The LiveArt event held as part of Stoke's contemporary art Bi-ennial, Conjunction '10 in November 2010 was a really amazing day of Live Art. Curated by AirSpace artist Anna Francis it involved a programme of performance events, hosted by different venues around the city. We were toured around from performance and location to performance and location. The theme of the day mirrored the Bi-ennial's overall theme of "Escape".
Featuring a micro ale house, synesthesiac motels and an amazing Juneau Brothers gig, my highlights were;
Emily Candela's "Bleed" - a visceral thrash-punk band, Mob Rules, performing within a confined 6 square foot cordoned space inside a gallery. During their performance, despite the "rules" of their confinement, band members’ body parts, instruments, and sounds escaped the space constraining them. I can still vividly remember the sheer force of the performance, which from memory lasted for about half an hour, leaving the assembled audience a bit shocked and almost "windblasted". There was a collective exhaustion when the set came to an end, and we left the gallery wondering what was next.
and
Adam James' "A Beggars Belief" - a searing live performance group examination of psychological illness and addiction issues. The artist and his band of performers had taken up residence in a local empty shop, and turned it into a vagabonds "squat" - piles of second hand clothing filled the space along with a group of tramps, for whom this was their temporary performative home. Each tramp wore a jacket of sorts on the back of which was stitched the moniker of a Greek god. The group were severely dysfunctional from an everyday perspective, drunk, profane and loud. Yet they seemed to function within themselves and displayed an almost envied sense of camaraderie.
The day was an example of real cutting edge contemporary performance art, and toured an ever-enthralled, excited and sometimes bewildered audience around 6 of the city's venues. I don't think that anyone witnessing the day's events would have failed to have been moved emotionally in one way or another, and thoughts provoked are still resonating with me 18 months on.
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