FRIDAY henning and i had a really nice late-night chat when he arrived unexpectedly after midnight the night before. so i awoke somewhat too early and groggily this morning, and made a cup of tea before class. allison and i had a big day planned, like many of our other days that last week. we made a trip to the foto place, where we printed photographs that hope had taken, to display as an installation on her behalf; our headshots and an artist shot each; a few pages of photo collages, which we put together in a little thank-you booklet to present to our gracious project organizers, rolina & paul. we held a rehearsal for allison's piece, and we cried over the lack of internet (which had shut down that morning).
allison setting up the installation & doing some repairs on the house / me painting the walls over from the first showing... thanks to our couch surfers for the spraypaint!
DINNER ON A BOAT (almost) to reward ourselves for our week of hard work (and to satisfy a little tradition me and allison sort of have) we went out for a special dinner that night - our only meal out in the whole trip. we wanted dinner on a boat on one of the canals, but we remembered too late that it was friday night, and the boats were packed. we found a spot beside a boat: a table in the setting sun, right along the algae-covered canal with a brass band playing down the street. mmm and the food was delicious! the setting was perfect (save that we weren't necessarily on the boat).
jasmine arrived later that night, and we spent the evening drinking wine and singing songs – literally, kids songs. we saved the rest of the work for the following day, and stayed up way past bedtime, like we were teenagers again.
SATURDAY: CRUNCH TIME we woke for class at the usual time, followed immediately by rehearsal with allison. after lunch we rehearsed jasmine's piece, got some insight from allison, and put it on the camera. she had the video edited & credited before the day was through. (it'll be on the blog as soon as she sends me the final copy!) her rehearsal / filming lasted much of the day, and we got to my rehearsal around 9 that night. it was really quite okay, though. henning and jasmine were still awake and ready to work with me, and were very cooperative and helpful in the process of putting the last threads together! we dealt with costumes, discussed the technicalities for the projection. and they dealt beautifully with my stress and anxiety level that sort of started to creep up throughout the evening. we were in bed not long after midnight...
THEN THE BIG DAY ARRIVED!
SUNDAY was sunday ever a whirlwind of a day. i can hardly even think how to recount it to you! we spent the morning putting the final touches on everything. a crew came by with beer, wine, chips & nuts for the "drink" afterwards (for which we volunteered our house, being the most appropriate one for hosting). we joined the other presenting artists at the cultural centre a half hour before the talk, just to make sure everything was going to work with the projector.
the talk itself went well: it was pretty short. i gave an overview of our living situation in the house together, a little background info, and the setup of our showing-to-be. we then each covered the inspirations for our individual explorations. most of the other artists showed some of their previous work on the projector, but ours was, of course, live, so it seemed a bit redundant to show anything ahead of time.
the group arrived at our house ahead of schedule. we rushed henning up the stairs, where he perched himself partway out the window with his guitar. as the crowds arrived across the lawn, he began to sing "our house", but a brilliantly rewritten version to suit the three of us dancers in the house. the three of us watched from the wide-open kitchen window, smiling out as person after person gathered on the backyard patio ... until we were faced with a crowd much larger than anticipated. jasmine went outside to greet them as planned. she led them in to the bike closet, where mattresses were laid across the floor, the projector poised to project the video onto the ceiling. allison, henning and i hid in the living room: me and allison warming up, henning re-tuning the guitar. there seemed to be voices and confusion beyond the door, though. it turned out half the crowd couldn't fit into the room! so the video showed twice, while we - okay, allison - humoured the first crowd until the second played through.
we pushed them to the sides of the hallway so jasmine and i could slip the projector up to the bedroom where my piece was to be. (yes, i understand how ghetto our equiptment trade-off is. we were just trying to maintain an authentic feel of how things really function in our house.) henning was a darling and played softly to the crowd from the stairway, to keep them all from getting too restless.
now, instant replay for a film is one thing. for a guitarist & dancer (when part of the show is the act of applying makeup) it's not so okay. so we squeezed everyone in. and oh boy! did they squeeze. they got nice 'n' cozy in a stifling hot room, while i shoved them away from the one small floor space needed: for the seated musician and small pathway where the door of the closet would open to reveal jasmine inside. unfortunately it was so tightly packed it was physically impossible for me to stick around. so there will be no real video of that piece to be uploaded. however, i have a genius plan to edit together the film that was projected simultaneously, with the dress rehearsal that was recorded. (depends on how creative i feel during my five-hour layover in boston)
the audience was cooperative and went with the flow of this new experience of living art! we piled 35 to 40 strangers and artists into a room about the size of my first new york apartment.
henning and jasmine during the dress rehearsal for my piece
it was easiest to manage the audience for allison's piece. at least that included using the front patio. her piece was a success and i had a really great time finally doing it in front an audience (of more than just jas and henning), and the audience received it very well.
allison in allison's piece
the showing on the whole was a really great success, i think. even though we were faced with the challenge of more people than we could fit, it was wonderful to have such a turnout! i guess allison and i did really well with our flyering ... ;) and i think it brought something very new and eye-opening for a lot of the artists, and for the locals who joined the crowd. it shook them up a bit, people who are not used to experiencing art that creates, breathes and grows as you watch it happen.
