Following on Oliver Bray's performance on Wednesday, I saw A2: The Future of Death at the Storey Institute on Friday Night, which for me was one of the groundbreaking pieces of the Public Arts season 09/10.
As a student of LICA (Lancaster Institute of Contemporary Arts) I am always intrigued by pieces of art / performance that cross boundaries and 'The Future of Death' certainly did that! The show started a bit later than planned due to an accident on the A6 during the rush hour, but it didn't dampen the experience. In essence the piece was the final section of a 10 workshop between the company and 40 local participants exploring life and death and this came across really nicely in the piece. Each participant came into the space and either covered themselves in soil or covered someone else (normally the person before them) in soil, As the piece went on the framing of the piece and the way that each participant sought to represent their feelings in a different way was fascinating to watch. The construction of the images of people lying next to or joining others was beautiful and although their was no speech from any people in 'the performance' to use a very worn cliche a picture did speak a 1,000 words!.
For me though the most interesting thing was the juxtaposition between forms, you couldn't really give the piece justice to say it was just a performance, but incorporating elements from live art, and devised performance played out in an art gallery was the perfect blend and made for a really nice performance. As I was leaving the space, I couldn't help but stand and admire the final images of the participants all layed out on the floor, a lovely image to finish the piece.
Well done to all the participants!
Marcus
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