Transvoyeur Performance Art Platform 2006, Potting Shed Goes Psychic, Walk the Plank Theatre Production Boat, In association with the Bluecoats, Part of Independents Liverpool Biennial 2006, 10 November 2006.
Co-written by Jean-Paul Debuffet and Lucia Andrea Sweeney.
Saturday 12 November 2006.

Transvoyeur artists performed at the ‘Cosmic Cabaret’ on Walk the Plank Theatre Production Boat, Liverpool, England on Friday 10 November 2006. This live art programme was managed in collaboration with Walk the Plank and Bluecoat Art Centre (Liverpool, England), as part of the Independents Liverpool Biennial 2006 and in association with the performance programme of the Liverpool Biennial 2006. It was presented as ‘… a Cosmic Cabaret featuring paranormal activity of a musical, magical, dancical, theatrical, and mystical nature...’.

The artists from Transvoyeur included Agata Alcaniz, Jo Derbyshire, George Lund, Tony Knox and Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, as well as guest artists participating, such as June Rose, Andrew Hodge and many others.

Sweeney presented a performance called ‘Boudicca’s PMT in the 21st Century’. This has previously been in Berlin, London and Liverpool, 2005-2006. This live art is one that has evolved with each rendition, reciprocal to the context of the spatiality and urban culture. This opened with artist dressed in white medical coat and a white mask reversed to the back of her head. This produced a dual profile. Sweeney walked into the audience and conscripted a male and female volunteers. She guided each to sit either side of her on the stage and passed them sheet of text. She introduced the text as ‘Athena Review Vol. 1, No. 1 from The Annals by Tacitus (AD110-120) Book X1V, which describes the Rebellion of Boudicca (AD 60-61). This was a translation from Latin to English describing the rise and fall of Boudicca.

She instructed the two volunteers to commence reading the ancient text and to continue until the last page. The male and female started to recite, at times in unison and others a cacophony of words that conflicted when out of synchronisation. She draped over the two figures a mass of gold chiffon. She then stood reversed, with the white mask on the back of her head peering towards the audience.

Dressed in white medical coat, she stood arms outstretched while the rendition of the historical events of Boudicca was imparted to the audience. She then turned and knelt to the ground. She collected a mass of paper on the floor in front of her. On these were printed biological diagram studies of the female’s reproduction system. The artist folded layer by layer each sheet to form paper aeroplanes, which she threw with vigour into in to the air and audience. To reside back, composed and calmly fold another.

She then on the adjacent side took from her side a palette and pot of blue paint. She emptied the contents to the palette. She disrobed from the medical coat and with two hands pressed to the palette covered her palms in paint. She then applied this to her whole body, working up the arms, across the breasts and down her abdomen, stretching precariously to cover her back and finally her legs.

During these actions, the male and female continued to read the ancient text. Sweeney curled into a ball, stretched her arms forward, head still down she clawed at the ground. As her hands draw close to her body, she released a piercing and merciful scream. Several times the shrilling lament was released from her lowered body. The force of the energy expelled the affliction, grief and anguish expressed in the text by the male and female read.

A woman, Boudicca, who is remembered in the canons of history who led the Iceni rebellion against the Romans, after her husband, Prasutagus, as king of the Iceni, died. The Romans went against their word and Nero was ruling in Rome and the Britons were forced to endure huge taxes, conscription and inhumane treatment at the hands of Roman authorities. The peaceful treaty after Prasutagus death was forgotten and for more wealth, the Romans invaded the lands of the Iceni. Boudicca was flogged her daughters were raped. The essence of a females strength is re-represented in the ideologies in this text of 21st century constructs of gender politics. Sweeney presented a captivating and poignant performance, as the female, as the lover, the matriarch and femme fatale to avenge what was lost. Her body painted blue similar to the Ancient Britons preparing for war. George Lund, an associate artist of Transvoyeur, was the male who volunteered in this live art by Sweeney and the female was Sharlene Squires, a Play Writer.

Derbyshire conceived and directed a production with a group of artists titled ‘Seasons – When the City Speaks’. The performance opened with digital photographic stills projected as a backdrop. These images are created by Andrew Hodge, a photographer, whose collection of images are iconic of the city of Liverpool.

A performer, Sweeney seated on a chair. She commenced reading a monologue. A text written by Derbyshire of her experiences of the city of Liverpool combined with historical and popular culture references. These structured into the ‘Seasons’ and titled ‘When the City Speaks’. Some moments later Derbyshire enters the scene carrying art materials, which she spreads across the floor. A collection of paints, brushes and so forth. She departs at each the orator states a seasons to return with a canvas representative of each term and another artist enters the scene adjacent to the placement of the canvas. These canvases a combination of mixed media, painting and collage. Photographs and text mixed with abstract and figurative representations.

These form the foundation of a visual dialogue cognitive to the subject being read aloud. On conclusion of the monologue, Derbyshire disappears from the scene and the four artists sat next to her canvases start modifying the surface of each.

The reader invites members of the audience to come forward and contribute to the seasons on the canvases. The artist, Derbyshire, compares the seasons within the structure and semiotics of her art formed by her experiences and lineage against the urban spatiality. The idea of time and space is explored and as something has a natural progression in evolution of a place, so too is that of the human creatures intervention. The invitation for the audience to contribute continues with this innate sequence by modifying the spatiality of the canvas. An intervention of historical and natural cause and effect and the linear concept of time by human experience. The performance finalised with each member of the audience interacting with the art and becoming part of the creative seasons of each canvas. This piece was intrigued the audience and the live art became a type of ‘happening’ in the creative process.

This production is an organic piece that has evolved from previous performances in Liverpool and London. The first explored at the View Two Gallery, Liverpool, England, and then re-examination in he socio-urban and cultural context of London. The project evolved from Derbyshire examining Liverpool as a World in one City through the seasons with a historical, personal and social perspective. Through collage and performance, with an interior monologue narrated by Sweeney, the audience were invited to participate and add to the four collaged canvases Derbyshire had prepared for the performance. Each canvas represented a season in the City, with Derbyshire as the social historian examining Liverpool from a personal perspective. The canvases themselves originally looked like an enlarged page from a journal or a scrapbook where Derbyshire references and archives what has happened over the last year. Through each progressive stage the audience become part of the visual dialogue in the series of canvases.

Knox and Alcaniz presented a new twist on the performance conceived by Knox. The piece had evolved to include the collaboration of Alcaniz to sing in Spanish the theme tune to the 1960s series of Spider Man. The scene was set with Alcaniz, as the orator/singer and projected on either side a digital short movie by Knox showing asserted demise of ‘Moth Man’, a guise created by Knox in earlier projects on the concept of the super hero in post modern life. The Moth Man character moves through some woodland, digs a whole and then disrobes to reveal the person underneath. The items of the costume are then buried in this film.

Knox entered the scene through a back door from a shed between the two projections. Alcaniz sat to the right towards the audience. The performance involved Knox in normal attire, but the reverse to the film transpires. He is in his normal clothing, but undresses to show underneath not Moth Man, but a poorly made costume of Spider Man. The unkempt nature of the Spider Man costume is something reflective of this comic book hero in a child’s perceptions. Knox posed in iconic super hero stance, synonymous with those produced in comic books and through to the male gender form in the canons of ancient sculpture. He then moved through the space, mingled with the audience, and resided with in them to watch the digital film of the interment of the Moth Man costume. During these transitions in the performance by Knox, Alcaniz continues to sing the theme tune in Spanish of Spiderman. Knox returns to the stage from the audience and Alcaniz then changes her tone and starts to insult this dishevelled Spider Man in Spanish with explications of disbelief, “Ooh! La! La!�.

She stands from her chair and points to his stomach and genitals, shaking her head in disapproval. The vilification of the character departs the scene and the final stages of the digital video projection conclude. During the performance, the audience exploded into a rapture of whistles and applause at the undressing on the onset of the performance to change taunts and jeers at Alcaniz’s derogatory insinuations.
The modifications in Knox’s performance change the constructs of the female inclusion and considers the roles of gender and sexual politics to the societal precepts and conventions of masculinity imbued in the hero.

The evening of events and performance at the Cosmic Cabaret of the Potting Shed was a fusion of conceptual performances through to theatrical, dramatized and musical recitals. It was an eclectic mix of different forms of live art. Other artists to this event included Mandy LaRomero, Jo Docherty, The Gang with Dorrie Halliday, Lisa Wrigley and many others.

The platform presented the artists of Transvoyeur and others the opportunity to present art of an alternative nature and expand on the philosophies of the Transvoyeur artists in their practice to examine and explore socio-cultural parameters and cognative in ethos of ‘Cabaret Voltaire’ (The Cabaret exhibited radically experimental artists, many of whom went on to change the face of their artistic disciplines; featured artists included Kandinsky, Klee, de Chirico and Ernst … Cabaret Voltaire. Under this name a group of young artists and writers has been formed whose aim is to create a centre for artistic entertainment … The idea of the cabaret will be that guest artists will come and give musical performances and readings at the daily meetings. The young artists of Zurich, whatever their orientation, are invited to come along with suggestions and contributions of all kinds. -Zurich, February 2, 1916).

Further information can be viewed at:

Transvoyeur: www.transvoyeur.co.uk
Walk the Plank Theatre Boat: www.walktheplank.co.uk