Lucy Beech and Edward Thomasson, The Cigarette Game, 2010 - A responce by Chloe Cooper
The Cigarette Game presents the live construction of a play for radio. It simultaneously explores the act of storytelling and the nature of movement based performance.
On the altar in the main space: a man and woman wearing tshirts and jeans, one man with a guitar and two women behind microphones. A microphone is held over bacon frying, a cigarette is puffed on, a balloon blown up, small bits of paper are torn up into smaller bits, a watermelon is dropped, slap slap slap on the thigh, put high heels on and clomp across wood, a yellow bucket put on a head, sirens played.
I’m excited. I’m well into these abstract incidents, isolated episodes or part of a longer narrative. Smells, sounds, cause and effect, the stemming from actions. The man and woman joining each other to tear paper, separate again. I’m aware I’m not getting it all because I’m too busy trying to record it, drawing bodies and writing actions.
At some point round about now the guitar is played and the people behind microphones begin to read a narrative in the style of a radio play. The actions are repeated and this time the sounds created are privileged over the source actions. These sounds form the aural basis of the radio play, becoming merely sound effects, these previously absurdly abstract actions are contextualised into an everyday scene, a yellow bucket on a head provides the muffled utterances of someone on the other side of a door.
It’s really smart when you first realise what’s happening and can enjoy the penny dropping together. But for me the joy of absurdity vanishes. Potential is lost and as Tiffany says, when the watermelon is finally released it is “an anticlimax”. Is this a work that falls foul to the temptation to ‘explain away’ work through fear of the audience not getting it?!
I think so, but I still really like it! Best in show!
Chloe Cooper
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Responding to:
Lucy Beech and Edward Thomasson
The Cigarette Game, 2010
At
23-24 January 2010
Testing Ground: Live at 176
Saturday 2 - 10 pm
Sunday 2 - 6pm
Performances and events curated by students from Goldsmiths MFA Curating and Royal College of Art MA Curating Contemporary Art (Work Based).
—————————-
Find out more about Lucy Beech and Edward Thomasson:
Lucy Beech and Edward Thomasson, The Cigarette Game, 2010 - A responce by Chloe Cooper
The Cigarette Game presents the live construction of a play for radio. It simultaneously explores the act of storytelling and the nature of movement based performance.
On the altar in the main space: a man and woman wearing tshirts and jeans, one man with a guitar and two women behind microphones. A microphone is held over bacon frying, a cigarette is puffed on, a balloon blown up, small bits of paper are torn up into smaller bits, a watermelon is dropped, slap slap slap on the thigh, put high heels on and clomp across wood, a yellow bucket put on a head, sirens played.
I’m excited. I’m well into these abstract incidents, isolated episodes or part of a longer narrative. Smells, sounds, cause and effect, the stemming from actions. The man and woman joining each other to tear paper, separate again. I’m aware I’m not getting it all because I’m too busy trying to record it, drawing bodies and writing actions.
At some point round about now the guitar is played and the people behind microphones begin to read a narrative in the style of a radio play. The actions are repeated and this time the sounds created are privileged over the source actions. These sounds form the aural basis of the radio play, becoming merely sound effects, these previously absurdly abstract actions are contextualised into an everyday scene, a yellow bucket on a head provides the muffled utterances of someone on the other side of a door.
It’s really smart when you first realise what’s happening and can enjoy the penny dropping together. But for me the joy of absurdity vanishes. Potential is lost and as Tiffany says, when the watermelon is finally released it is “an anticlimax”. Is this a work that falls foul to the temptation to ‘explain away’ work through fear of the audience not getting it?!
I think so, but I still really like it! Best in show!
Chloe Cooper
—————————-
Responding to:
Lucy Beech and Edward Thomasson
The Cigarette Game, 2010
At
23-24 January 2010
Testing Ground: Live at 176
Saturday 2 - 10 pm
Sunday 2 - 6pm
Performances and events curated by students from Goldsmiths MFA Curating and Royal College of Art MA Curating Contemporary Art (Work Based).
—————————-
Find out more about Lucy Beech and Edward Thomasson:
Posted 2 years ago
