FORGIVING NIGHT FOR DAY

Transcription

1 FORGIVING NIGHT FOR DAY Jacobus Capone Education Notes 18 FEB 16 APR Principal Education Partner EDUCATION NOTES 1

2 Filmed in Lisbon over seven consecutive sunrises, Forgiving Night for Day (18 February - 16 April) is a contemplative reflection on the poetic Portuguese word saudade, an expression of deep nostalgia and longing for people, places and times irrevocably lost. During a winter spent in Lisbon a lyric was written by Jacobus Capone in response to the empty early morning streets and inspired by the emotive and sombre registers of Fado, a traditional Portuguese music genre. Each morning saw the song re-performed a cappella by a different Fado singer from viewpoints overlooking the city reawakening with the rising of the sun. Curriculum These notes are provided online so that you may distribute them to teachers and students with ease. You may photocopy sections of notes or ask students to print them out themselves. You can modify the text, questions and activities in these Education Notes as as required for your particular students, to best suit their needs. Remember to look at the classroom activities on Page 7 & 8, which relate to these specific links. If any of your students submit written answers and/or artwork of a high standard in response to the exhibition or the suggested questions and activities, please forward a copy to: Minaxi May Education Programs Curator PICA, GPO Box P1221 Perth, WA, 6844 or education@pica.org.au We are always looking for outstanding examples of student work that has been sparked by our exhibition content. PLEASE NOTE: All images used in the Education Notes are reproduced with the artists permission. Forgiving Night for Day has Education Links across the SCASA & WACE/ATAR curricula All images: Forgiving Night For Day, Jacobus Capone, Perth Institute Of Contemporary Arts. Contents The Arts: Media Arts Media Production & Analysis, Music & Visual Arts English: Language & Literature 3 About the Artist Interests About the Work Inspirations 4 Process 5 6 Key Ideas 7 8 Classroom Activities Languages: Portuguese Humanities & Social Sciences: Intercultural Studies Principal Education Partner Education Partners EDUCATION NOTES 2

3 About the Artist About the Work Jacobus Capone (born 1986, Perth, Western Australia), received his Bachelor of Visual Arts from Edith Cowan University in 2007 graduating with a work that saw him cross Australia by foot, to pour water from the Indian Ocean into the Pacific (which he carried each day on the 147 day journey). Recent major exhibitions include: Dark Learning, PSArtspace (Fremantle, 2015); NEW16, Australian Centre of Contemporary Art (Melbourne, 2016); and Volta, Success Fremantle, 2016). Interests Process is a priority in Capone s art. His approach is performative with a focus on ritualistic actions and gestures used to represent the unknown. Capone is interested in environmental installation creating entire environments for the audience to experience. The artist is focused on the ideas of solitude and distrupting the preconcieved ideas and relationships surrounding notions of the everyday. Capone s art juxstaposes personal feelings and intimacy with large scale installations video installation, as a way of re-presenting the original happenings orevents. During his three months in Portugal, Jacobus wrote Fado verses, which he taped to his chest during his late night walks through the city. Over this time he revised the text, the refinement of the writing mirroring his gradual acclimatisation to the city. Towards the end of his residency, the song was performed a cappella just before each sunrise for seven days, by seven different fadistas. Each timed their solo to begin at the time the last singer left off, the final singer completing their verses with the rising of the sun. The verse is an acknowledgment of how the self changes with each day, reforming daily to accommodate its immediate environment. 1 Forgiving Night for Day is being shown for the first time publically as a site-specific installation at PICA. Inspirations Capone was inspired to write the lyrics for Forgiving Night for Day by the writings of Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher, Fernando Pessoa. He was interested in ideas surrounding splitting personalities or the splintering of one s existence and how we look for meaning, but also how that process of finding meaning can be futile. Capone wanted to use saudade as a way of expressing meaning through the genre of Fado. The relationship between the audience and singer are like humble gatherings. Artists Belgian/Mexican artist Francis Alÿs and Dutch conceptual/ performance artist Bas Jan Ader 1 Andrew Varano. Forsaking Night for Day (Perth: PICA, 2016) EDUCATION NOTES 3

4 Process Forgiving Night for Day was conceived and the lyrics written by Capone in Australia. In Portugal Capone connected body and text, heightening his connection to the words by walking with the lyrics taped to his chest (heart). Capone often creates work that is timed around sunrise or sunset. Forgiving Night for Day was filmed building up to sunrise (around 6.15am), filmed over seven consecutive days for about 40 minutes each day. One singer a day performed. This is the first time Capone has worked with others in his art practice. In collaborating with the singers, Capone created a relationship of reciprocity offering and taking. He allowed the singers to interpret their presentation of the lyrics and in exchange for their skills he offered time for solitude and meditative singing away from the everyday hustle. Capone was conscious of maintaining fluidity in his work and reverence for the singers cultures. There is always minimal post-production in Capone s videos. For Forgiving Night for Day he did colour grades and fade ins/outs. A sound engineer developed the sound in order for precise acoustic and sound projection within the large PICA space. EDUCATION NOTES 4

5 Key Ideas Nostalgia Connecting to the past as a longing e.g. sentimentality, traditional values, remembering, regret, homesickness. How does Forgiving Night for Day exemplify feelings of nostalgia? Saudade Feeling of longing, melancholy, loss and/or nostalgia especially in relation to poetry and song. Saudade originated in Portugal. It is a representation of the genuine suffering of the soul the relationship to human condition 2 Fado Portuguese musical tradition from the 1820s. Fado is expressive and melancholic. There are two types: Lisbon Fado better known. Roots found amongst the marginalized peoples. Working-class appeal. Can be sung by any gender and is more about conceding to hardships. Improvised. Forgiving Night for Day relates to this genre. would come to define in its most melancholic expression: 4 The word fado, to me, means sadness. ( ) I am very sentimental and sometimes even dramatic, so I like to sing sadness, and saudade ( ) makes us release in the voice that very special pain that is almost an inner cry of sadness. 5 Meditative Loop The vídeo sequences were all filmed in one take and function as a presentation of continual concentration, study or pondering on a conceptual theme or act. Task performance Objective that is followed through, sometimes repetitively. Capone also allows transition in the moment (spontaneity) in his performances (gestures). Endurance Endurance performance is often performed solo with minimal props. The actions by the body are emphasised, often pushed to extremes of physical exhaustion: to extremes of its survival to demonstrate the ways to overcome the physical limits of the individual body...[such as] resistance to pain. 6 Coimbra Fado Linked to the University of Coimbra singers wear the academic regalia and sign at night in the streets and city square. Privileged classes. Only sung by men and is about hope. Rehearsed. 3 Within the framework of a Western European tradition that has always found in music the consolation of set hours, in Portugal Fado since the 19th century has been enshrined with notions of saudade ; an untranslatable term hinting at an irrevocable longing and yearning. Assuming a central place in the diverse manifestations of Fado and its poetic repertoires, saudade became core to the pathos and character of the fadista, an identity that Amalia Rodrigues 2 Fernando Santoro. Saudade (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, ND), chapters/s6_10097.pdf 3 Tony Coelho. Fado The Soul of Portuguese Music (July 31, 2015). fado-seoul-portuguese-music 4 Sara Pereira. Forgiving Night for Day (Lisboa: Directora do Museu do Fado). Ttranslated by Pedro Gomes 5 Amália Rodrigues. em entrevista a Luis MACHADO, Amália, Confidências em Noite de Primavera (Lisboa: Ancora Editora, 2001), Tatiana A. Koroleva. Subversive Body in Performance. Buffalo, NY: State University of New York, 2008), 4 & 29 EDUCATION NOTES 5

6 Key Ideas Long Durational Performance There is a committment to process and to what happens in the pursuit of that. Capone is interested in the romanticsm and pointlessness of doing, but not necessarily focusing on getting something out of it. Loneliness Performance as an activity of solitude or as a reflection of loneliness, which juxstaposes with our fast paced lives slowing down to the essence of the everyday and aloneness. Resources Artist s website: Jacobus Capone: Singers websites and links: Pedro Mountinho: Maria Emilia Reis: CDRY Sandra Correia: Rodrigo Costa Felix: Nadine Bras: Henriquinha : EDUCATION NOTES 6

7 CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES 1. Compare and Contrast Fado meaning fate could be described as the Lisbon Blues. The singer is called the fadista and is often accompanied by musicians with instruments including the Portugese 12 string guitar. Around the same time as Fado originated the Blues was being developed by the African Americans (USA). The Blues, like Fado is a way of expressing deep often melancholic emotions about the everyday, by regular folk. I. In groups, pairs or individually research the traditions of Fado and the Blues. II. Ask questions and consider: a. Culture e.g. what role does culture play in the music? b. The people e.g. who were the people, who played the music? c. The music e.g. arrangement, lyrics, instruments, voice tone d. Social/historical context e. Significance of the music to the people f. Influences g. Impact of these genres e.g. culturally, artistically, musically h. Languages III. Use the research to divide the class in three (Fado, Blues and audience) to have a class debate/discussion comparing and contrasting the value of the two genres of music. OR Individually students can write an essay. OR Concentrate on the music component use this research to create versions of Fado and the Blues. You may want to look up other traditional folk music examples such as Flamenco. IV. Present creations to the rest of the class. This exercise may develop skills in Music analysis, construction & playing; English language, lyrics, analysis, comparring, contrasting, writing, speaking & presenting; History research; Humanities & Social Sciences understanding of other cultures EDUCATION NOTES 7

8 CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES 2. Generating Writing Capone was inspired by Fernando Pessoa, a writer who like psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung, poet William Butler Yeats and the Surrealist artists used the technique of automatic writing (psychography). This process allows the writer to produce words from the unconscious, to create innovative unedited stream of consciousness writing. Like Capone s lyrics to Forgiving Night for Day, this process connects to personal feelings. Rules: Pen and paper only. Write first, edit later - no editing or scribbling out, just write whatever as it comes to mind. If nothing comes to mind write the word given repeatedly until something new comes to mind. Write as fast or faster than you think. Just get it out. Close your eyes to make it even more challenging and to resist the urge to edit. PART A I. Brainstorm as a class or look at the key words and themes (presented earlier) in Jacobus Capone s Forgiving Night for Day. VI. Write until the teacher says stop VII. Continue this process until selected words are completed. VIII. Students to read and edit what they have written e.g. grammar/ spelling (can be done on a computer) PART B I. Work in groups or individually. From the edited automatic writing develop a narrative, poem or lyrics for a song. If in groups they could add a line each. Students may want to highlight sections. II. Keep working on this and developing the writing until it is completed. III. The finished writing can be extended into visuals or placed together with music. Make sure to consider the media, tone, and techniques to align with the essence/feelings of the writing. To make this more performative and to meditate on the writing wear the words like Capone did, on your heart. Repeat the words aloud or memorise them. This exercise may develop skills in English language, creative writing, editing, expressing emotions; Other skills time management, spontaneity, extending ideas into the Arts II. Depending on the time available choose one or more of these words. III. Students have pen and paper ready. IV. Teacher to call out the word, whilst students write the word down. V. With timer in hand, give the students a limited amount of time (about 5-10mins per word) to handwrite whatever comes to mind in relation to the word. These words may be from viewing Capone s art piece, or other feelings or memories. EDUCATION NOTES 8