Deeming Dreaming

Herald Blog – NOTES FROM AN ITINERANT ARTIST –

27 MAY 2008 -

NO BALL GAMES

”No ball games” read the posting on the side of the building.

I looked out from my vantage point, acres of green space bordered by four blocks of FAMILY housing.  The space was eerily quiet and empty.

Location: My community of East Pollokshields in housing termed ‘Deck Access Flats’.

Let me provide a little background for those of you not in the know.  One of the many ‘neighbourhoods’ of Glasgow, Pollokshields contains one of the wealthiest streets in the UK with large castle styled mansions as well as some of the most shocking public housing which you will find full of damp and structural problems with families crowded into spaces that most would leave for one.  It has cultural diversity, 49% of the population derives from Pakistan and India, as well as having increasing immigrants from Romania, to match the indigenous white Scottish population (and American!).  The history is one to be proud of.  In the 19th century Sir John Maxwell appalled by the poor social/housing conditions of the slums designed “The World’s First” garden suburb.  This visionary plan included homes and spaces with dignity.  These are structures we still benefit from with an abundance of green spaces, fantastic transportation links, local shops, libraries and public schools and all 2 miles from city centre.

Holding the sense of pride I do for where I live I am appalled, angered and saddened by the signage and the silence.  Certainly the hundreds of children and young adults who are housed in these homes should be playing here?

On Friday night I go to the Tramway to see Akram Khan’s (the eminent British Bengali choreographer) piece “Bathok” composed of dancers from backgrounds ranging from Indian to South Korean to Argentinean.   The dancers are placed into a no-man’s zone of a mythical airport where they are all around one another and going no where.  The style of choreography had the performers literally throwing themselves about the stage almost to a point of abuse, making attempts to connect but despite physical proximity remaining separate.

I must admit the piece annoyed me.

Like a bumble bee against the glass, the dancers repeated the sameness again and again. And perhaps this was the point.

This is what we do.  Someone says “you can’t do that, be that, have that” and we fixate on the THING to the point of exhaustion, till finally we give up or die.

Why waste time on battering your head against the glass when there are other options?  I believe the greatest rebellion in this world is to be creatively free.  In the same way Mother Nature transforms our waste into flowers, we can transform our struggle into something beautiful.

If not ball GAMES why not ball ART, ball DANCE?  Or just sit and read on the grass.  Take back your space, take it back.  Reclaim it.  Reclaim your personal, your social, your spiritual space.  Do it with love and compassion for yourself, for others.  My struggle is your struggle and so it goes.  So let’s not carry this weight anymore, let’s MAKE merry like you make a cake and through this act transform the world.

Herald Blog– NOTES FROM AN ITINERANT ARTIST – 
20 MAY 2008 –

RUNNING TIME

Standing at the 8 kilometer mark I was primed for disaster.  Well maybe not disaster exactly but at the very least ready to ease physical discomfort. 

The Scottish 10K run and I was wearing my hat as Red Cross volunteer.  So there I stood in my emblematic navy fleece and trousers, First Aid Kit at the ready in the shaded seclusion of Glasgow’s Pollok Country Park with my co-volunteer Peter, our Raynet Captain of communications, Tom, and a lone piper playing in the distance. 

It was a bit surreal as the first runners emerged 25 minutes into the run. 

It was the silence. 

In the wooded enclosure of the Park the birdsong was only punctuated by the barely made rhythms of the African women’s feet as they flew above the tarmac.

Emotion welled in me, this emblem of spirit.

“Uh…. Well done!” sputters out clumsily from my lips.

It’s like you are watching a film – the reality doesn’t exist,  or it could be another day in Pollok Park – a random athlete jogging by you and you respect each other’s personal universe by remaining silent.

But somehow that didn’t seem right.

I am one lone woman at the crest of the hill being met by 15000 other women and I may be the only person in the world who believes in them and I may be one of a million people who believe in them but I do, I really do.  In all the colours, shapes, sizes, ages and styles there is a beauty and there is a bit of me, agonizing and flying over that hill to the finish line.

A couple of years back I went to Southern Spain to study Flamenco.  I love Flamenco.  To me it represents a dance that says “I struggle but in face of it all I survive”.

It was this experience of Flamenco that led me to the Gypsy dance Kalbelia of Northern India from where it derives. These are the stories that come through us beyond written histories, passed through gesture, the feet, our bodies receptacles for babies, tenderness, nurturing and for judgment across culture… across time.

Since my return from Japan friends keep telling me “You’ve lost weight”.  I know culturally this is a compliment but on a metaphoric level I want to change this benchmark.  I want to be MORE not less.

It is that difference between living THROUGH your body and living WITHIN your body.  I don’t wish to be contained within this artifice of my form in so much as I want to feel comfort and celebration in the swing of my hips, because I can.

So standing there in all my human inadequacy, my fragility and strength, I see myself in these women.  United we are all one voice of infinite pieces.

So I shouted, I cheered, I cajoled, I danced alongside my sisters for all they are and they are to be.  And I think to myself this might not be exactly what the Red Cross had in mind for First Aid volunteers, but then again, Aid comes in many forms and on many levels.

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The Herald Blog– NOTES FROM AN ITINERANT ARTIST – 

13 MAY 2008 –

I’M KEEPING THE GRAFFITI

Arrived home last week to find “JCB” scrawled in my close in black outside of my door.  After the managed experience of living in Tokyo for five weeks, the site of hallway art was anthropological to say the least.  Who was this JCB and why was he (or she?) leaving me cryptic messages?

The word graffiti derives from the Italian meaning “scratched”.  What is termed “graffiti” has existed for millennia although the expression was not coined until the 1960s in my hometown, Philadelphia, during a time of great social and political upheaval when graffiti artists used the media to make a statement.

Philadelphia, in its infinite wisdom, recognized that channeling the need for expression was the way forward and created the “Mural Arts Initiative”, an extraordinary partnership between communities and fine artists.  This strategic maneuver, positive and growth oriented, has spawned “The City of Murals”, where even the most desolate neighborhoods have been transformed.

We spend a lot of time encapsulating our “social ills”.  Developing programs that are victim based not recognizing the human need to be creative and heard and connected in the world is most often the root of the dysfunction.  These are challenges we all face.  It would be easy for me to get worked up into a lather about the black marking but in actual fact it serves as a palpable metaphor for the spirit’s need to be heard.

In my youth I was secretly depressed.  I can honestly say if I hadn’t had theatre I might have topped myself.  That said, my hormonal sadness never got to those levels as I always had somewhere to channel my deep passions.

Glasgow is an extraordinary place.  I adore it here, I do.  Coming home after so long away is like seeing heaven with new eyes.  The vibrancy of the greenery is only matched by the large personalities bellying down Buchanan St. 

Seeing the bold fashion dripping out of Princes Square and the accountants and lawyers posing as Tony and Guy hair models straddling the pub stools I consider that Glaswegians have invented their own personal party.  Did you ever consider this in your own world?  Like everyday as we dress we want the BEST time out there in the world.  It’s, like, the “(insert name here) PARTY”.  And we do everything in our power consciously or not, subtly or not to feel like the Birthday Queen/King.  How cool.  How different the world appears when we witness people’s idiosyncrasies and contradictions as a reflection of THEIR PARTY.

In this way even my new hallway art becomes an extension of this idea.  “JCB” wants to continue his/her party.  It would seem my hallway was the best option.  Now I, personally, don’t want to invite these particular parties into my immediate environment.  I am a big fan of graffiti art and feel that JCB needs some guidance to grow his/her abilities in this way.  That said, I am now aiming to create new artistic expressions in my community of Pollokshields.  I have met with the community council and am chatting with other local members.  After all it’s my party to. 

SO I’m keeping the graffiti.

Herald Blog – NOTES FROM AN ITINERANT ARTIST – KATE E. DEEMING
5 MAY 2008 –

TOKYO GOODBYE

My last night in Tokyo.  I ride my granny bike through the tiny pristine market streets of Shirokane Takanawa, plastic pink cherry blossoms drip overhead as Karen Carpenter gently hums from the local sound system.  Coordinated couples in matching adidas and sweater sets escort their chihuahuas or angelic wide faced babies hurriedly across the road under clear umbrellas as grey skies beckon the occasional raindrop.

The nuance, the ordinary collides in one perfect moment of awareness and nostalgia for time not yet passed. 

I am in love with this life, my life, and the lives I am fortunate to witness.

How quickly it all passes and we are racing ahead to the next.

In the past five weeks I have made four (official) creative expressions merging music, dance, theatre, installation and film.  In the meantime I have seen Kabuki, Noh, Kyogen, Butoh and Shinto Temple Performances.  All these things have enhanced my life.  And I have found so many connections between my work and these expressive arts.

I started my tour in January with a desire to go to India to study the classical dances as way to better understand filmmaking.  I believed (and still do) that we could adapt the wisdom of these ancient arts to being better filmmakers and, consequently, human beings.

I can see more clearly now how it is the process of making these works that is important.  There is an element of ritual and transformation in all.  With each character, each visual, each story there is a desire and willingness to open oneself to understand humanity, and oneself in it.  But it is also the communities that surround these arts.

In India I was moved by the inclusive aspects of Odissi wherein the Master Gurus were never above their students and the students honoured the Masters.  There was a transparency within the creation of the dances, and the sharing therein.  Always open door policies in the classes.  Always a pride within the dance and a willingness and happiness to share on any level with no strings.

In the west there is a certain elitism associated with the performance arts.  Even in the UK (which is far better than the states in this regard), there is not much diversity in theatre spaces.  In film we are not much better within the process of creation.  We make the mistake of focusing on THE THING as opposed to the WHY and HOW.  Developing “media skills” as opposed to “voices”.  Not to mention a strange and false status associated within the media arts.

Please understand I love film, I believe it is the greatest media that exists today.  It is my passion for this art that drives these ideas.  And great films are made and appreciated.  What impassions me is this idea of this other thing.  Wherein we can be open, responsible, visionary, spirited filmmakers and human beings in this world, right now.

And that desire bodes my Glasgow return….

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ANNOUNCING

FAERIE

Theatre/film project that tells the story of Maya Dujour Wallace as she seeks Faeries… With a strong ethos to create something that is generated for and from the whole community but globally recognizable we have developed a concept that merges community engagement via theatre with fine arts practice and…fun

Faerie was created by Kate E. Deeming and Basharat Khan is response to an urban legend about Faeries in their local Glasgow community. They researched more into the subject uncovering a wealth of folklore in Scottish and Asian mythology from which grew the character and storyline. The project is unique as it engages in real time with local communities but is filmed as part of a larger storyline shared through web technology internationally.

VISIT/JOIN our FACEBOOK group!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=68559210630&ref=nf