The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
14
March – April 2009
How is it made?
Sensibilities of the Body MARY-RUTH WALSH talks to Fergus Byrne about the conceptual underpinnings and processes involved in his current body of work.
Research work at DanceHouse
Notebook page
artists) have been involved in realising this basic meeting between disciplines. The idea was about challenging working processes and all of the learning and engagements have been of an experiential quality. Project funding allowed me to pay people for their time and expertise. The research done has set the ground for video and performance work. Venues were sourced by recommendations, the Leinster Cricket Club was recommended by John Scott, director of Irish Modern Dance Theatre. This venue was often used by dancers prior to the building of DanceHouse in Foley Street. The Hercules Club was where the sibling pairs first met up and Dance Ireland also provided a Dance Incubator residency at DanceHouse. The final venue, which you visited, was located beside my studio in Brunswick Street. In future, I would not move from a position of work-shopping a dance process, straight into directing camera shoots without some pause between. I underestimated the business of camerawork and storyboard and did not work with Paul Murnaghan as much as I had with Megan and Jessica. Also during one of the filming weeks, I hired a guy to do lighting, which was not a good idea, as the lights became a hindrance to the moving camera MRW: How did you manage to continue the wrestling / dance work in venues that were not equipped for this?
The Wrestlers: notes on a sculpture (still) DVD.
Fergus Byrne’s work has long focused on the body as subject and as medium. Whether in performance, drawing or writing, physical activities and perceptions are the basis of his work. The medium of performance first attracted him because it allowed his physical training in martial arts, while at college, to be integrated with his art. Subsequent to this he explored different forms of dance training, the most interesting of which were contact improvisation and body weather (1) training. His current work was motivated by a desire to address the relationship between contact improvisation and martial arts. The focal point of the work was a statue in the National Gallery, The Wrestlers by Piamontini, an 18th century copy of a Hellenistic Greek bronze. Using this as a consistent reference, his project thoroughly explores the themes inherent there in. Mary Ruth Walsh: Let’s begin by talking about the statue in the National Gallery and the dialogue you had with the invited wrestlers while you all examined the statue. I was struck by the resultant video work and the amount of research and background drawings connected to this body of work. Here I’m referencing the two strands I see; one is body contact in the form of dance, wrestling, contact improvisation and martial arts; the second strand being the drawings, clay modelling, photographs and video work; the latter being the residue or the investigation of the former? Can you talk a little bit about this? Fergus Byrne: Because I wanted to emulate the position of the statue, I used drawings to familiarise myself, and the dancers / wrestlers with it. It is not easy to memorise all the statue’s aspects. Drawings were used to show its position to the wrestlers in the first workshops. Also a miniature statue was a focal point for those workshops in the gym with wrestlers Dan and Keith Kennedy. They knew the statue from wrestling medals and trophies – and even bought a miniature from a Greek tourist stall and gave it to me. The clay was used similarly, I asked the twin dancers, Megan and Jessica Kennedy, to draw and sculpt the statue, to observe it for themselves as I felt that some drawing and sculpting by the dancers would add to their immersion in the subject. From a formal viewpoint the manipulation of clay is not that different from that of flesh. There is a sensibility through the hands, arms and body common to both. MRW: That commonality you describe, between the physical performance you directed and the way you involved the wrestlers and dancers in drawing, writing and the use of clay – something I’m sure they are unused to – I notice a constant cross over between the two processes. Do you see any divide between these or do you view them as an extension of the one idea?
Research clay model – Megan & Jessica Kennedy
FB: I see it as a clear divide between wrestling / dancing and the clay modelling / drawing. In the former there are two people involved and each party is challenged by the negotiation of another individual. Drawing and modelling, while quite active in themselves are relatively passive. The clay does not fight back. That’s not to sound smart but within that basic difference are significant elements. Both wrestling and dancing call on an emotional engagement with the other – a willingness to compete; to create together. Drawing doesn’t force you to be so alert as wrestling does. Mind you, one person who saw the video, read the wrestling / dance work in terms of life drawing, gesture and the figure. He was quite perceptive in this regard and identified something that is second nature to me – analysing the statue, stills, movements, all of which I practised in teaching and modelling. MRW: You mention an emotional engagement with the other, which reminds me of the surprise I felt when watching you work with the dancers and wrestlers in a very relaxed, but serious manner, there seems to be a trust between you, how did this come about? FB: This came about because of the amount of work we did. When you saw us we already had four weeks together, had worked in several spaces, including a wrestling gym and dance studio. I am very much involved on a physical level with the dancers and Megan and Jessica are excellent professionals. In addition they have their own company, Junk Ensemble and have a long record of working in other people’s productions. Working physically with people is part of what they do as professional dancers. MRW: And how did you establish a link with the wrestlers? FB: I wanted to address the relationship between contact improvisation and martial arts. It’s for that reason that I joined the wrestling gym, in order to build a rapport with Dan and Keith. MRW: It seems you got great support from wrestlers and dances. But how did you find and organise all the venues and related people, like the cameraperson, for instance? FB: Organising was important because it became a significant part of the work, as any project would that involves a lot of people. The first video, which secured Arts Council funding, was filmed by Paul Murnaghan. This was later shown at Hotel Ballymun (April ‘07) with accompanying readings. More recently it was shown at IMMA during the Museum 21 Symposium (November ’08). Over the course of the projects 17 people (dancers, martial
FB: At the Hercules Gym the floor was matted. For other venues, initially I borrowed mats from Brian Walsh, Ballyfermot College of Further Education and Dublin Fringe Festival. The rest of the padding was insulation foam and cardboard purchased form grant money. Later I got cardboard and made up mats. I was keen to have something that didn’t refer instantly to a gym product. So the cardboard was good in this regard, although its size was awkward to transport, this meant van hire each time. In our first week Megan and Jess wrestled on a wooden floor and that’s when I knew they were special. MRW: How do you negotiate your way, or differentiate, between artwork, sport and dance? I’m thinking here of Martin Creed’s commissioned work which surprised me a little. The longer I stood in those magnificent Tate Britain Duveen Galleries and watched the athletes sprint through, every 30 seconds, I marvelled how it disrupted that normally tranquil space; how people reacted to the dashing body and later how humorous it was, a slow deep humour. FB: You didn’t tell me you saw that piece! I like what I have read of Martin Creed’s No.850. The sight of somebody running, and giving themselves fully to that activity, whilst moving through a gallery would be quite beautiful. MRW: Again on sport and art, you drew my attention to Justin McKeown’s article on SPART, titled Play is Older than Culture in the last issue of VAI (VAI News Sheet Jan-Feb 2009). What do you think of his ideas? FB: Justin McKeown’s article was very interesting particularly his quotation of Stewart Home on the “objective superiority of those things singled out as art” by the bourgeoisie. He also pointed out that artists, with the upcoming 2012 Olympiad are starting to dabble in this area. I particularly understood his description of his past experience of martial art and “the sensation of the flow of fighting in which conscious thought disappears and all is left to the materiality of the body meeting the materiality of another”. I would say the same for contact improvisation where one is so much in the moment, in negotiating movement with a partner that consciousness is brought into question. And curiously, the concept of ‘artsport’ has been suggested as a suitable name for contact improvisation, if I remember correctly the term is attributed to Nancy Stark Smith (a pioneer of contact improvisation in the 70s). On the other hand as the teacher Andrew Harwood said, contact improvisation is a conversation ‘through touch’. MRW: Thank you for that Fergus. FB: You’re welcome. Thanks for your interest. Fergus Byrne is currently on the IMMA residency programme, until March 31st. Mary-Ruth Walsh is in an artist and writer currently on a residency in Philadelphia. Notes (1) See Fergus’ article Body Weathers / Body Apparatus in March / April 2007 edition of the VAN and Seamus Dunbar’s Emptying the Body in the Jan / Feb 2008 edition of the VAN.