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On Radio 3 Now Sunday Morning
10:00 - 12:00
Iain Burnside and Suzy Klein with guests Joanna MacGregor, James Bowman and Tarik O'Regan.
Sheila Ghelani |
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 'Give Me Land lots of Land and Starry Skies above' Sheila Ghelani writes about her performance, and her experiences of Rational Rec. About the piece I presented at Wilton’s Music Hall... Give Me Land lots of Land and Starry Skies above…. Is my response to an invitation (by Cecilia Wee of Rational Rec) to make a piece of work relating to Music Hall. Music Hall is not a subject I’d necessarily be drawn towards as I’m not a performer of ‘acts’ and I don’t tend to make small quick works, but, I said yes, persevered and slowly a piece emerged. I began by trying to work out what my relationship to Music Hall was and was confused! I’m half Indian and half English, and reading around the subject I came across accusations of Jingoism and chauvinism in relation to the art-form. At the same time, some of the acts seemed great. My confusion was my ‘hook in’ I guess. I thought a lot about empire and popular culture and even found myself reading Kipling’s Barrack Room Ballads (I was drawn to Kipling because of his connection with India and colonialism), in the end though I decided to play around with song - the mainstay of Music Hall. Eventually, after some exploration I decided objects appearing from my mouth were a pretty good solution to what I wanted to convey. An object could allude to many things at once - it could represent a lyric I’d read in a song, nod towards a subject such as ‘empire building’ and imply one of the ‘acts’ I’d found out about all at once. In some ways the piece is a bit of a light polemic, delivered through action.  The decision to site myself statically on the floor came out of my love of Tableau Vivant and the desire to use a video technique I often employ in my work (live-feed projection of a specific aspect of my live performance). The live feed allowed me to play with ideas of illusion, magic, wonder and at the same time deconstruct notions of theatre; as an audience member you could choose to watch the spectacular mediated staged image (more beautiful and more detailed than looking at the ‘real’ human) or watch the ‘live’ performer lying on a cold floor, under a camera and see the mechanics of the action laid bare. It also seemed to make sense that I was prone when I added the background track for the work (The Wanderer) - a direct comment on the chauvinism and wanderlust I kept coming across during my initial research into Music Hall.  The title for the piece came last, via a colleague I often work with (Caitlin Newton-broad). Its another famous song and I like it because to me it’s a bit escapist, mixed in with a deep potentially destructive desire for ownership. Lying on my back I felt very much like I was searching for the starry skies above… My experience of the night... Well, I spent most of it on the floor, producing dusty objects from my mouth! But, it was more fulfilling than it sounds. It’s always interesting performing something repetitive and sustained, I find I enter a slightly different state of concentration – it becomes all about the idea I am trying to communicate and I’m less aware of how uncomfortable I should be feeling. In terms of the audience, I was aware of them, but didn’t get to look anyone in the eye. I did hear them though – they felt fine talking about what I was doing within ear-shot, even talking to me directly, although I obviously couldn’t answer!  Biography... Informed by my own experience of being mixed heritage (Indian/English), my work addresses ideas that stem from notions of ‘mixing’ or being mixed and engages playfully with words and ideas that I find difficult (such as mule, mongrel, 'in-between'). I am interested in hybridity, ‘crossings’, blood, skins, skinning, carefully controlled experiments, well-oiled machinery, colour, genetics, joining and love. My work always includes performance and usually employs materials and objects in unfamiliar ways (often leaving a carefully choreographed strategic mess behind). My practice actively seeks to contribute to contemporary debate surrounding race, terminology and its signifiers. I have shown work at numerous venues and festivals across Europe including the National Review of Live-Art Glasgow, Trouble Festival #4 Brussels, Spill Festival of Performance, London’s Chelsea Theatre and most recently Battersea Arts Centre. I also recently produced a 1 minute film which is currently on tour as part of Moti-Roti’s 60x60 project. I am also a member of Pacitti Company, a Blast Theory Associate Artist and regularly teach in academic contexts. I am currently finishing a new piece of work called 'The Settler Project', due to be shown in the UK next year. |
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