whether the male role deconstructed and redefined in the Lund’s alter ego of the Funkadelic Chicken and idealised utopia of the lost masculinity in socio-economic terms of the past decades. Wrigley and Squires analysis of the cosmological and genderisation of institutional constructs and ideologies. Sweeney and Gough’s compositions of the female experience of relations. Through to the comparative themes of Brel’s work by Suzy Walker and her artists.

Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, UK Projects Co-ordinator and Artist from Transvoyeur, who researches and manages the performances events stated: “The feedback from these performances was exceptional. People expressed how they immensely enjoyed each performance. Many commented on how different each performance has been, but equally powerful and entertaining�.

The Transvoyeur Performance Art Programme 2006 has been realised with the support of Ken Martin (Director) and Sam Skinner (Exhibitions Co-ordinator) of the View Two Gallery, 23 Mathew Street, Liverpool, England.

www.transvoyeur.co.uk
www.viewtwogallery.co.uk