www.ehsangill.com
it couldn’t last forever check out my new website as i go legit
http://www.ehsangill.com/
instructions for life
I realised today that as a human being I respond best to short task based instructions, because they alleviate me of philosophical responsibility. Tell me to run 5 miles, bench 50k, write 500 words a day, cut out carbs, create three performances in two weeks and chances are I will assume that its possible and do it. I’m inclined to believe the person delivering the instructions knows what they are talking about. True or not this frees me of responsibility and the rest of my life is sucked black hole like into said activity. It is only through such a loss of perspective that i have accomplished things that i would not have deemed possible for myself.
http://www.adidas.com/us/micoach/
screen shot of my recent micoach workout. an electronic running kit that talks to you through headphones. telling you to speed up or slow down based on your running goals.
5th of March performances.
Performances done, photographs received, so its time to ruminate on what i learned.
1) given the option take off your underwear. it just looks better
2) oil doesn’t taste nearly as bad as you think
3)its really hard to talk about someone, even if it is for 3 minutes
I would offer a more considered analysis but frankly these performances still need a lot of work. Also I realise that anything I have to say about them is not nearly as insightful as other peoples readings.
the man in the park
Click here for the complete photo set
Sorry mum
Click here for the complete Photo set
its forbidden, is forbidden
Click here for the complete Photo set
Photographs taken by Sarah & Zoe
Here is their website I suggest you use them for any photographic needs as they are punctual, incisive, professional, affordable and generally very nice.
http://www.klickchicksphotography.co.uk/
Telephone: Sarah – 07711999028
Zoe – 07860236211
email: info@klickchicks.co.uk
so very cold
Plymouth was very cold. Wonderful, important and uplifting but very very cold. The over riding idea that sticks in my head was how the arts practices of the speakers pervaded their everyday lives. This was typified by the engrossing talk buy André Stitt who chose to create an open performance space on the bottom floor of his house. I was drawn to the shear range of performances that took place in his space and was rightly affected.
As articulated by Stitt himself performance art was created by the artist speakers because it was something they HAD to do. Something they wanted to articulate about the world around them when words failed. And it was about their lives, located around the specificity of their emotional experiences. Their open determination was inspiring.
In lieu of this and Marina Abramovic’s (although not physical) presence over the proceedings I’v decided to present 72 object (as in Rhythm 0) as document to my experience at The Pigs of Today are the Hams of Tomorrow. I got a far as 28 before the objects stopped being meaningful. So I stopped
Objects (from bottom right to left)
- ipod Plus adapter
- Golliwog (plymouth market)
- Practice-as-research. (eds) Allegue, Jones, Kershaw, Piccini
- Nike plus watch
- Conference entry band
- Pen
- Conference guide
- Foam plane
- iPod
- Tehching Hsieh pamphlet
- Mechanical pencils (all empty)
- Drawing
- The alchemy of stone. Ekaterina Sedia
- Orange hoodie
- iPod usb cable
- Conference folder
- Conference poster
- Smoking material (empty)
- Penny sweet bag (empty)
- Sennheiser headphones
- iPod charger
- The Monk, Mathew Lewis (stolen from Starbucks)
- Red ape advert
- iPhone (8gig)
- Envelope
- Umbrella
- Low Profile intervention
- String
- Duck tape
On a much smaller note I can’t believe I didn’t recognize Hayley Newman. Her performance images inspire me by rotating as my desktop background.
sorry mum
Fosse Park Leicester
An odd composition of competing ideologies
the Mr men t-shirt
the track suit bottoms
the silver neck chain
the fat girlfriend
thanks Ria
In speaking to Ria today I am struck by the issue of risk.
risk…
risk..
risk.
The kinds of risks that you take, as a performer, an artist, as a human, as a man, as being well Asian. All of these things are knotted together, and yet I expected them to work separately. Resulting in the gap between my life as a PhD student and my work as an artist. I now work on closing the gap.
But what risks am i willing to take as an artist:
The risk of getting it wrong
The risk of being shit
The risk of discomfort
The risk of sleeping on peoples floors
The risk of not making friend
The risk of social awkwardness
The risk of being poor
The risk of being lonely
The risk of indecision
The risk of obscurity
My PhD has be devoid of risks. I have played it safe. Stayed at home, worked on my own, isolating myself. And as a result I have suffered. Here’s to risk.
Thank you Greenrooms
firstly to all of the people at the greenroom that made my work possible I thank you for:
your Belief in me
the trust in my work
the use of the rehearsal space
the excellent technical help
making me feel like a real artist
getting my work out form my bedroom into a wider world
keeping the Greenroom going
emma’s hug
changing the date
steve’s extended conversation on the explosive nature of custard powder.
the single vodka diet coke’s
Gill
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As ever post performance I need a way to react to the work and have found that a manner ways make sense. Primarily I write, just about the immediate things that happened in the event as a way to document their happening. Participatory exchanges are very difficult to manage and shape and all too easily (with some exception) leave no trace . The brittle frisson of exchange makes participatory performance both fascinating and impossible. Bellow is just that a documentation of what happened on 6th Novemeber 2009, as a way to remember it. It is by no means a complete picture or an accurate reflection.
Separation of Mixtures
General Points
-10 minutes was too long
At the start of the performance I had set out for myself the guide of 10 minutes per person. However, I soon realised that outside of an academic context, even with the art friendly audiences at the Greenroom, this was too long for most people. At the halfway stage I gave the instruction of giving people 7 minutes in the space. This worked a little better, giving a range of responses across the people that attended. By the end however I had brought the time down to 5 minutes.
What this ‘too much time’ was, I’m not entirely sure. Time to get bored? time to get comfortable? I wish I could quantify this in an accurate way. It does need engagement though. For example if I had only given my participants one minute in the space. Would this give the action an immediacy, vastly changing the outcome? Conversely if I gave them an indeterminate time in the space, told them that they have ‘some’ time, how would this disorientate the participant? Is this the desired outcome?
-The Noise
As predicted, but not quite experienced, the noise of the electric razor vibrating on the metal serving tray was…massive. amplified by a wireless microphone stuck under the plate, the noise actually became a unique deterrent. In many cases people would pick up the razor just to elevate the grinding noise. This action however left them with the portentous object vibrating in their hand. How would they use the object now that they had taken responsibility for it?
-Thank Elena
Doing this piece previous to manchester I was able to test it out with some of my fellow post grads. In an exchange with Ph.D. student Elana I found us holding either side of the metal tray playing the sound in the space. Hands vibrating from the buzzing razor this action became a strong exchange as we experimented with physical tension and noise.
I had decided previous to performance that if someone found the piece particularly difficult I would offer them this option. There were two instances in which it was used. One in which the participant was getting distraught, not given a clear mode of engagement he began to struggle with himself. Secondly another person wouldn’t stop talking, elevating his tension by repeating the same questions to me, again and again.
In both cases this action (of holding the tray) was a useful way to deal with the situation in a thematically appropriate but controlled way. I am beginning to realise in participatory performance that suddenly I’m responsible for my audience, for their well being in the performance space. The actions that I perform may disturb them. In future I must consider a ‘way out’ for my participants. A way in which I can shape the action more easily and still hold some thematic value.
Separation of Mixtures
The variety of reactions
As ever the variety of reactions people have to such a performance with an unclear mode of interaction is fascinating. I will document some of them. But even now I ask myself. What is the importance of these reaction? Are these ‘outcomes’ important to my research results? Quantitate? Qualitative?
-Man who stood back
One of the participants that sticks out in my memory is the man would stood back and just watched for the entirety of his time. This was early on in the performances and so he had the full 10 minutes in the space. He felt no inclination to pick up the electric razor. However, he did not seem uncomfortable. He was quite happily surveying my body in the space.
For me this was a reaction I could quite happily deal with. For all the ways in which I garnered engagement, the action performed on my body was very difficult and distrurbing. This persons engagement was his own, to simply be in the space. Also in deciding not to pick up the razor he controlled the action.
-Man who gave me sideburns
Another participant who stood out was an older asian gentleman. He strolled into the space and with no hesitation cut away my beard, shaping me a goatee and 70’s style sideburns. What I noticed in performance was that people were happy to shave away certain bits of hair but avoided others all together. Almost everyone avoided my hairy face except for this man. His sense of propriety not the same as that of my caucasian participants. By far the most popular areas to shave were my back and upper chest. The back I found particularly significant as it allowed my participants to look at me without me looking back.
Conversely this man asked/informed me as he shaved away that there was something interesting about masculinity and shaving on an asian male body. I didn’t respond, taken aback by is unflinching use of the razor on my face. In hindsight, there was a strong feeling of respect collated around my facial hair that this asian man didn’t posses. Maybe like me he understood its inauthenticity.
-Woman who crossed her arms
Another participant who I remember specifically was a woman who came into the space and announced ‘your not going to talk to me are you’. I hadn’t as a rule decided how I was going to react to direct address. But her outright challenge meant that I decided to remain silent. Perturbed by my lack of response she gingerly shaved some hair off my forearm. Then again announcing ‘I’m not doing any more’ followed by crossing her arms. She held this position for a few minutes and we found ourselves in a stand off. Finally she gave in, quickly shaved some hair off my chest and ran out of the space.
What I came to realise over time was how my action could be interpreted as a challenge. For this woman it was the direct provocation that she struggled with, specifically collated around my silence. For some it was so much of an issue that they stood back never approaching the razor. For others not enough of a challenge, prompting them to pull my hair and ask if it was real. I didn’t offer my participant a way out in this exchange and neither of us came out victorious.
In some sort of conclusion. The mode of participation needed to be better shaped. As ever in a situation where I leave the mode of engagement so open I risk a shapelessness. This I think can only be fixed by iteration.
Also the sound became the prevailing force in the space and requires a separate engagement. This fact will inform my next piece
Separation of Mixtures
all photos (video coming soon)
Cutting in Bristol
On Saturday 17th of October I went to Bristol to see Ewelina Kolacze’s Cutting.
To quote the artist
“A new version of Cutting for an intimate audience of only 15 people. Ewelina will snip into her own hair, threads and memories as a way to remember cutting away, cutting off from … but also beginning anew: changing language, place and relationships. Grasp and let go of past and present moments of decision – multiple possibilities for joy, for misery or the infinite in-betweens.”
In lecturing students recently on Live Art I have tried to instill in them that with this kind of work it becomes very difficult to defend words like good and bad. For me good art become ever more illusive and I realise that bits of work make sense and stick in my memory. A bit in this performance that did stick was when cutting her hair the artist made the participants place their hands forward palms up. She then bound them with string repeating the action until the entire circle was tied together at the wrist.
This action had two sticky results. Firstly is was a very easy way to control the participants. Sitting cross legged on the floor holding out your hand in the air for half an hour was not comfortable. This meant that your focus was held through the body, concentrating on keeping your hand in place. Secondly this uncomfortable position also meant that whenever I moved my hand or shifted my weight I would tug at the participant next to me. Whether out of consideration or fear this made me very aware of how I situated my body in the space and its relationship to others. In turn if the person tnext to me twitched or moved I felt them do so through our connection.
The result of this experience was that what I took away form the performance was very different from my expectations. I looked to the action of cutting ones hair in the space as meaning something to me. Meaning something specifically in the context of the performance I’m working towards. However what became much more interesting was the embodied sense of intersubjectivity that resulted form being strung together. In the piece I was hyper aware of my subjectivity physically, because I was so uncomfortable holding my hand up. This was coupled with the fact that as the people next to me tried to make themselves comfortable they tugged at my wrists. And through our connection I I felt their bodily tension. Their guilt, fear and discomfort course down the string into my hand and beyond.
It reminded me of getting on the bus and looking for an empty seat, given the option I would rather be on my own than risk contact. Even when bound together I was fearful of acknowledging the body next to me preferring discomfort and isolation. And without prompt my fellow participants did the same.
Embodying masculinity
an aborted paper on the implications of body building practices to concurrent readings of masculinity in a western context.
was a lot of work and will never get finished so it should exists somewhere outside of my hard drive.
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Embodying masculinity
Much has been written about the specialised arena sport of professional bodybuilding and psychological perspectives of self-objectification. However, very little of this research articulates the proliferation of ‘bodybuilding practices’ as a lifestyle endeavor connected to mainstream readings of health and vitality. The purpose of this writing is to better understand the implication of bodybuilding practice to embodied manifestations of masculinity in Western contexts. Such practice and its reconfiguration of the body plays out many social structures vital to understanding the changing role of gender for male bodies in the first world. My intention is to tease out some of the core traits of the practice and how it manifests masculinity in ways that reflect concurrent social and economic paradigms.
Firstly it is important to establish some of the of the core aims and objectives of said activity. This can easily be done by comparison to weightlifting and is an important step for two reasons. Primarily it highlights the unique impact of bodybuilding practices to more mainstream readings of health and vitality. Secondly is specifically places such a lifestyle activity within the realm of body modification. With a specific ideological agenda and clearly defined goals.
In a physiological study of male self objectification researcher Lisa Hallsworth (amongst others) questioned three samples of male participants. Made up of bodybuilders, weightlifters and non athletic controls. The participants completed a questionnaire containing measures of self objectification, self surveillance and appearance anxiety. As the researcher had predicted,
“…a sport focused on appearance, such as bodybuilding, will be associated with higher levels of self objectification and resultant negative consequences than a sport where the focus is in the functionality, such as weightlifting”(454)
As identified by the research bodybuilding yielded unique results because the functional goal of the practice is an aesthetic ideal rather than a skill. That is not to say that body building practices do not require skill or that there is not an associated aesthetic to other sports activity. Only that, Bodybuilding’s focus on appearance and muscularity is vastly different to weightlifting’s goal of functional strength. Functionally the bodybuilder looks to assert their masculinity both in and outside the gym by their physique. Making powerful public and personal statements about their identity. In comparison weightlifting’s assertion of masculine strength is only appreciated by piers and the specific context of competition. Which ironically gives weightlifting a level of legitimacy as an Olympic sport, an acknowledgement not to afforded to professional bodybuilding.
Professional bodybuilding and bodybuilding practices (as proliferated under the guise of health and fitness) aspire to a body type known as “muscular mesomorphy”. Developing on the physique classification system created by psychologist W.H. Sheldon, this aesthetic is characterised
“by a well-developed chest and arm muscles and wide shoulders tapering down to a narrow waist” (p.148)
Although the practice of professional bodybuilding inflates this archetype to hyper-masculine proportions, the very identification of the male body as not pre-discursive but contingent is an important step.
Sociologist alan Klein described professional bodybuilding as a practice that preys on male insecurities; as ‘ a sport subculture built on a neurotic ore’. In Little Big Men it is Klein’s assertion that bodybuilding objectifies and thus splits the male self into body and mind. This is done by treating the male body as, “an externalized object or machine”(ref). For example in bodybuilding practice arms become ‘guns’ and legs ‘coils’. This process of mechanisation satiates male desire for self analysis through language that ties the body to paradigms of strength and industry.
This process of reconfiguring the body is key to bodybuilding praxis. In fact it is ingrained into the language of the practice itself in which literally the body is built. For this reason bodybuilding provides an ideal example of social constructionist reading of the body as ideological site and product of late modernity. As shilling attests,
“…the body is seen as an entity which is in the process of becoming; a project which should be worked at and accomplished as part of an individual’s self-identity” (p147)
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World body building champion Dexter Jackson
-VS-
World weight lifting champion Hossein Rezazadeh
