Week 6 Hanham

I can’t believe we’ve been RE: MAPPING at Hanham for six weeks! It’s gone so quickly yet we’ve achieved so much. Not least the amazing bonds and friendships that have emerged throughout our time together. And wow, this group know what they want! I was quite nervous about pulling all the work together this week and going forward with a plan for the residency sessions but I needn’t have been. We have a clear idea of what we want to achieve and how we are going to achieve it. I can’t possibly give away any secrets but let's just say, if you join us on the 16th March for our showing of work you’ll be treated to glimpses of Things You Wouldn't Expect to See in the Library’....

For the next few weeks I will be in residency in Hanham library building on the work that we have created over the last six weeks.

Here is a visual taster of what we did this week!

Hanham Week 5

We come up with a working title: Things You’d Never Expect to See, About Me, in a Library

The morning’s session is personal and intimate - the afternoon’s session is packed with people but contains unexpected insights too.

We start to think about the performance we are making together and about the upcoming residency. We make little books (one for each participant) detailing things we have loved seeing.

We wonder: How do we embed the performance so it has to take place in a library; What would happen if we played the “Tail’s Game? or re-staged some of the blindfold leading

Whether we could provide insight to “what I’m thinking on the inside”; is there something symbolic to stand if for something I’d like to do?

We’d like to see: the cookie monster; a mix of crazy subversive actions and personal moments (the pen, the chain)

We talk with Ella about developing a performative moment - might it be something in sign language (something we might not expect of her)

We discuss things they thought I’d never do: give up drinking, get married, work with the public, write a book

In the afternoon we share sage-like proverbs including:

When anytime you are feeling blue, look, no act, happy.

If I should get away I will happily run wild

A trouble is often doubled every time you don’t talk

We share unexpected things about ourselves firstly with each other and then we develop them into performances and conversations

I travelled to New Zealand on my own - it took 3 days to get there

I went to an international football match

I jumped off a cliff

I drove a racing car

I’ve saved someone from drowning 3 times in my life

I learned to drive at 13

I’m a secret poet

I play the cello

I sing kareoke - it’s like an old englishman’s sing-along

I like to bounce all over the place

I learned to drive in my late 50s - then I’d go anywhere

I used to be a bus driver - I wasn’t very well behaved - I liked to drop the oldies to their doors!  There were 5 men and me on the test - guess who passed?

I take long walks