Jill Orr: 'Spectacle of the Mind" performance, Federation Square, Melbourne. Photograph: Brecon Walsh (2010)Prior to Jill Orr's performance for Spectacle of the Mind, two men, dressed in top hats and tails, walked slowly, each dipped their hand into the bucket of water they were carrying, sipped from their hand, whispered unintelligible words and threw small droplets into the air and onto seated audience members.
Orr, in long black dress and veil that partially covered her EEG headset, emerged on stage from inside a vertical box initially covered by a black fabric screen. I was immediately taken back to the 1920s silent film 'The Cabinet of Dr Caligari' (Robert Wiene) because Orr in her trance-like state, arms outstretched and body swaying, appeared as combination of Dr Caligari (who had a traveling show with his beautiful sleep-walker) and the somnambulist Cesare - both insane, both holding power over an audience, who were stunned by her revelations.
After emerging from the trunk (vessel, cabinet) Orr took a large white handkerchief, spat into it and passed it to one of the two men accompanying her on stage. I understood this gesture to be part of a narrative that centered upon bodily fluids and connected with the previous gestures of the two men who circulated through the crowd, sprinkling the vital fluid of life.
Whilst Orr moved her body and arms in what might be perceived as demonic behavior, suggesting perhaps that SHE was under a spell; one of the two men (one fully dressed, the other naked except for a pair of white trousers) also appeared mesmerized. Was she exerting some power over them and their actions? One man's body, bereft of any energy was physically supported by the other, who wiped the sweat from his body and brow and then placed the handkerchief into the vertical box. All the while, Orr's brainwaves were creating swirling, circular images on the screen, suggestive of cells, vortexes or holes.
Orr's performance, which consisted of a series of bodily movements, all theatrical - evocative of the magician or the mesmerist (at one stage there was even smoke from a smoke machine), built to a crescendo in which the fully clothed man, slashed the throat of the one he had been holding throughout the performance and smeared blood over the man's naked chest . This violent act was accompanied by blood red images over Orr's projected on-screen image.
It may have been because I had recently re-seen the Nick Cave (writer), John Hillcoat (director) 2005 film 'The Proposition' that the notion of justice and injustice, murder and bloody violence entered my thoughts. It may have simply been the power of one person over another, the minimal stage props or Orr's 19th century clothing, which evoked for me that whole era of magic shows and the apparent power that mesmerists had over the minds of others.
There were obvious black/white references in this performance which speaks of science and magic, power and resistance. Was this Orr's way of referring indirectly to 'our' past and current relationship with indigenous Australians. Federation Square, where the performance was held and Birrarung Marr(the Yarra River) is built on the land of the original owners the Wurundjeri people.
Whatever was in Orr's mind, this was an enthralling performance, mostly ambiguous and thoroughly enjoying.
Craig will be well pleased that you perceived him to be the "younger boy", I'm not sure how I regard being perceived as the older man, perhaps the camera's don't treat me kindly!
ReplyDeleteCittadini, I think my perception was based on the fact that I had recently seen *The Proposition*. In the film, the youngest son was caught, put in gaol and then flogged. It's not you, it is the way that my brain makes connections. I perceived the more vulnerable man as younger...
ReplyDeleteCittadini, I've changed the review so that there is no longer a younger or older man.
ReplyDelete