On the 1st of May, We decided to have a rehearsal of our performance in the space as the gallery rooms had been changed from the Modern Master exhibition where the Matisse, Dahli, Picasso and Warhol works were shown. Now in the room which used to have the Matisse sketches which I based the majority of my performative writing on, now hung a large white screen on the diagonal and played repetitive video of a the Australian outback and a man getting out of a truck while it was moving through the outback all shown in slow motion. This video appeared to representing masculinity. The video was conveying a male getting out of a truck while moving and standing on top of the truck. You could sense the masculinity as soon as you walked in to the room. This was a very big contrast to the atmosphere of the room before, the room held sketches of nude women who looked weak and bodies were sketched, the room was dreary and did not have a positive atmosphere. This totally opposed the atmosphere of the new exhibition in Gallery 6. The room was striking with the black walls and white screen. The screen being on the diagonal created the power as it stood out and looked strong. The video in slow motion was precise and perfected, the scree was immaculate. All of this was contradicted the atmosphere that was previously there.
We had to make the decision as a group whether the video should stay on during our performance or be switched off. We debated keeping the video on as it showed the irnoy and made our speeches more powerful as the video contradicted what we were talking about how women should be powerful, yet being shown on the large screen was a single man. However, we came to a decision to not have the video playing as we wanted to have a strong impact of the women’s reflections and felt that by keeping it simple it showed the power and strength that these writings held.
After performing our scripts standing on black plinths scattered around the room, we felt we needed something else to show the lack of freedom the women had. As a group we wanted to convey the restricted life that women had. We decided to line items of makeup underneath the screen so it was the same length as the screen that hung in the centre of the room. We then took turns to get down from our plinths and apply the lipstick and other makeup items. We would repetitively do this throughout our performance. Thus to convey how women feel they need to fit into an image and by applying the make-up that becomes excessive throughout the performance, it becomes uncomfortable for the audience listening to the despair and opinions of the women that were models of the artwork and to have the make up on their faces. This would show how women had to fit in and were objects that had to beautiful and were looked at.