I've recently been very fortunate and had the opportunity to photograph one of the most entertaining events I've ever seen, here in Wrexham North Wales. This came about through Iwan Williams, of Migrations, which are a performance company that specialise in contemporary dance and performance events - Iwan contacted Glyndwr, and offered any students interested in photography and film, the chance to attend, and capture the event to document it - big thank you to Iwan, and to Stewart, who passed the invitation on to me - it was an amazing experience.
The actual 'event' is called Store . . . here is a description, published on acflondon.org ,
"Store is a shop. Art is a business. Fancy a take away, or a special delivery? How about a cheap copy of an expensive original? Enter Store and you are invited to peruse a menu of over sixty mini dance performances. Choose, then watch as your purchase is performed especially for you. Store in Wrexham, presented by Austrian company Matsune & Subal, follows previous outlets in Vienna, Oslo and Philadelphia. With prices starting at 50p art really is affordable for everyone."
Its a very different and innovative concept, and I confess, I walked into day 1, not at all sure what I was going to experience. David Subal and Michikazu Matsune, the performers, along with Femke Van Gent , who was there to help I guess, 'host' the event, were incredibly welcoming from the moment I arrived - again, I'd like to say a massive thank you to all 3.
David and Michikazu evolved 'Store' about 7 years ago, and have performed it in several major cities across Europe and the USA - I think Wrexham was extremely lucky that they chose to come and perform here.
I had absolutely no idea what to expect by way of the performances - but I soon found out, and there began 4 days of me trying to take photographs, whilst frequently being convulsed with laughter attempting to use the camera with tears of mirth running down my face.
The Mayor of Wrexham, Councillor Ian Roberts, and the lady Mayoress, Mrs Hilary Roberts, opened the whole event on Wednesday, 25th of April, at 10 am. Accompanying them were photographers and reporters and several TV companies, including ITV Wales, and BBC1 Wales. I was a little daunted, to be trying to work alongside the 'professionals', but found them all, without exception, to be friendly and helpful.
I would guess that the Mayor and Mayoress also had very little idea exactly what to expect - but like myself, they appeared to find it extremely entertaining and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. David and Michikazu performed several of their 'productions', and soon the whole shop was ringing with laughter - even the reporters, photographers and camera men were obviously enjoying the show.
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| Store is officially opened |
It was both interesting, and educational, incidentally, to watch the 'professionals' at work - it provided me with insights that I hadn't had before, and knowledge to store away for future reference!
To kick off, they treated the Mayoress to a performance of 'For Love',
. . . And this was followed by Big Bang Reconstructed, which was not only funny, but very popular with the public !
After this, the performances just kept coming for a couple of hours, despite the fact that outside, the rain was coming down in torrents and there were so few people around . There are so many words to describe what was going on - witty, entertaining, funny, clever, unique - I soon found myself aching with laughter. At no time did I know what each performance would entail in advance (and even when I saw a performance for the 2nd or 3rd time, the anticipation was always there, as David and Michikazu seemed to change it each time, reacting to the audience and participants ). The audience had no prior warning either, which led to some incredibly amusing reactions.
Another take away - 'Dirty Business'
This was one of my favourite performances - Eraser Head'
In terms of photography, right from day 1, it was a huge learning experience - with no prior warning of what David and Michikazu were going to do, where they were going to move to, how the audience would react, and with performances moving outside of the shop on occasion, thinking on my feet about camera settings, and getting into the best place to get the picture, was a priority.
Day 2, and I couldn't wait - although no wiser about what I was going to see, the lessons that I started to learn from the previous day helped, and I continued to learn more .
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| The awful weather was a real shame |
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| But both David and Michikazu did plenty to attract people passing |
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| performance of 'Sharp' |
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| A performance of 'David Hockney - copy' - which was met with obvious delight ! |
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| It was nice to see some of the people from Glyndwr there - performance of 'Rodin - copy' |
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| Lewis Jones enjoys 'The Art of Identity' |
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| Another performance of 'Eraser Head' |
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| Part of 'Eraser Head' product - though that was far from the finished article ! |
I also began to take more notice not just of the performance, but of the audience reaction, and start to try and capture that as well , over day 2 and 3 . . .
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| Expressionist - when performances moved out of the shop, it was a case of grab hold of my camera - and run! |
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| Local Cheesy Art |
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| One of the nicest aspects was the way the performances hit on so many levels - from very young to the more mature, there was something to make everyone laugh and enjoy ! |
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| This performance, 'Men's Suits' provoked some of the most hysterical reactions . . . |
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| 'Boxing' - popular - and sooooooo funny ! Part 2 to follow |
