GAIP 12. Oct. @ Testing Grounds General/Impression Notes: CHUN-LIANG LIU

GAIP 12. Oct. @ Testing Grounds General/Impression Notes October 13, 2014 at 11:06am This is the general notes for what I saw and felt. There will be a longer field/performer notes later. 1. The weather is important. Yesterday it was very sunny and it also means that there are potential audience there. 2. It's all too possible to become the crazy artists doing our own things while the others do their own. But I still believe in a more interactive performance. 3. The conversation between the collaboration is equally important. 4. Scott (the musician) often starts his performance standing far away from others. I suppose that's because the sounds/music he creates has a very poignant quality which is quite penetrating. 5. It's really up to an artist's own choice at the moment to take the stimuli differently. 6. The trucks outside Testing Grounds was a huge influence on me. 7. At one point, when I was ready to go, the artist who was sitting at Testing Grounds making small poppy flowers told me that she noticed that I was interacting with her (by making a similar movement in sewing). It's a humbling moment for me to know that she noticed and felt it, even for a brief second, that we both found each other's presence in our own movements. 8. Scott the poet was a genuine performer. He gave me an impression as a child who got really excited when the story was forming. 9. I know it's shallow but I really love Elnaz's dress. She has a strong presence as well, more performative compared to Scott. I think it's a good combination with Scott and Elnaz (but she probably already knew it otherwise they wouldn't be partners in performance for so long). 10. Shani, who performed with Elnaz, Scott the poet and Jordan had a very lovely voice (and another pretty dress). 11. The sunlight gave a different quality to the puppet theatre. I like the night times one better. But I don't think that's deemed to be that way. I think the puppets with bright wigs were a smart choice in the sunlight. 12. There was a moment when Clinton was having his vinyl playing and Reuben was operating (?) the radioset and I got literally crazy for the sounds coming from both sides. I wished someone has taped it but at the same time I wish it was crystallized at that moment by memory as well. 13. Michael hid himself after I ran around the container. I was literally "looking for him" all over Testing Grounds. Why didn't it occur to me to run around the container again to seek him? Funny how human minds play. 14. Gary had his guitar frictioned everywhere. Seriously, I hope it's a cheap guitar. 15. I love how the strings make the sounds when Gary was moving an iron barrel. I was glad that I helped in the process as well. 16. The grounds of Testing Grounds was full of sands and it created the best music. 17. It also damaged my boots seriously when Michael dragged me for like ten meters only. 18. I like how Juana calmly arranged all her installations. When she wrapped the half-transparent material around Ren's head and neck there was something holy in it. 19.Reuben was lying there listening to Clinton. 20. And Michael and I was very far away from them, hitting the fence, bumping into the fence, yelling "Hi" to the drivers. 21. And it's a perfect day to spread and yield. 22. I was touched to see Jordan making his music when Elnaz and Shani sang and danced. 23. And when Jordan was blindfolded with a white fabric and exploring, to see him hesitating and having the coke... 24. There was a united moment when Ren, Juana, and Jordan were all having their necks stimulated by different materials. Ren was standing on the last. I took the grass and moved it all around his nape. He was paying so much attention on stimulating others that he really didn't realize the grass was coming. And then from the giving end I became the receiving end. 25. How sensitive the nape could be. 26. And then Cliton pointed a sentence from John Cage while Elnaz n the others were rehearsing (I thought it was the actual performance XD). "Art has to come within." 27. I always feel that what a pioneer New York Artist do/did was a bit alienating for a Taiwanese sociologist-artist, but at that moment I truly felt it. Not from John Cage, but from Clinton who pointed a finger at a sentence from him. 28. Ren was a little frustrated that he wished there were more artists. But what I saw was that a lot more artists from GAIP last time stayed a lot longer this time. It meant that we were willing to stay and listen and interact and see it as a whole thing instead of one person performing in an arranged gig. 29. After seeing Clinton performed two times in Current it was a pleasure to interact with him in GAIP. 30. Michael passed one of his drumstick to me, then I passed it to Sam. The simple gesture of sharing. 31.Let's do it again! * Oh yes another thing that I meant to write, while the musicians and dancers/performers were busy with their own stuff, Carmen and Juana has gradually turned Testing Grounds into another landscape installing different fabrics. I love this organic change.