- what's the meaning of the spaces? Downstairs: sense of unease, dysfunction, industrial, corporate, redundancy, make do, rehearsal, preparation, props, not the real thing, refreshment,an in-between-room...Upstairs: waiting area, relaxing bar area, small varied gallery area, side office, doors to theatre
- the foyer- access to basement via lift or the side stairwell. people would be in the foyer bar for the launch event nights in a jovial mood. taking them from their relaxing comfort zone (come out to be 'entertained, let hair down over a beer') and into the basement, guard up or down?
- movement through the space, from maybe being part of the private view/launch night in public space to behind the scenes, the rooms with redundant items, traces of very purely functional occupancy alongside random items. in the rehearsal/kitchen room- peeling walls dysfunctional switches, rehearsal/performance wall kisses, and awake/sleep written on the inside of the shutters....spaces that were once a pub cellar bar, a youth club. was going to become the theatre bar but it has no windows. rumbling tube line sounds above. apparently you can hear the acoustics of the theatre, low mumbles of voices, lorry street traffic. use of the serving bar (my favourite bit) with the two sides of it allowing interplay between the server and the being served- do the sides change, the giver and the receiver? this is integral in potentially developing an exchange around it. the shutters- abruptly transform space from public to private, the kitchen becoming a light tight den space. use of sink, draining board, the washed up. like the brainstorm sheets on the rehearsal walls- brainstorm the pocket? playing with a non-sensical action- shred this as its becoming documentation?
- the cleaning cupboard/ corridor: the unsavoury urine corridor smell, only partially lit, 'escape' markings on the stairs. taking someone in the cupboard full of redundant items, the cupboard no one can find, no one knows we're there, apprehension, danger? rummaging round in your pocket asked by a stranger to share the contents, all rather unsettling. expose and develop the image.leave via the unsavoury corridor, like spat back into the community. does this encourage an exchange, is it too alienating? would it encourage a human connection that is too sleazy or to play on that? walking along the corridor leaves a bad taste in your mouth? items in there: hoovers, heaters, cleaning products, toys, books, bus ticket
- use the kitchen? make tea, eat biscuits, converse? photo-traces of the objects mapping them moving through space across the counter? use the movement around the serving bar as a way into the shuttered-to-red-light kitchen (can you get me something from the draining board, etc) . although this draws people into a false sense of security, or doesn't all my work- leading to a final sense of catharsis, am i still trying to achieve that here?
- playing with marrying the momentary conviviality and temporality of encounter with a stranger with that of that-has-been of photography. use of the foyer for the dying photograms? display which extends the one-to-one experience or whats in it for this other audience? does it give the game away or encourage participation? becomes another product in itself
- exploring the context of the archive- the room off the side of the kitchen. the debris of the encounter (photo/paper shreds if applicable) gets archived off?
