How Matt Chewiwie Helped Me

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The name on the lips of our solo class over the last few weeks has been that of Matt Chewiwie.  He is a self-proclaimed artist who creates work through digital means and uses the internet as a medium to express his art.  While using him as a case study we debated what it means to be an artist and indeed what classifies as art, in the hopes that as individuals we kick start our opinions about what art should be.  This allowed us to consider our approach to producing a solo performance using the unique criteria we drew from the debate.

For me, I concluded that art needs to be something material, something that can be experienced in the flesh, not by looking at recordings or photographs of original work.  The example I offered in class is that to truly appreciate works such as Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa one has to be stood in the Louvre looking at the original and not simply searching for a Google image.  This is because it is not necessarily the artwork we admire but the artists themselves, and by standing a few feet from the very canvas Da Vinci painted on evokes a much stronger reaction to the art.  What we seek from art is to establish some form of relationship to the artist themselves – a window into their worlds.

In theatre, establishing the relationship between the artist and their audience is a technique most practitioners seek to provide.  ‘Breaking the forth wall’ is a vital component for expressing an artist’s intentions and can provoke greater reactions from the audience.  With this in mind, I now feel confident that as I move forward in my devising process, this is fundamental to presenting my artistic beliefs.

Whoopi Goldberg – Fontaine . . . Why Am I Straight?

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Before Whoopi Goldberg became the film star she is now known as, in the 1980s she created a solo performance about an ex-junkie named Fontaine.  Fontaine is a reoccurring character that features in Goldberg’s work, though the content of each performance changes in accordance with the social context at the time.  For instance when Goldberg revived a tour of Fontaine in the 2000s she was talking about 9/11 and the war in Iraq & Afghanistan.  Goldberg has the ability to manipulate the contextual circumstances and public “views on George W Bush, religion and the management of ageing female bodies feel very much like Goldberg’s own” (Benedictus, 2013).  By choosing to satirise moments of the war, not through the medium of conventional stand-up comedy, but through the creation of a former drug user amplifies the messages Goldberg intends for the audience.  Yes it may add to the hilarity of Goldberg’s performance, yet “It allows her to take a simplistic view of global politics, basically for the fun of it, and to show up some of the starker absurdities of the war in Iraq” (Benedictus, 2013).

What I found most encouraging from researching Goldberg’s performance is the manner in which she wanted the audience to reflect on what they had seen.  Goldberg says; “My work requires the active participation of an audience.  They can’t just come and sit.  How can you change people if they just sit there?  If you’re right in their faces . . . they go out of the theatre saying more than just, ‘Oh, we went to a show’” (2000, p. 210). This is likely the most important philosophy I have found from researching Goldberg, how can you leave a lasting impression on an audience post-performance?  When I begin to devise my work, I will certainly keep this idea at the forefront of my process.

 

Works Cited

Benedictus, Leo (2013) ‘Comedy Gold – Whoopi Goldberg’, The Guardian, 10th May.

Zollo, Fred (2000) ‘Whoopi Goldberg’ In J. Bonney ed. (2000) Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts From the Twentieth Century, New York: Theatre Communications Group.