Arches LIVE 2014 Festival Kicks Off Today
By: BWW News Desk Oct. 02, 2014
The Arches' annual festival of new work by Scotland's most exciting performance makers is back, featuring artists brought together by a shared determination to subvert and surprise.
Arches LIVE is a celebration of uninhibited creativity, providing a vital platform for courageous artists- including an eclectic mix of those just starting out, as well as more established artists who really want to push the boundaries of their practice.
Audiences may have caught former Arches LIVE shows at Edinburgh Fringe this year; Amy and Rosana Cade's Sister and Peter McMaster's Wuthering Heights have already toured nationally and 2013 Summerhall Award winner, Greg Sinclair is now poised to do the same with I Do, Do I.
Jackie Wylie, Artistic Director at The Arches, said: "Isolation and intimacy form key strands in this year's festival. Our artists offer a deeply personal insight into role of the individual in society and examine the ways connectivity is simultaneously bringing us together and pulling us apart. You are invited to experience the private made public, to question the relationship between technology and loneliness, and to reflect on the function of wellness and self-help.
"In the spirit of helping yourself, we encourage everyone to experience the festival as a whole by taking advantage of the Festival and Day Passes. By far the best way to experience Arches LIVE is to catch a few shows each night and dip into the lively discussion in the festival bar between performances.
"So do join us this October and immerse yourself in the exciting cross-section of Glasgow's live performance community."
LISTINGS INFORMATION
The Arches presents Arches LIVE 2014
Thursday 2 - Saturday 11 October 2014 | Festival Pass £32/£26 | Day Pass £18/£12
www.thearches.co.uk/events/arts/arches-live-2014 | 0141 565 1000 | 253 Argyle Street, Glasgow G2 8DL
Rob Jones: AARG!!!
The Arches | Thu 2 - Sat 11 October | FREE
AARG!!! is the Arches Alternate Reality Game, one where the audience become players in an unfolding mystery that leaks out of the building to infiltrate everyday lives. Sign up and find yourself a player in a game whose rules aren't always clear - a blend of treasure hunt, murder mystery, parlour game and immersive theatre.
AARG!!! weaves an experimental narrative of escalating absurdum, drawing you deeper down a rabbit hole of exuberant fantasy as the festival unfolds around you, giving you chances to unlock unique performance encounters and leaving you wondering who is a player and who is just a stranger on a train.
To participate in the AARG!!! gaming experience, register your mobile number and email address with The Arches box office.
Katie Gallagher: American Aparel
The Arches, Foyer | Thu 2 - Sat 11 October | 11am - late | FREE
Glasgow-based artist Kate Gallagher is the winner of the Blackbox Award for Visual Art and this exhibition has been created during a 2-month residency funded by The Arches.
Influenced by North American comic artists with an aesthetic reminiscent of DIY subcultures, the artist intends to subvert the advertisements of the company American Apparel in this drawing exhibition. Kate plays between the lines of advertisement and self-expression.
These features are reminiscent of the artist's philosophy of the autobiographical and unique, endangered by the 'American Apparel' philosophy of unique as trend, that specific fetishization of the intelligent and the real.
The Arches, Arch 6 | Thu 2 - Fri 3 October | From 6.15pm, Thursday and from 4pm, Friday | £8/£6
Roll up! for sawdust and sequins. Roll up! for tits and teeth.
Roll up! for death-defying stunts. Roll up! for the greatest show on earth.
Ringside is an intimate circus performance made for one audience member at a time. By moving the performance away from the mass crowds, the artist invites individuals to observe up-close the sweat from her exertion and the bruises and burns that accumulate on her skin in a performative exploration of female strength, danger, power and the thrill of physical prowess.
Alex McKay & Alex Lunn: (Why) Does It Make Me Feel (So) Good?
The Arches, Store | Thu 2 - Fri 3 Oct 2014 |from 6pm | £8/£6
(Why) Does It Make Me Feel (So) Good? is about intimacy (or the lack of it) in our increasingly web-based lives. It is about feelings being things we can now access 'on demand'. It is about 'loneliness' being a condition related to how many bars of signal you have on your mobile device, rather than the number of bodies you have around you.
Drawing on the recent online phenomenon of ASMR, it is an immersive, multi-sensory experience where participants are invited to challenge their ideas of human interaction mediated through technology, one-on-one with their own personal ASMR-tist.
Kevin Carr: An Audience with Marco Polo
The Arches, B3 | Thu 2 - Fri 3 October | 6 - 6.30pm | £8/£6
Tales of wonder, songs from distant lands, poor technical assistance, and one hell of a party.
Enter the cabaret venue deep inside the palace of the Kublai Khan, as Marco and his band, unably assisted by his illiterate biographer, Rustichello, take you on the journey of a lifetime.
A journey laden with danger. A journey so epic it will be written about down through the ages. A journey across a city where the streets are paved with gold and grandeur. A journey through... Glasgow.
Directed by Eve Nicol. Dramaturged by Michael Mannikou. Performed by Ryan Paterson and Kevin Carr.
Aby Watson & Alex Horowitz: There's No Point Crying Over Spilt Milk
The Arches, Studio | Thu 2 - Fri 3 October | 6 -7 pm | £8/£6
A collaboration between composer Alexander Horowitz and performance-maker Aby Watson,There's no point crying over spilt milk explores the difference between childhood ambition and adult reality through live music, choreography and multimedia.
This dynamic, funny and reflective new performance takes movement practice and musical tradition back to the basics we learn as children in order to recognise our successes and failures as adults. By remembering the past expectations of themselves, the artists question whether we are ever really ready to let go.
Dylan McCaughtry: Summoning Swayze
The Arches, Derelict Space | Thu 2 - Fri 3 October | From 6.50pm | £8/6
You are invited to partake in one of Dylan McCaughtry's most ambitious performances to date.
Scantily clad and armed with only a telephone, a potter's wheel and a little bit of audience enthusiasm, Dylan returns to the theme of celebrity obsession and- inspired by that scene from 90s movie classic 'Ghost'- leads audiences through an intimate séance with the ultimate aim of making contact with the late, great Patrick Swayze.
The Arches, Playroom | Thu 2 - Fri 3 October | 7.15 - 8pm | £8/£6
Welcome to the show. Welcome to the inside of a particular opulence. What becomes of three performers who mysteriously descend in to madness. Witness the unravelling of the performer and the descent from glory in to a hopeless and primal existence in which bodies transform, mystery is created in a place where no one can be trusted. Especially you.
Originally commissioned by and performed at the legendary Wilton's Music Hall, London, Inside Opulence is a remarkable new offering from one of Scotland's leading choreographers and dancers.
Louise Ahl & Fritz Welch: Cloud Mushrooms
The Arches, Practice Room | Thu 2 - Fri 3 October | 7.15 - 8pm | £8/£6
In Cloud Mushrooms, Louise Ahl and Fritz Welch will run loose through a shadow at night; pull up all the floorboards and sift through the dust underneath; exhale hopelessness into utter depletion; climb over chain link fences and touch the ground on the other side; sit still without moving a muscle; imitate thunderclaps with even louder repercussions; shudder at the thought of your tears and stand on each other's shoulders while insulting history.
They will take clues from flowers and plants to transcribe into morse code for heartbeats. They will dance like snakes on a legless sunrise. And they will transmutate awfulness from the evilest ills.
Drew Taylor & Julie Doogan: HOWL(ish)
The Arches, Cafe Bar & Restaurant | Fri 3 & Sat 11 October | 8.10 - 8.30pm
"We [will eventually] present a concert of words and music,
We [will eventually] present a concert of Yes and No
We [will eventually] present a concert of a changed national, financial, mental and social health
We [will eventually] present a celebration of where we find ourselves now, and how,
...We feel about that."
HOWL(ish) is HOWL(ing) in progress. Drew Taylor and Julia Doogan present snippets of ideas for their epic poem for post referendum Scotland, using beat poet Allen Ginsberg's seminal piece 'HOWL' as a basic.
The music and spoken word will be presented in conjunction with James Wilson's photographic exhibition in the Arches Cafe Bar and Restaurant.
The Arches, Studio | Thu 2 - Fri 3 October | 8.40 - 9.30pm | £8/£6
Hills of hums and plains of purrs set the scene for Make A HOO. Come chart the journey of a girl caught in an elaborate game of call and response with a shape-shifting being who only comes to life at night.
Saturated with the lure of adventure and risk, this solo performance draws on the relationship between song and labour, routine and recounting, and of trying to find your echo in a world of repetition. Coloured by live creature vocal imitations as well as radio technology, Make A HOO takes the form of modern folklore with a symphonic twist.
The Arches, Playroom | Fri 10 October | 7.15 - 8.15pm | £8/£6
Sit Down Lie Down Close Eyes Just Breathe. Listen.
This is not a show. There is no intention to this work. There is simply an offer, pure and clean. It is not about anything. It is about nothing.
RECOVERY is an immersive sound-based sensorial experience performed using live singing bowls, medicinal noise music, restorative attention and chakra clearing frequencies. Begun some time ago as a response to FK Alexander's own withdrawal from medications to observe the effects of this recovery on an artistic process.
Audience members participating in this performance will be invited to remove footwear and coats.
The Arches, B4 & Playroom | Sat 11 October | From 1pm with Final Moment 7.30 - 8pm | £8/£6
Dowry is an immersive one-to-one installation and interactive performance by Stephanie Elaine Black. Using image and action-based performance, the work allows audience members to witness the 'handing over' of the daughter on her wedding day and its devastating effects. The work is personal and political, pushing the audience to take part in the rituals of the marriage ceremony, questioning customs, traditions and female identity.
This durational performance is split into a series of one-to-ones and culminating in a final performance for the wider public. Dowry has been selected to showcase at SPILL National Platform 2014.
Ticket holders for the 1-on-1 version of Dowry get free entry to the Dowry Final Moment.
The Arches, B2 | Fri 10 - Sat 11 October | From 5pm, Friday & From 1pm, Saturday | £8/£6
Amy is a bisexual-lesbian without a mother, who likes food. She invites you to share her home-space.
PRIVATES is a multimedia one-on-one performance that looks at what we're not supposed to show one another. By developing an intimate dialogue between two strangers in a room, FMIN invite you to experiment with relationships, open the home and question your 'privates'. You will be guided through private spaces of grief, love, hunger and satisfaction, together creating a unique exploration of a hidden world in this touching and engaging work.
Please note: Ticket holders will be required to provide their email address for an artist briefing prior to the performance.
Creative Electric: Hey, I'm Alive!
The Arches, Arch 6 | Fri 10 - Sat 11 October | 6 - 6.50pm | £8/£6
When I die I want to be the centre of attention.
People with cystic fibrosis cannot socialise with one another as it increased the risk of infection. Imagine never physically connecting with someone who understands you- who understands what your future holds- because they're heading in the same direction.
There are five performers in HEY, I'M ALIVE!, one of whom has CF. Each performer is trapped inside a balloon. They're inside their own bubble with a thin layer of latex protecting them from infection. Audiences are free to wander amongst them, interact with them, observe them and listen to their stories.
Emilia Weber & Claire Healy: There They Carved A Space
The Arches, Practice Room | Fri 10 - Sat 11 October | 6 - 7pm | £8/£6
This evocative performance maps the relationship between politics and architecture. Part portrait of the urban landscape, part meditation on philosophies of home, the work weaves lyrical text, film, psychogeography, and memory to investigate what visions architecture serves.
Emilia Weber and Claire Healy present a quietly poignant work that asks us to consider our society's attitude to shelter, while reflecting critically on cultural ideas about space, place and politics. Together they reveal how the spaces we inhabit are irrepressibly intertwined with, and subjected to, social and economic influence.
Mona Bozdog: Lost in Transition
The Arches, B3 | Sat 11 October | 7.15 - 9.20pm | £8/£6
At 4, I hid under the living room table as helicopters flew over my house, heading to kill the Ceausescu. At 30, I hid under the living room table as UKIP won the European Elections.
Lost in Transition is an immersive journey into the loss of identity and language, looking at what is means to be a Romanian immigrant in present-day Britain. 25 years after Romania's first major transition, the confused generation that got lost in post-communist Romania's transition to democracy is lost once more, as 2 million immigrants- country-less and language-less- wander Europe in search of a better life.
Thomas Hobbins: Max Powers Says...
The Arches, Practice Room | Fri 10 - Sat 11 October | 8.40 - 9.40pm | £8/£6
Ladies and Gentlemen, prepare yourselves. You are about to take your first step into a larger world. Do or do not- there is no try. Let the Maximum Powers Experience begin...
Max Powers is the self-help master with all the answers and he's giving you the keys to unlock everything you've ever wanted. Stand up and be counted as Max takes you by the hand and lets you take control.
An engaging and entertaining interrogation exploring the ideas surrounding self-help, control and decision-making.
Amy Conway & Vicky Beesley: 30:60:80
The Arches, Studio | Fri 10 - Sat 11 | 8.40 - 9.40pm | £8/£6
When Amy Conway's grandma turned 30, she had three children and was thankful to finally live in a house with an indoor toilet. When her mum turned 30, she was an NHS professional, had a mortgage and was pregnant with her first child. Amy is about to turn 30. She is a single, freelancing chancer who worries about almost everything.
You are cordially invited to celebrate three birthdays. Using verbatim and autobiographical theatre, Amy Conway will try to adjust to the big 3-0 and get reacquainted with the two most important women in her life.
Directed by Victoria Beesley.
The Arches, Foyer | Fri 10 October | from 6pm | FREE
BOOM! BANG! SPLAT! CRUNCH!
A city of cardboard and glue and glitter! A city of every building you hate! A city that you can destroy!
This is a participatory installation jumping-up-and-down sparkleshow about anger and urban planning. Together we will build the worst city in the world and ritually destroy it as though we were children again. Maybe we are. In the face of sprawling regeneration, stunt architecture, entertainment megacomplexes and luxury housing, we will howl our loss through a plasticine pummelling and build a new city in a scream.
CRUNCH! SPLAT! BANG! BOOM!
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