Dance Piece: “The Orange Man”

This photographic still from Dance Piece is performed by the Salisbury Audio Visual Group and relies on the element of chance to shape the ultimate outcome of the piece. In Dance Piece the performer of “The Orange Man” would indiscriminately expel sounds according to his whims and had no qualms about standing still for any length of time. In "The Feathered Hat Interlude" the feather hatted man would sit benignly extolling the value of Dance Piece to small audiences across the south-west. In Dance Piece there is never any attempt to agree on aims or methods; individuals with a common aesthetic perform the work at any time and all times of the day. Anyone can perform Dance Piece. The value of this artwork is in it's collaborative element. No single moment is to be considered more important than another, each moment of Dance Piece should be performed with conviction. In this way Dance Piece becomes transformative, dynamic and democratises art. Dance Piece is self-referential Post-Minimalist Process Art.

The Feathered Hat interlude from Dance Piece

The Path to Film

"We believed it would go on forever", remarked Hollis Frampton. Malcolm Le Grice nods in agreement. "Too short", he mutters. But Stan Brakhage wasn't having any of it, "Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!". 

In Memoriam

Ivor Cutler (15 January 1923 – 3 March 2006)
On the twelfth anniversary of his elevation to another place

Presence and the production of song sounds
Close observation and an awareness of meanings
Mr Cutler bangs his head against a hard door

Navigator of cultural backgrounds
Pithy and instructive songs
Sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic
Behavioural traits with synchronous sound

Ivor Cutler, which parts did you find compelling?

The gift of education
The improvement of invalid youth
Mr Cutler kept a packed suitcase by the front door

Gruts for tea, again
Amusing songs and whimsical patter
Never knowingly understood
Creativity with Thalia and Phyllis

Ivor Cutler builds a bird's nest and comments, “That’s nice”

Perceptive and responsive but asleep when the phone rang
Harmony and a harmonium, instruments of defense
Mr Cutler escaped from a Glasgow sitting room

Befriending bacteria using pens, poems and paper
Fortunate in the grip of Scotch water
Strange stuff for the really left-field thinkers
A narrow foot-path

Ivor Cutler and the theatre of the absurd