Performative Video Installation

In collaboration with Karen Eide Bøen(NO) and the Tommy Kotter Trio (SE).

This work was realized with support from BEK, in equipment and time.

The installation consists of two videos and a performance, it was shown at Kalfarlien 18 in Bergen Norway in September 2013. I collaborated with dancer Karen Eide Bøen, and at first asked her to perform my private stories, which I have written down before hand. Everyday for a week she danced for 30 minutes, and the dance was an improvisation of Geography of A, which I had shown the year before at HKS. The work was dealing with questions such as, which stories are mine and how can I share it? When do bodies create a history of their own and can objects in a similar vein also be infused with stories and therefore get a history and a memory. The second video projection was a dance at Sotra, where the landscape in the dance is being treated as object and at the same time as subject. Proposed idea here was the simplicity of relating with and transferring from, where time spend is the means of exchange. Between myself and Karen, the work became more and more about, creating something and giving that something out of our hands again and again. Trusting the other person to as they will with the stories or footages. As a rather last minute spur of magic, we were joined by the Tommy Kotter Trio, from Sweden who joined the performance during the rehearsals, after which they joined us for the opening night. This work was very much in process, and what I have learned from it is: What does it mean to act as a director in a collaboration? Where is the work, is it what I have asked them to do, or is it what has happened between us, the collaborators? Is it somehow the negotiation that happened and the consensus that was formed based on a very loose and intuitive platform.

(The sound recording will follow.)

©Apichaya Wanthiang

Blueprint act 1;

((x / on the whole it is pretty pale this blue))

I remember first arriving in B. It was a pale day. I did not know him, but I have seen him before. Several times. He was always dressed in screamy colors. Either entirely green or entirely blue. I could feel that people distrusted him, but I immediately liked him. Wandering through the city he was showing me places he grew up in. I thought; strange how a city opens up when someone shares their home with you. The first time I went back, I got lost. I took the tram two stops too far. Two tram stops too far. It was night and I didn’t recognise anything.

Tangeras / tangerines / left / right / police station / church / church yard / grave yard / one car / two cars / … / stranger / darkness / foot steps / bouncing steps / sharp corners / corny lovers / hungry alertness / avid sleep

I walked back to the church and sat down on its stairs. Thought, maybe I’ll just wait.

Blueprint act 2:

((frrom left to right / between two oceans))

From X to Z. Sitting on the train on my way to meet you. You told me not to come, that it was not a good time now. When I arrived after a day and a night. After changing trains and sleeping on station benches. You met me with a cup of coffee in your hand. I wandered and sat down at a cafe. A waiter came to me and said: are you travelling? No, I am visiting a friend. A friend? Insinuating tone. I looked up for the first time. He smiled. I nodded and said: no, no, just a friend. He put a latte in front of me, one on the house! I have a good feeling about your friend. In any case, I hope he’is worth it, he said.

I sometimes wonder what people are talking about.

Blueprint act 3:

((from down to up))

The next morning I landed hard. I unpacked and then went to the store. After lunch, a kick in the head. I went to work, service with a smile.

cucumber days / damp cheese / one aisle / two aisle / sleep walker / random eyes / random things / burned pancakes / liters of beer / beer tummies / stacked chairs / dimmed light / loud music / loud stories / shared stories / half an ear / sleezy song / one beer / two beers / on and on / service with a smile

Blueprint in three acts was a performance, executed by Jack Scott. It was shown in Bristol, Engeland, as part of the groupshow Between the Four, in F-block Gallery. The text was read out loud, and in between the acts a mindmap was drawn on the wall, and on the slide on the overhead projector. The work dealt with narration, memories, and outlining moving from point a to b, through different ways of mapping.

—apichaya wanthiang

Archive

How to transform stories from body to body, and from body to object

Blueprint in three acts