CPR Performance Archive

EVERYDAY LIFE IN THE FOLDS OF A SERVIETTE directed by Richard Gough [June 2007]

On 5th May 2007, as part of Surrealism Laid Bare: Living in Surrealism, this unusual event will be a 'performative feast' responding to the spaces, exhibitions and displays of West Dean House--the heritage site of the symposium.

EVERYDAY LIFE IN THE FOLDS OF A SERVIETTE will inhabit and subvert the corridors and galleries of the house (adding dioramas and cabinets which will function as ‘dangerous supplements’), stirring the dark waters of the past and creating a ‘ghost train’ of hauntings and evocations; a promenade through the ‘estate’ – state rooms and grounds, encountering fragments, figments and absences, taking inspiration from the world of Joseph Cornell, collecting and museums and the grand tour (in a miniscule dimension).

It will use a surrealist approach to food – is what they see what they think it is? Here, the visual is the most striking element and will be played with in terms of the expectation of taste and consistency through colour, shape and serving. Besides the juxtaposition of object and food, there will be further interplays of inanimate and animate as well as text and music. It is rather the way of serving and presentation than a range of exotic foods that will effectively give way to an understanding of surrealism and its dimensions.

The diner-audience will experience a journey through the ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ of West Dean. Delegates will discover the delights of the beautiful and unique staterooms – Old Dining Room, Music Room and Old Library -, continuing through the elegant corridors to the more modern parts of the house. Every space will present a unique field of experience to look forward to. Throughout, the etiquette of banquets will be inverted and the manners that are ‘naturally dictated’ by the environment will be experienced in a surrealistic mode. The final part takes place in the fine West Dean gardens with its different locations, such as the orangerie, the pergola and the Victorian glasshouses. The playful pattern of the journey is expressed though a series of tasks and findings, a treasure hunt, a peregrination, a haunting of ghosts and hosts, a series of chance encounters...

More information on EVERYDAY LIFE IN THE FOLDS OF A SERVIETTE directed by Richard Gough can be found at:
www.robcunningham.com/surrealism1.html
www.westdean.org.uk

Additional documentation on EVERYDAY LIFE IN THE FOLDS OF A SERVIETTE directed by Richard Gough can be downloaded at:
description_of_symposium.doc

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