Katy Wilson

Icepole, Ken Robinson and Hulk Hogan

 We are making Icepole - it is on in the Tramway 28th, 29^th and 30th January

 I know there is no fixed approach on how to make artwork / performance work for any age of audience, but I do think the way we have been working has been a particularlyunconventional process. It’s theatre created by a visual artist (me) alongside Xana who has a theatre background. Musicians from bands perform it. Ewan is designing the projections and building a part of the set, he is a visual artist and hasn’t worked in theatre before.

 We have made a storyboard but there are no words in the show so far, so the script is a bit odd I think!

 I find it exciting to mix up people’s roles and try and come up with our own identity for a show.

I’m interested in what I can bring as a visual artist at the core of a theatre piece that is different from other shows for children.

 Naturally my shows should be visual, and so far they haven’t had much in the way of narrative. I want them to be performances that appeal to adults and children alike.

 Here are a few things I’m trying to keep in mind while we make Icepole.

 We want to make it a space for different types of people. Little kids are perhaps less easy to group together, and herd, than adults.

  I am totally inspired by Ken Robinson. He talks so much sense about education and the arts and well everything. I am trying to acknowledge people coming to a performance who all have different needs. Some people need to move to think - I know I fidget after 40 minutes in a theatre. In school we are made to sit, and sit behind desks much longer than is natural - Ken Robinson talks about the 'plague of ADHD’ www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U in older children. He is not saying that attention deficit disorder doesn’t exist; he just thinks that children are often medicated due to their high energy levels.

 Robinson thinks that in this highly stimulating and distracting age – with computers, 24-hour TV and i-phones school simply can’t compete, and can be a bore. Children are numbed/ anaesthetized through it -when actually we should be waking them up. So I would love if kids can be kids and do what they want to do within reason! If little kids are curious then they should be allowed to follow their own path of curiosity – like a desire line, rather than being held to a spot.

 Also I’d like to be able to acknowledge that some people want to sit alone or at a distance that feels safe.  And some people want to be involved and interact with the performers and the set and socialize with other people.

 I always want to try and unlearn the boring behavior we develop as adults. We've got a weird set of rules for what is right / for etiquette. I love watching kids respond completely instinctively. I also feel we are held back by the parameters of our vocabulary to describe things.

 Pre-speech children are said to have a much more direct relationship with materials, the things around them - because they are not searching through a bank of words to describe them.

 I also want to think about sharing and communicating and connecting.  Probably the most inspiring talk I’ve been to this year was by Suzanne Zeedyk of Dundee University. She will be talking on the 22^nd Match at the Starcatchers Symposium, Suzanne said that our society suffers when children and adults don’t feel connected. Children come into the world connected, they have been listening to the world around them for months in the womb and when they are born it is vitally important to their brain development that they remain connected with others. I enjoy the new interactions that happen in shows, when the audience starts to meet each other and when parents and kids have a good time together.

 Ken Robinson claims that collaboration is the stuff of growth. I also observe in the nursery the difficulty some kids have of making a connection and finding a friend. So I would like to look at collaboration and connection as an idea in Icepole. To try to make the audience critical to what happens/ to respond to them / to connect with them.

 Thinking about how you connect with babies and young children. Can you just act like normal? Do you need to pull faces and talk in a high-pitched voice?

Does it need to be loud and intense so that kids don’t lose attention? - maybe it’s ok that they do drift in and out of focus?

 Some of the best children’s shows I have seen connect with children by subtle clowning, nothing like the ones with face paint, red droopy mouths and oversized shoes. There are quite a number of excellent Scottish actors who clown, and there is so much variety in styles of clowning. I also think It seems to be a way of not playing an adult or a child, someone more otherworldly.

 But I’m wondering if we can attempt a different sort of connection.

 I figure if I’m going to try something else I should work out what does make something clowning. I asked my boyfriend the other night what he thought was the definition of clowning…. he said he didn’t know - was it enhanced gestures, movements, emotions? And then sent me to read part of Roland Barthes ‘Mythologies’ on the theatrical nature of wrestling… (forgive the tangent I just think its quite interesting) a subject related to a conversation that I had already had with my friend Neil Johnstone. He studied theatre at Queen Margaret University and we worked together at the Traverse. He loves theatre, a lot of the same shows as I do, and he loves boxing - this interests me. He made me consider for the first time what could possibly be the value and beauty in the game of boxing? I accidentally mistook Hulk Hogan for a boxer and will never be forgiven…. Hulk Hogan is a wrestler (in case anyone is like me). In the Barthes essay wrestling is compared to ancient theatre - the spectacle of excess, emotion without reserve, light without shadow. Ancient theatre is viewed in an amphitheatre. In order to communicate pain, sorrow, happiness at a great distance gestures have to be huge.   Wrestling is also like theatre in that it is stage-managed. Boxing on the other hand is still a performance in lots of ways, but the violence is real. Wrestling is the illusion of violence and boxing is violence, albeit in a ritualized form.

Not sure how this relates to the difference between clowning and naturalistic performance!  I just thought it was interesting - and it set me thinking about volumes of acting, can it be quiet and minimal and still communicate? I don’t know! Can the musicians act like they might in a gig for adults, can I pare performance right back just being ourselves?

ICEPOLE is…

A sort of installation

A sort of collaboration

A sort of performance

A sort of wonderland

A sort of daydream

A sort of feeling        

A sort of thought                                   

A sort of gig

A day

A chance to share a mood

A quiet time

A stretch for your imagination

A  live music video

creature fear

 So here I am in Haunted Point, New South Wales, Australia - the location of our art residency. They don’t tell you its called Haunted Point before you get here.

Something large is scrabbling around behind me, outside my bedroom. I’ve no idea if its reptile, bird or mammal - but its probably deadly as everything seems to be here, and everybody likes to tell you horror stories.

 Outside is the Australian Bush. 

 This is the most remote place I have ever been...two days walk from any sort of civilization. We can’t leave, there’s no transport. If we need something we have to wait a few days at least...

 We have wombats living under our house and it’s their mating season...

they hangout in the fields like big stuffed teddies, but they‘re pretty aggressive apparently. Kangaroos jump and box around the field next to us.

There are massive guanas, deadly spiders - and we were about two metres from a poisonous red belly black snake.

 I am a total scaredy Kat. At times like this my imagination runs wild.

 It is Halloween here at Haunted Point

 When I was little - too little to go out guising - I sat at the window and watched and listened. I decided then that Halloween was the arrival of a camper van of mannequins who got out and started ringing peoples door bells. Imagination is the key part of being scared; it's your imagination that comes up with the reasons why something should scare you.

 I haven’t felt fear of this kind for a long time, and am frightened of what might lurk outside in the forest or even in my bed!  We’ll probably manage to hold on here for another two weeks, and then go join other humans again.

 But I did meet the most amazing kids last night, they live near here - we were taken to a 'jam' at their house by their grandfather, the caretaker of the residency site. These kids ran barefoot around the beastie - covered grounds, picking up chickens and rabbits and bugs just so relaxed with the outdoors and the dark. They were so connected to nature and also with the adults around them. Our new friend who we met out here, Scott Hocking an artist from Detroit, said the kids were luminescent and in love with life.

 It really resonated with me in relation to a couple of things I have been thinking of during my Starcatchers residency - how important being outdoors is for everyone, especially young children, and how kids need to experience things for themselves and have the freedom and space to do this. How ideal it is when adults and children live together in an equal and open way - how adults should just be themselves around kids, and how great an influence kids can have on adults as friends.

 So I’m getting a lot of drawing done, and a lot of thinking and planning for Icepole, my show in January. Being out here far away from my usual environment is great for putting things in perspective.

 And it’s been good to put into practice what I was preaching - I do still believe its good to be surprised … and to not know what lurks…

SPARKALATOR

Once a year a Sparkalator gives groups of children the chance to visit the sky...

I've heard a rumour its on its way here…

Sparkalator was made with the nursery group I've been working with in Pollockshields East in mind. I wanted to make it as personal as possible. It began from an idea that came up in the nursery of turning the tap off on the rain in Glasgow.

It was a particularly unsparkly grey morning and at 9am I set off to meet the nursery kids to bring them along the road to the Tramway - it was going to be for most, if not all of them, their first time in the building. Rhona and I tied helium balloons along the route to the Tramway from the nursery. When we got to the nursery I painted their 'ticket' on their cheeks (a bluish silvery lighting streak). 

We walked along hand in hand counting 1 balloon, 2 balloons - hey wait a minute ... there’s a guy across the road making a get away with the rest of them. Oh well kids....

We entered the Tramway and arrive at the Sparkalator, on base level, and we meet Xana, the lift attendant / air hostess. She is an adult…and she has lost her sparkle. 

We go up in the Sparkalator, the wee nervous excited faces look up to me - like ' Where are you taking us Katy??!!!'

We come out at the sky, we try things, and make things to help Xana get her sparkle back - we are able to view her down on earth on the TV.

Anyway I'll not give it all away....

After all this adventuring we head back to the nursery and one of the new wee boys just stopped in the street. So I picked him up and carried him back - he pretended to sleep all the way - the other kids were onto him, but I didn't mind at all. I did think though - who else makes a show and then carries their audience home? 

It was a nice end to a lovely morning, and I like to think all the excitement and challenges we had given him had tired him out in a good way! 

This may be my last blog in Scotland for a wee while, Nina and I head to Australia to do a visual art residency in a couple of weeks time at the Bundanon Trust .. I’ll keep you posted when Im there ….

Art like a vitamin

Our show Sparkalator is on next week. It’s a show that takes kids, via a sparkalator, to the sky, in an attempt to get someone’s sparkle back. The sparkle has been lost over time, as they don’t get to be outdoors, take no risks and have a fear of being in the rain.

 I’m interested in the outdoors and the effect it can have on kids. Also

in the past few weeks I have been thinking more than usual about the part the arts can play in mental health and general well being. On the same day as Sparkalator, \'Music Like a Vitamin\' is in Edinburgh. It’s a gig of Scottish bands all performing for the Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival.

One of the researchers working on the Starcatchers project – Professor Aline-Wendy Dunlop - mentioned that the mental health of the parents /carers impacted on the child experience of our shows and more obviously in their development in general. This point was explored in a talk by Dr Suzanne Zeedyk exploring how the arts can help child development.

Dr Zeedyk is a Senior Lecturer in Developmental Psychology, based at the University of Dundee. The core aim of her research is to reveal just how sophisticated infants\' communication skills are, from the earliest moments of life - and thus how important babies’ relationships with parents are from the earliest moments of life.

I think art can be ‘like a vitamin’ for children and parents, encouraging parents and kids to enjoy an experience together, to escape, to be transported into the unknown where anything might happen, and be surprised and delighted together. Making art is a means of communicating ideas, being connected. It can trigger the imagination, it can be an experience and, unlike most TV or computer games, it can be a communal experience. 

Everyone has an imagination. Art takes it a step further. Through art, children create or experience something that, until that point, was only imagined. 

Maybe rooting through woods and trees encourages this. There is a lot of talk at the moment about kids not getting enough rough and tumble. And outdoor play. From nursery we learn to learn from behind a desk, though students who actively engage with the material are more likely to recall information. The outdoors also encourages people to delve into the unknown, where anything might lurk.

Gareth Malone’s documentary ‘Extraordinary School for Boys’ on BBC2 at the moment has a mission to re-engage boys who don\'t like school and who lag behind their female peers. Gareth introduces his pupils to unbridled competition, risk and adventure outdoors. His aim is to harness the power of boisterous behaviour and challenge bored children. Unstructured play can boost the state of a child’s mental health.

 Sparkalator is a show based indoors about outdoors

will you be my guinea pig?

I showed a work in progress called ' Will you be my Guinea Pig?' in July. It was pretty rough / fresh! but along the lines of what I want to do in the future. I want to make something that is not a play. A sort of performance, a sort of gig, a sort of installation. I hope to make something that feels like a harnessed dream. With an emphasis on visuals rather than words.

I borrowed this from Hazel - ‘When you are a child and you discover unsatisfying gaps in reality this is where the poetic imagination begins. The theatre we make lives in these gaps'

I have been working a lot with KIm, Xana, Dougal and Ewan and  I also want to continue the work I have done with b-boy Iain-he has moved down to London, but really wants to continue our work if possible. The nursery staff still talk about him and how much the kids loved him. We have also been developing ideas that involve break dancing with paint, encouraging kids to paint more physically with the freedom of getting covered in it. I think its good for kids to see adults being childlike, not in an affected way, but playful like in dance. Iain introduced me to   ' Les 7 doigts de la main' www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhA1YRsv_4A t

 I really like the stuff on this link with the armchair, and like the thought of exploring everyday objects in a kid's life -familiar objects used in unfamiliar ways.

I’ve been working continuously on ideas using the sky. One of the reasons is because the sky belongs to everyone, and also because I feel like kids in Glasgow aren't outdoors enough, probably due to the constant threat of rain….

'Sparkalator', which I’m working on now, comes from the idea of turning the tap off on the rain in Glasgow.  In its simplest form the Sparkalator is the lift in the Tramway that we have re-programmed so that it takes you up to a gap in the sky.

 I've also been developing a show with Matt Addicott called 'This Sucks'- a lecture demonstration into the inner workings of a hoover for age 2 years+ 

One of the really exciting things that has come out of this residency for me is collaborating with Matt. We have pretty similar taste in visuals and music - and sense of humour.

 I’ve been looking at the puzzling meaning of ‘wabi sabi’ - beauty in imperfection, the idea that nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect, and how this fits with my work. Kids’ play is a kind of learning and thinking that doesn’t have a predetermined end. I think there are maybe some similarities with the shape I’d like my work to take and kids immersed in play.

 In mid October I am off to Australia with my friend Nina to do a visual art residency at www.bundanon.com.au Nina is a fantastic graphic designer and we’ve collaborated on a couple of my Starcatchers posters, including the Sprog Rock one. We’re going to Australia without funding and I’m taking a month out of Starctcatchers and attaching it at the end. We’re going to look at ideas around wabi sabi, and also the idea of 'living the dream' -nothing lasts, nothing is perfect and nothing is finished. We’re also going to be doing an art workshop for early years in Melbourne in November at this amazing looking art centre for kids  www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/artplay/about/Pages/about.aspx

kids have such and amazing influence on adults

two case studies I have been observing for years are

1. my mum - the oldest teacher in her school but youngest person i know at heart and in spirit.... she totally adores her job as a drama teacher and dreads retirement and not being with young people...

2.  Gill Robertson ( who is closer to my age!) who  surprised me with a creepy hand on my shoulder at Queen Street Station the other day...

Gill is director of the company Catherine Wheels - who I have worked with a little bit...(I was the one under the table in their big promenade of Hansel and Gretel.... please no autographs hehe)

Gill as a person and a creator is a total inspiration -  she is a breath of fresh air who holds nothing back in a refreshing, confident and positve way... she asked me questions and slagged me off all the way back on the train sending  the very old and timid woman next to me into an unstoppable fit of the giggles...

the Tramway / feeling like a child

I just realised that I have never really written about the Tramway.

One of the reasons I wanted the residency at the Tramway was because of the contemporary visual art and performance art combination, and the international work that is programmed.

I think there are vibrant people with real energy and passion working in the Tramway grappling hugely with present day constraints .

I like the Tramway as a building, always have. It’s a positive building with good light and nice worn walls, and the Hidden Gardens at the back is a thoughtful and social space. (Some of the history of the Tramway can be read at www.tramway.org/history)

The last couple of months have been buzzing in the Tramway - it has felt like a real creative space particularly with the Christoph Buchel exhibition opening today. I’m an outsider on the inside. There’s been many flushed serious faces, tense voices and a noticeable lack of sleep and decent nutrition - and in this case lots of similar looking men with glasses and high vis jackets...

It’s the least 0-4 year old friendly exhibition they could curate - although from my memory of seeing a Buchel exhibition in 2007, I think of it as a childhood memory because of the way it made me feel. It was one of the craziest installations I have experienced and it still confuses me now. When I try to explain it to people I feel like Im making it up!

I remember a brick building in London, I didn’t know where we were and was led by my friend Amy inside with no context - much like the every day life of some kids…. I didn’t go in having read a review or knowing who the artist was, or even that it was a visual art experience. It took me a few months to process it and to appreciate it because it was so unsettling.

It was in fact in Brick Lane and it was a labyrinthine installation called Simply Botiful. It was vast in scale and full of ominous passageways and areas that seemed like they were inhabited by illegal workers… or was it a brothel? Stacks of refrigerators, mouldy rolls, the stench of moth balls, pages from porn mags stuck to the walls, sleeping bags, a clandestine archaeological dig, a prehistoric mammoth and a fridge you climb out of...

It made me feel small and manipulated. Everything was new and I couldn’t predict anything.I felt like a child.

Can’t wait until the opening this evening. I hope I feel lost again.

I want to say good luck to all involved, some serious blood sweat and tears have gone into this one...

so fresh and so unclean

I am really keen on working outdoors with other artists and kids, and I'd heard about the outdoor nursery in Pollock Park in the Southside.

I need to get my head round the fact that Glasgow is a lot bigger than Edinburgh and being in the same area doesn't mean it’s close by. Nestled away in a woodland area about 30 mins adult length leg (well almost) walk from the Tramway I found about 12 little muddy lunch munchers taking cover from the Glasgow rain under a tent. I am not sure if it was just a co-incidence but they were really sparky wee kids...eyes and senses totally stimulated in this environment... they had heaps of questions for me and I felt really uncool for being so urban. It was a really positive atmosphere, although I kind of wrecked one of their stick sculptures by accident, and spent most of the time trying to rebuild it feeling slightly embarrassed that these kids had better wilderness survival techniques than me. It was interesting that these kids wouldn’t get to go inside, and my regular nursery group can’t really go outside

when I’m working with them at the moment on ideas about the sky….

Blue pink brown and red rainbows on a sunny day!

Met Kim Moore yesterday and we did a bit of music with the nursery kids and also a bit of looking at the sky… from inside unfortunately. Ideally we would have gone outside, but couldn’t without doing risk assessments. We are trying to find some lyrics for a song where we go into the sky. It was interesting because yesterday the sky was so clear – it was just blue blue blue! And it made it difficult to imagine a world up there like we had hoped for…  when I asked the kids what they thought was up there, and pointed out the window, it was like looking into a vast blue void. One wee boy answered ‘a ball?’. We did a little bit of drawing the sky, and at one point Kim was so involved with what one of the kids was trying to communicate in a mixture of languages that she didn’t realise she had been getting walloped several times across the head with soft (ish) playthings, to the delight of a gang of tiny hooded youths…

Kim and I left the nursery, wheeling her amp along the road on an amazing tiny pink scooter.

Aha, talking of pink we started talking about what we remembered liking when we were little, and colour seemed to play an important part. The first thing Kim remembered loving was her red tights. And the first thing I remember was a real love of pink. I also remember a strong dislike of the colour brown - my mum and dad had pretty cool cord 70s slouchy chairs that I would choose the floor over. My mum tried to dress me in a wee brown dress with red roses and scratchy embroidery smocking around the chest - I loathed it, and would cling to pink sparkly vest tops in Asda in the hope that one day she would cave... it never happened. I also remember pleading to go to Rainbows with the other girls, and the extreme disappointment to find that when you jumped the toadstool you had been demoted to the Brownies. 

I reckon it was female equivalent of Baden Powell’s subtle way of letting you know things were just going to get duller when you grew up, so get yourself involved in that ‘good home keeping’ badge while you have the chance…

Why do little girls still seem to love pink???

I’m pretty happy if colour is really important to children… because it’s really important to me and I get excited about using it in my work.

I am beginning to formulate what it is I want to do for my projects, and the long and short of it is that I want to make something that is beautiful.

And something that is beautiful is beautiful for any age.

encouraging imagination, installation and inspiration

So I have a done a lot and not been blogging… fancy a wee cup of tea and a catch up?

Only thing is it’s just going to be about me me me! Sorry but if you do want to email me my email is kate @kate-wilson.co.uk It ‘s the email from my website which has lots of pictures (but has not been updated for over a year because I am going to redesign it) Feel free to have a look! www.kate-wilson.co.uk

So – I’ve been working with Stevie Ritchie (Rae) who is an actor and also works in the Tramway.

Stevie and I decided that we wanted to take the kids on an imaginary journey. We really didn’t know how it would go… Stevie hasn’t worked with this age group, and I haven’t done ‘drama’ workshops with them, and I found myself starting to have preconceived ideas about the kids’ abilities. And that scares me!  I think it’s the worst thing ever when a teacher can sum a kid up in a couple of seconds… oh I could rant!  Have done many workshops where the teachers warn you about kids, and I always wish I hadn’t heard them.  More often than not it’s the kids they warn you about that are total stars and they are normally just bored senseless … anyway. 

So Stevie stretched the kids’ imagination with a journey. We were in tunnels, up trees, making fires, locking ourselves inside a house out of reach of lions.  A lot of the ideas came from them, and it was so interesting to me because I was learning how little visual information you need…. my job is to provide visuals. 

It is interesting to me to think about what stimulates imagination – and how visuals and narrative can work together/ against each other.

If you provide visuals do you imagine your own narrative and vice versa.

For example I often think about the importance of eyes; eyes on a character illustration, in sculpture or wherever. In an artwork and in reality we home in on eyes immediately from as soon as we can focus and direct our own gaze, I think. The representation of eyes on a character is so difficult to get right - with the risk of being called a hippy, it’s like whether they have a soul or not.  I’m not a fan of puppets in general but often feel that the less information provided the more imagination and gap filling you can do. I did a workshop with Heather Fulton and a lot of young kids with a little man cut out of paper with no features. The amount of emotion the children projected onto him was incredible. We made him a house that we could all get in (it was ginormous for the little man) and the kids took the 4cm piece of paper on a guided tour round it – by the 2mm hand. I am rambling but basically I believe in engaging the brains you have in a room, not spoon-feeding all the information.

I have also been working on an Installation piece with visual artist Ewan Sinclair that we showed in the Tramway on the 27^th Feb. I approached Ewan because I have always liked his work and went to see a recent exhibition he was part of at Sierra Metro gallery in Edinburgh.  Ewan and I developed a fantastical landscape made from animations projected onto wood. The result is instantly satisfying, the light is crisp, vibrant and enticing. We met with Dougal Marwick to show the pixilated water piece Ewan had been developing, and Dougal created a brilliant soundscape to work with it. I will show this piece again, it was sooooooo cool, and the kids’ reactions were phenomenal- as were the adults!

I have been developing ideas with b-boy Iain Bleakley and dance and performance maker Jen Edgar. We are considering working with kids of around 8 years old as well as 4 and under in an attempt to bridge the age gap. Jen and I fell in love with a piece of work that we saw in Belgium with Imaginate… and are trying to keep the vibe of it alive.  It was called ’Unfold’ and was by the company Kopergietery who have it sorted in my opinion Their work is some of the most innovative I have seen. By tying in with Ontroerend Goed the two Belgian companies came up with one of my favourite shows ever ‘Once and for All we’re Going to  Tell you who we are So Shut Up and Listen’. This would be the most amazing show for the Tramway however the teenagers taking part have traveled the world in every school break and are weary from swimming in Cate Blanchett’s swimming pool and the like. And they’re also getting on a bit. Kopergietery work with young people to create professional shows and they appear to treat kids and adults as total equals. They inspire me hugely…can you tell?  They welcomed us all to their ‘house’ where they are all so chilled out, and advised us to ‘let time be your friend’!!?

Tramway has a 20 year history of presenting contemporary performance and visual art. The venue is internationally recognised for it support of the development of risk taking creative practice. It has an extensive catalogue of co-productions which have travelled across the world. There are three programming strands, live art, visual art and education. The Starcatchers residency will be supported by the education programme

25 Albert Drive, Glasgow G41 2PE

T: +44 (0) 141 276 0950

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info@tramway.org 

www.tramway.org