Music has been an aspect that has cropped up many times within my research. I like the idea of multimedia and music technology along with storytelling. So the practitioner that automatically arose for me was Laurie Anderson. She is an American experimental performance artist and musician born in 1947 in Illinois. She originally trained as a sculpture but then expanded into music, art, theatre and film. Her work has been described as avant-garde and has proved to be very popular, as her most famous song O Superman (1981) made it to number 2 in the UK music charts.
Anderson’s blend of music, art, technology and theatre is something that I really admire. Performances such as Duets on ice (1974) saw this artistic combination come to light. She would stand on two blocks of ice on ice-skates playing a violin. She wouldn’t stop playing until the ice had melted naturally. I don’t wish to necessarily do anything quite this avant-garde, however it did make me consider the effects that music and theatre can have when combined.
This then led my research to performance artists whose genres overlaps between musician and actor, and whose work is less avant-garde. Two people that struck my attention are Tim Minchin and Flight of the Conchords. Both of these artists use song to enhance the storytelling of the performance with a lighthearted comedic edge. I don’t want to go down the route of standup by any means, but these artists have given me understanding of how to combine humour, song and theatre into one performance.
What I found also interesting is that, although extremely different, both Flight of the Conchords and Laurie Anderson commonly speak-sing they work, or move from song to spoken work effortlessly. I think this adds fluidity to the piece, eradicating the divide between song and speech. This could be something I explore in a later date.
Below are videos of all three performance artists.
(Andreas Valentin, 2011)
(Best of Tim Minchin, 2011)
(Ella Elise, 2006)
Work Cited
Andreas Valentin (2011) Laurie Anderson Duet on Ice. [online video] Available from http://youtu.be/2SGRvhseH6I [Accessed 17 February 2016].
Best of Tim Minchin (2011) Tim Minchin – If I Didn’t Have You – Full uncut version. [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn6gV2sdl38 [Accessed 17 February 2016].
Ella Elise (2006) Flight of the Chonchords – Albi (racist dragon). [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-jVAHAuiS4 [Accessed 17 March 2016].