Jasmine Cash

Dance: Education and Community BA (hons)

Student Number: 169007579

Module code: 3DD024

Supervisor: Daliah Touré

8th January 2019

Word Count: 4394

A study into the presence of community in site-specific performance. How does Simon Whitehead and Louise Ann Wilson engage and impact community through the act of

witnessing and participating?

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Community 2

3. Simon Whitehead 5

4. Introducing Louise Ann Wilson 9

5. The relationship between artist and community 11

6. Conclusion 14

7. Bibliography 16

8. Appendix 19

Introduction

This dissertation attends to the presence of community in site-specific performance. It

principally asks: How do artists question and impact the notion of community through the

act of witnessing and participating? Some of the research questions I will consider

throughout my dissertation are, what is community? How does community present itself

within site-specific performance? Is there a framework needed for the public to understand

a performance is taking place? Principally, this dissertation argues that community is

impacted by the artist and their work even if it’s not clear or present in the physical

performance. Through my dissertation I believe I will uncover that community is a complex

and broad term, that can be present in several ways through site-specific performance, not

all visible or clear to the public or artist. The research into the relationship between site-

specific performances and community has been largely focused on artists that have a clear

engagement with a chosen community, in a chosen location, I am interested in the

unforeseen engagement in site-specific work. My main research into community will be

through Simon Whitehead’s Tableland (1998), I will then go on to examine Louise Ann

Wilson’s Mulliontide (2016), to then return to Whitehead’s Tableland with a deeper

understanding of site- specific performance. Wilson also works with the community in an

alternative way and therefore this will offer a contrasting perspective to the way in which an

artist impacts community.

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Community

Through this chapter I would like to explore the notion of community. What is

community and how is it impacted by an artist’s work? I will question whether community is

already present, intentionally chosen, part of the audience or a community that appears and

disintegrates through the work. Firstly, I will look at the term community with an intention

to understand the term and how it presents itself within site-specific performance. I intend

to consider the importance of place in relation to community, in order to relate it back to

the work of Simon Whitehead and Louise Ann Wilson.

An interesting insight into the term is Turners definition of ‘communitas’, she states,

‘people find communitas in the comradeship, and fellowship of work, […] wherever they

find a chance for their ordinary humanness to flourish amid the pressures of life’ (Turner

2012, p. 55). Which suggests significance in members of a community being of equal

importance, whilst sharing in a common experience. Schwartz argues that there is a

presumption linked to communities, they are said to occur as ‘distinct entities: small, well-

bounded, homogeneous and integrated’, this is a concept I will work against within my

dissertation (Schwartz (1981), cited by Cornwall and Jewkes (1995, p. 1673)). Throughout

my dissertation I will refer to Community as a ‘very heterogeneous group of people with

multiple interrelated axes of difference, including wealth, gender, age […] and, by

implication, power’ (Navarro (1984), cited by Cornwall and Jewkes (1995, p. 1673)). The

significance will lie in the shared encounter where people are treated with equal

importance, with no emphasis on difference.

Brown argues, ‘Landscape is entwined with the beliefs, rituals, customs, and values

that give rise to and define the communities that live there’ (Brown 2014, p. 78). Which

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suggests an intertwining of community, place and past events, where one always impacts

the other. Through the longing of unity between place and community there is a sense of

importance to protect and oppose others, any outsider different to ourselves and the

community we’re a part of. Doherty asks, ‘is it not possible for a sense of place to be

progressive; not self-closing and defensive, but outward-looking’ (2009, p. 161), to

encounter new relations and communities, which might be temporary to the chosen

location and time, but they are created from anew. Therefore, I question how site-specific

performance can contribute to the building of community? Creating with and for the local

community, the traditions, values and culture that define the community, can be drawn

from and told by the people who know it best. The chosen site helps establish relationships

between people, with the landscape providing a place to amplify these connections and a

sense of community. Evoking community participation that shifts the understanding of the

land and its role within the work.

One form of community is an intentional community, ‘communities where persons

come together for a shared purpose, be it political, commercial, or even spiritual’ (Brown

2014, p. 90). Brown discusses the notion of natural communities, the concept of community

which is undoubted and unopposed, is built on the notion of others being ‘like us.’ As Brown

suggests, community is organized through the notion of natural arrangement and common

identity, authorizing an inside and outside. Which supports the argument that community

only welcomes those who they can connect with and identify. Which leads me to question

when a performance piece in a theatre is witnessed, what is the community that is present,

is it a natural community? As a performance takes place within these spaces, the audience

tend to be conducted of others who have an interest in dance and theatre. According to

Bishop, ‘rather than creating new communities, participatory works […] are open primarily

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to a cadre of artworld insiders, and thus facilitates dialogues between people who already

share an identifiable set of interests’ (Brown 2014, p. 2). As a mode of performance, site-

specific artists state their main purpose is to engage a new audience and to support ways in

which this can materialize; working with and for communities who cannot normally access

the theatre.

Artists and their site-specific work are above all concerned with the site and the

people who convene with the artist and place. Whether this method of performance can

attain a wider audience that several artists look for, will rely upon location, accessibility, and

the social and cultural arrangement. The impact and changes artists have on a community is

decided by the extent to which an artist chooses or not to engage with the community and

place. There is importance in understanding as Rhode states, ‘that any identification or

representation of a community is inherently partial, fragmented, and subjective’ (Rhodes

(2014) cited by Flanagan (2015, p. 1)). Site-specific work frequently approaches its location

as an inhabited site, engaging in a greater or lesser extent with the people that occupy the

area. As site specific artists Whitehead and Wilson engage with community in alternative

ways, Wilsons impact is apparent through community participation, where Whitehead’s is in

a constant flux as engagement depends on the witness. Performance within landscape are

not according to Fiona Wilkie ‘pieces of community theatre […] but they will be strongly

influenced by the culture, concerns, characteristics of the community in which they take

place’ (2002, p. 148). This suggests that outdoor performance is accommodating of the

community and the people’s way of inhabiting their surroundings. Wilson as an artist works

in collaboration with residents of a community, the performance sets out to empower

individuals and unpack deep feelings of place. Through the reciting of individual

experiences, the work becomes site and community specific.

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Other forms of site-specific work may include community in alternative ways. Simon

Whitehead’s work as an outdoor dance artist explores the notion of being differently social,

which provides a ‘sense of choice around habitual social situations’ (Kramer 2015, p. 163).

Therefore, community as a concept is quite obscure, as people are still in communication

just differently. His work as an artist welcomes a strong sense of choice, in a form of

performance that even though takes place outside, is frequently governed by the choices of

the artist made ahead of the work. This choice permits alternative connections with others

and artist, without participating in familiar social gestures of conversing and interacting in

proximity. This provides a moment where a non-permanent community can be brought into

existence through the relationship between spectator and artist, or a collective of

spectators who maybe witness to the piece over time.

Simon Whitehead

Williams and Lavery states, ‘we are always born into community, isolated births are very

rare […] we live our lives somehow accountable to the peculiar fact that the community

always came before us, and demand from us’ (2011, p. 10). As human beings we may aim

for more or less freedom from the obligation of this collective, but according to the author

there is no escape from this demand. Which implies as Whitehead immerses himself in the

location a community will always be present, but how does this emanate in Whiteheads

work, if there is no defined performance? I have decided to look at Simon Whiteheads

Tableland in order to analyse the notion of community within his work. Through

questioning, what is the community that is created or impacted through Whiteheads work

and can it be measured or identified?

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Tableland was Whitehead’s first public act of performance on the Llyn Peninsula in

North Wales. This exposed Whitehead’s desire to make his work apparent in the village and

generate discussions with both land and people who bear witness to the work. Tableland

sees Whitehead take his kitchen table on his back around the small pathways and lanes of

Llanaelhaearn. As a piece this informed his future performances, transferring his process

into the public realm, where his meetings with others become a vital part of the process and

the performance itself (Lavery and Whitehead 2012, p. 115). Rural landscape in Whiteheads

work is a space for experimentation, to explore unfamiliar modes of practice, where not

only is the conventional exchange between the work and the spectator questioned and

reconstructed. But the relationship between spectator and the land is re-shaped by the

encounter. Robinson states, ‘even when it is just a rugged patch of earth, remote from life,

theirs is a landscape marked by human exchange, activity, and intervention’ (Brown 2014, p.

78). In Tableland, its suggested that there is no clear community apparent within the piece,

but through location it can be implied that landscape is the site of community, encounters

and relationships. To look at the words of Robinson there is a suggestion that a community

is present within the work, even if it is not there in physical form at the present moment of

the performance. As an artist, Whitehead interrupts the spectacle of the everyday and

alternately examines the notion of chance encounters through the human geography of the

location.

Pearson States an ‘audience need not be categorized, or even consider themselves,

as ‘audience’, as a collective with common attributes’ (2010, p. 175). As a site-specific piece,

Whitehead does not invite an audience to observe Tableland nor have a specific community

in mind for his performance. Which leads me to question how does Whitehead impact a

community when the performance isn’t intentionally witnessed? Creating his work at the

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centre of a rural village, he began to consider ways of making his work visible in this chosen

location. People working, or passers-by can they be a spectator of the work but not identify

as an audience? Returning to Pearson, he claims that an audience does not have to be

viewed as a collective with common attributes, even though this is the familiar

understanding of communities. I question whether a new community can form within the

rural landscape, through the shared experience of encountering Whiteheads work.

The way in which the interaction takes place is different from other site-specific

performances, as Whitehead does not invite others to be his audience but allows for chance

encounters. This interaction allows for other forms of communication, offering the public a

chance to view and experience the concept of community in an alternative way. This form of

interaction is referred to as being differently social, Kramer states it ‘invites a strong sense

of choice around what are otherwise often unquestionable habitual structures’ (2015, p.

163). This transmission can be identified through a connectedness, a crossing of the same

territory, a sense of care or spaciousness. In relation to my dissertation, I will look at the

relevance of being differently social in Whitehead’s work and how this impacts the witness

and overall the community. In the moment of encounter, I therefore argue that a transient

community is formed, where the artist is in communication with the spectators but in a

different social form.

‘Wilson highlights how, with the traditional theatre set up, ‘there’s something about

the lights going down that means you can be present and not present at the same time’’

(Machon 2013, p. 27). There are no rules of play offered ahead of witnessing Tableland, the

spectator determines the direction of the piece through active or inactive engagement.

Tableland as a piece performed outdoors offers the alternative conditions to take risk, to

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wander, to be a spectator or ignore the happening. Whitehead presents spectators an

opportunity to be immersed in the unusual and through the willingness and unwillingness;

there is an indeterminacy in the spatial arrangement between performer and spectator,

which would be clearly established by the construction of a studio space.

Outdoor performance attempts to encompass an alternative audience to those who

would commonly visit the theatre. He describes the work as a collaborative process with

others, the performative that shapes itself to rural life, where the walks taken with the table

are visible to the townspeople and any passers-by. Whitehead explains his work as being

visible in the location, he does not present or demand spectators, alternatively the space is

open for chance encounters.

It's said, ‘to qualify as a performance, an event must have an autonomous existence

prior to its documentation’ (Auslander 2006, p. 3). According to this statement Tableland

exists as a performance, as the event takes place in physical form in a chosen location,

whether others were witness to the work or not. The collective presence of an audience is

thought to be a necessary part of performance, ‘art making is always, and before all else, a

social practice’, developed in the presence of others (Williams and Lavery 2011, p. 13). As an

artist Whitehead provides an opportunity to directly encounter in alternative conversations,

that wouldn’t necessarily be experienced within a performance where the witness has made

a direct decision to watch and participate in the site-specific piece.

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Introducing Louise Ann Wilson

To draw a deeper understanding of community in relation to the work of Simon

Whitehead, I will examine the work of site-specific artist Louise Ann Wilson. Their approach

to engaging community is contrasting, as Wilson has a clear approach through creation,

participation and audience. As an artist she considers her approach to have emphasis on the

relationship between rural landscape and human life events. Through her site-specific

performance Mulliontide, I intend to interrogate the way in which she includes and impacts

community within her work, in order to counter question, the work of Whitehead.

Mulliontide is a site-specific walking- performance, consisting of a coastal walk from Poldhu

Cove to Mullion Cove. Created in collaboration with the residents of Mullion, Cornwall, the

walking performance notices the impact of tide and time, as well as deep feelings for place.

Acknowledging the struggles of change, personal and topographical. It takes place along the

coast stopping at fifteen stations on route. Each station presents residents of Mullion, who

tell the audience what is important to them about the chosen location (Louise Ann Wilson

Company 2019).

Wilson states, ‘my concern is to create relationships between space, performer and

audience, and to find ways of revealing, reshowing and re-enchanting a place’ (Pitches and

Popat 2011, p. 65). This suggests there’s importance in human events and their relationship

to rural landscapes. Looking at the position of the community within a location, how the

community experiences place and how this is impacted by an artist.

What is interesting here is how Machon (2013, p. 28) declares:

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Such performances can offer lawbreaking conditions to roam free, take risks, be

adventurous. They are specifically designed to immerse the individual in the unusual,

the out-of-the- ordinary, to allow her or him, in many ways, to become the event.

This can be seen within her work as the everyday life of a community becomes

performative, the personal and the environment are re-imagined and questioned. Wilson

holds significance in encompassing the lived experiences and knowledge of the local people.

‘The composition of their landscape is much more integrated and inclusive with the diurnal

course of life’s events - with birth, death, festival, tragedy- all of the occurrences that lock

together human time and space.’ (Cosgrove (1984) cited by Pearson (2006, p. 11)). As

Pearson articulates, people who are familiar to a location have a deep and intimate

understanding of place, as they have worked, played and grown up in these spaces. For the

insider there is no distinct detachment of self from location. She explores this notion by

allowing the audience to interact with the land and the history present in the location.

Ingold (2000, pp. 237-238) states:

Every place holds within it memories of previous arrivals and departures, as well as

expectations of how one may reach it, or reach other places from it. Thus do places

enfold the passage of time: they are neither of the past, present or future but all

three rolled into one.

Wilsons work can be explored in relation to his words, as she encourages the community to

find new places and view the familiar in a new light.

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The relationship between artist and community

As she immerses herself and her work in the chosen location, a collaboration is

formed between artist and community. Bourdieu’s inquiry questions ‘the apparent

naturalness of the signifying relationship between the delegate, who chooses or is chosen to

speak on the community’s behalf, and the community itself’ (Kwon 2004, p. 139). As an

artist Wilsons goal is to share the stories of the chosen community, what is interesting in

Bourdieu’s analysis is the relationship that exists in the location and the importance of how

a community is portrayed by the artist and her work. Wilsons work may include the local

people through the performance and audience, but what is to say that a community isn’t

seen differently from within?

‘The artist thus works in the centre of a […] network of cooperating people all of

whose work is essential to the final outcome’ (Becker 1974, p. 769). Becker reveals an

importance in the shared authority between artist and community. Which conveys an

agency in both positions, recognizing the relationship as an egalitarian exchange between

two types of knowledge. Wilsons process includes a deep interrogation of the land and

community, working alongside its residents in order to understand the community and its

connection to place. In terms of site-specific performance, I then come to question the

notion of authority and its position within this relationship. According to Foster it is

something that goes ‘unquestioned, often unacknowledged’ by others (Kwon 2004, p. 138).

Referring to the impact on the local community, there is a significance in developing a

shared authority in a creative collaboration. As Golding and Modest argues the collaboration

‘demands the presence of both as effective interacting players’ (2013, p. 145). In relation to

Whitehead’s work, the control is essentially presented to the witness, it is their choice to

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engage or overlook the performance. Whitehead has become concerned with how he can

persist to develop a role for himself, that is routed in and related to the community and

place (Siobhan Davies 2019). Tableland, set in the public domain was witnessed in several

ways, as Whitehead describes himself, ‘some people saw the action, some were bemused,

some asked why’ (see Appendix; Whitehead 2018), the decision to engage and question was

solely dependent on those who witnessed the performance. What is interesting about

Tableland is the way in which the work is witnessed, Whitehead states, ‘people witnessed

the work from a car or a bus and I was never to know their responses, I quite like this way

that performance can have an effect that one cannot be party to’ (see Appendix; Whitehead

2018). Which is an interesting statement as it suggests that an alternative, transient

community is formed through the act of witnessing. As I refer once again to the words of

Turner, ‘people find communitas in the comradeship and fellowship’ (2012, p. 55), which

puts an emphasis on the sharing of a common experience. This is visible in Whitehead’s

statement on those who witnessed his work, as commuters passing through the village bear

witness to the work, which could possibly be observed as a community appearing and

disintegrating through the performance.

As I have discussed previously, Tableland sees Whitehead take his kitchen table on

his back around the small pathways and lanes of Llanaelhaearn. He states, ‘This piece

informed much of my subsequent site work […] my encounters with others became an

implicit part of the work itself’ (Lavery and Whitehead 2012, p. 115). The work is witnessed

by walkers, people in cars and buses and therefore these could be referred to as accidental

spectators. What is interesting here is how Troemel states an ‘accidental audience doesn’t

think it’s art in the first place. For them, these images are […] the epitome of randomness’

(The Accidental Audience 2013). Tableland explores a domestic object becoming landscape,

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as a performance it could be considered as a unique performance act when compared to

other public artworks. But how is it read from the perspective of the public eye?

One of the most noticeable features of site-specific artists is their refusal to adopt

the regular performance conditions of the conventional theatre space, preferring to

assemble their own guidelines of engagement with audience (Wilkie 2004, p. 94). Tableland

provides no context for the spectator, it’s a piece set in the public domain, which means

people are encountered randomly in the action of carrying the table. Which is an interesting

concept and leads me to ask whether the act is viewed as a performance? To gain a deeper

understanding into Simon Whitehead’s relationship to the spectator, I am going to explore

the framework used in street performances. Their relationship to the spectator is distinctive

in relation to Tableland. Structures are set in place for the public to understand that they

are bearing witness to a performance. Simpson describes how a ‘performer deliberately

marked out his stage in chalk […] to define the space as a theatrical one’ (2011, p. 421),

imprinting an observable boundary on the formerly undefined space. A framework is also

present in Wilson’s work, as she imprints a clear boundary for the audience through a series

of fifteen stations around the coast of Cornwall. This introduces an apparent framework in

which the public are aware that they are witnessing a performance, as they are guided from

one station to the next. In returning to Tableland, I ask whether there is an apparent

framework in the performance? With a sense of freedom in Whitehead’s work, people are

given the choice to interact, to speculate, to question. However, is it clear to the spectator

that a performance is taking place to begin with? Whitehead sets his work in the public

domain with a wish to engage with others, as Lawrence describes, ‘changes in the social

lives of members of the public as a result of aesthetic experience or ‘ruptures’ in the

everyday fabric of life are certainly possible but cannot be anticipated by the artist’ (Hunter

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2015, p. 257). Concluding that there is a concept of uncertainty within Tableland, the

framework is not distinct like in the work of Wilson or a street performer. Therefore, it

cannot be assumed by the artist that a spectator knows a performance is taking place, this

can only be confirmed by the spectator themselves and is different for every individual.

Conclusion

This dissertation set out to study the presence of community through the work of Simon

Whitehead and Louise Ann Wilson. Its purpose to question how an artist impacts

community through the publics act of witnessing and participating in site-specific

performances. My aim was to understand the term community, in order to perceive the

position of community within Simon Whitehead’s work and the possibility of impact through

more than one state. This led me to interrogate the work of Louise Ann Wilson, a

contrasting artist, to discover how the impact on a community alters through an explicit

engagement. Rhodes states the ‘identification or representation of a particular community

is inherently partial, fragmented, and subjective’ (Rhodes (2014) cited by Flanagan (2015, p.

1)). Through writing my dissertation I now believe this to be true, community is a complex

term that can be presented in more than one form, its position in site-specific performance

is dependent on the artist, but also the choices made by the community to engage and

therefore the work cannot take place without artist or community. Through Whitehead’s

work I found importance in defining community within the work, and therefore deciding for

myself how I wanted to perceive community through my dissertation. Whitehead does not

demand spectators and therefore his work provides an opportunity for chance encounters.

Which suggests that his work can impact community through more than one form, as the

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community lies in the common experience of witnessing the work. From my research, I have

discovered that the impact of Whiteheads work on the community is complex to measure

and therefore to understand the impact in more depth, it would require a questioning of the

witness and artist after the performance. Through my research I have discovered that the

framework given by an artist for the performance may possess the ability to impact the

engagement of a community. Wilsons work provides a clear framework in comparison to

Whitehead, and therefore I have concluded that it cannot be assumed in Whitehead’s

Tableland that the spectator knows a performance is taking place. Future research that

follows the present one could focus on the framework of site-specific performance, looking

further into whether the framework impacts the engagement of the community. It could

further be on the impact of the artist on the community, with additional research into this

relationship in terms of ownership of work and the future impact on the community after

the artist has left. What this dissertation has brought forth most of all is the importance of

understanding community as a term, the alternative ways of community being present

within site-specific performance and how the degree of impact and engagement relies on

both artist, community and framework.

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Wilkie, F. (2004). Out of Place The Negotiation of Space in Site-Specific Performance. Ph.D. University of Surrey.

Williams, D. and Lavery, C. (2011). Good luck everybody. Aberystwyth, Wales: Performance Research Books.

Wilson, L. (2017). Emplacing, re-imaging and transforming 'missing' life-events : a feminine sublime approach to the creation of socially engaged scenography in site-specific walking-performance in rural landscapes. Ph.D. Lancaster University.

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Appendix

Interviewee: Simon Whitehead

Interviewer: Jasmine Cash

Date: 4th December

Place of interview: Email interview

Cash: What does the term community mean to you?

Whitehead: I like Victor Turners definition of 'Communitas', as a form of 'inspired fellowship', where all members of a community are equal, allowing them to share in a common experience, dance may be one of these experiences…

Cash: Within your piece Tableland would you say the act of carrying the kitchen table along the roads around Llanaelhaearn was a part of the performance as well as the interactive instillation?

Whitehead: Tableland was a work in the public domain, it was performative…I encountered people randomly in the action of carrying the table. The installation came later in a work made in 2015, which was gallery based and involved field recordings and live performance.

Cash: How did the village respond to the act?

Whitehead: Some people saw the action, some were bemused, some asked why, and many had seen work we shared in the village hall, so were able to contextualise the action. However, probably people witnessed the work from a car or a bus and I was never to know their responses…I quite like this way that performance can have an effect that one cannot be party to...

Cash: Do you believe there was a community created through Tableland?

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Whitehead: I'm not sure! a transient one maybe…I think the impulse to do the action didn't really allow me to consider the affect until afterwards

Cash: Can this sense of community be measured or identified?

Whitehead: Anecdotally maybe, and perhaps through a process of interview or documentation beyond the act. Perhaps sometimes it doesn't need to be measured! 

Cash: How do you as an artist impact a community or place when your work isn’t always witnessed?

Whitehead: I think the impact is always there, there may be other than human witness, and I think the fact of living somewhere over time doing one's practice has impact. This means that people and places become to know the intentions of one's work and the work resides within them. In a way the work itself involves a process of place- making. Dance and performance I believe, make places. As Tim Ingold says, places occur rather than exist.

Cash: When a performance does not have a definite audience, do you believe an alternative spectator can be engaged by chance?

Whitehead: Yes, people come across work all the time, and other life forms too bare witness...

Cash: How did you come to work outdoors, was there ever something that stayed with you from childhood?

Whitehead: Yes, I grew up in a city, my walk to school and back home each day between the 2 socialising/civilising influences on my life, was a place I found a kind of wild, uncoupled freedom. That later I found again in dance practice and by being outdoors.

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Cash: How do you view performance; does it need a clear audience?

Whitehead: I think it is important to consider 'audience' and to have intention to connect with whatever that audience may be, even if one does not know how that might occur in the performance itself, we are never in control are we?

Cash: Coming from North Wales and being a Welsh speaker myself, I was wondering if language was ever a barrier in engaging in conversation, or is it through using performance, dance that you’ve managed to inspire conversation with local people?

Whitehead: I think dance is a language itself, and we experience each other differently through the dancing…I also began to learn Welsh & I continue! we organise a lot of participatory dances here, so people dance together and watch dance together, and talk about it…it creates change I when you dance with someone…this is sometimes unmeasurable, but tangible.

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