1.3.14
av festival 14: extraction presents
'Show Shadows Surrounded By Obscurity'
a performance by bruce mcclure
at baltic, gateshead
by rebecca farr
On March 1st this month, I marched with elevated haste into Bruce McClure’s gallows.
Arriving slightly late, I emerged through the Baltic doors into a disorientating chaos of sonic light strobes and polyrhythmic sound signals that filled your throat and chest as much as your ears. I quickly took my place on the nearest bench in the left viewing chamber, facing the high wall that cut diagonally across the space, housing the visual flickers.
I had researched with curiosity into McClure’s immersive live projection performances using 16mm film, which are seen to characteristically render their audiences into a kind of ‘ecstatic reverie’. However, I believe that words cannot quite do justice to the almost supernatural intensity one experiences first hand during a Bruce McClure performance. The experience could be compared to the sensations resulting from hallucinogenic drugs; norms of 'appropriate' ‘literary’ language do not quite suffice in conveying the experience. Nevertheless anyone who has participated in McClure’s installations will remember the sensory performance through the interstices of this text.
Arriving slightly late, I emerged through the Baltic doors into a disorientating chaos of sonic light strobes and polyrhythmic sound signals that filled your throat and chest as much as your ears. I quickly took my place on the nearest bench in the left viewing chamber, facing the high wall that cut diagonally across the space, housing the visual flickers.
I had researched with curiosity into McClure’s immersive live projection performances using 16mm film, which are seen to characteristically render their audiences into a kind of ‘ecstatic reverie’. However, I believe that words cannot quite do justice to the almost supernatural intensity one experiences first hand during a Bruce McClure performance. The experience could be compared to the sensations resulting from hallucinogenic drugs; norms of 'appropriate' ‘literary’ language do not quite suffice in conveying the experience. Nevertheless anyone who has participated in McClure’s installations will remember the sensory performance through the interstices of this text.
Bruce McClure, (2014), Image Courtesy of BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
McClure’s installation, commissioned by A/V Festival, was inspired by Robert Smithson’s 1971 sketch, proposing that a converted cave or an abandoned mine would make for a truly underground cinema cavern. The work unfolds in two parts: A Cinematic Atopia - The Process of its Construction is a day long installation that divides the space into two viewing chambers, before the ensuing performance Build my Gallows High.1 Show Shadows Surrounded By Obscurity could be an exploration into our perceptions of Cinema perhaps, traditional theatre requirements which provisionally, and subconsciously prepare the viewer: A foyer full of sugary concessions, soft, velvety carpet which leads you into the darkened space set up with of rows of strategically planned seating, facing the large, glaring projection screen. Instead McClure invites the viewer to watch the transformation of gallery space into his cinematic idyll: A space focused on creating the essence of cinema; evoking perceptions through the work itself rather than through traditional architectural settings and structures.
Amongst the flickering shadows on screen that blur into abstractions and the intense rhythmic strobes of light tuned with multiple guitar effect pedals, McClure brings his viewers into a trance-like state, captivated by the overwhelming intensity that inebriates the senses. With time, the flashing lights appear relentless, and the dizzying confusion becomes almost unbearable. I couldn’t help but look around at the other viewers, wanting to know if this feeling was unanimous, of which my observations told me yes. Most had attempted to block their eyes and ears with their hands and ear plugs, shut off their senses, overwhelmed. Whilst others, myself included, attempted to endure the entirety of the performance, nervously hoping that I had no underlying epileptic conditions. It was an experience to say the least. One that I wouldn’t rush back to in a hurry, although very unique in its form.
1 Baltic Mill, https://www.balticmill.com/whats-on/artist-events/bruce-mcclure <accessed 5th march>
Rebecca farr is a final year Fine Art student at Newcastle University, for more information on her work, please visit: www.rebeccafarr.co.uk
Amongst the flickering shadows on screen that blur into abstractions and the intense rhythmic strobes of light tuned with multiple guitar effect pedals, McClure brings his viewers into a trance-like state, captivated by the overwhelming intensity that inebriates the senses. With time, the flashing lights appear relentless, and the dizzying confusion becomes almost unbearable. I couldn’t help but look around at the other viewers, wanting to know if this feeling was unanimous, of which my observations told me yes. Most had attempted to block their eyes and ears with their hands and ear plugs, shut off their senses, overwhelmed. Whilst others, myself included, attempted to endure the entirety of the performance, nervously hoping that I had no underlying epileptic conditions. It was an experience to say the least. One that I wouldn’t rush back to in a hurry, although very unique in its form.
1 Baltic Mill, https://www.balticmill.com/whats-on/artist-events/bruce-mcclure <accessed 5th march>
Rebecca farr is a final year Fine Art student at Newcastle University, for more information on her work, please visit: www.rebeccafarr.co.uk