Prototypes 2006

NEXT PERFORMANCES

Whatever Happened to Colin Powell?
16th & 17th May 2008
NDSM, Amsterdam, Holland
www.ndsm.nl

Stuart Sherman
21st June 2008
Whitstable Biennale
www.whitstablebiennale.com

Dispatches
25th - 27th June 2008
IETM Satellite Meeting, Project Arts Centre, Dublin, Ireland
www.ietm.org

A NOTE ON COLIN POWELL: This is just to announce that this may well be the last time I perform this. Originally entitled simply ‘Colin Powell’, I previously felt able to pride myself on its overall topical ‘up to date-ness’, but now, the re-titling as ‘Whatever Happened to Colin Powell?’ is almost an admission of defeat. It’s a rapidly changing world, and clearly, the questions have changed, the debates have moved on…and many of the faces are different. I used to start this performance by playing a Randy Newman song called ‘Sail Away’, where Newman takes on the persona of a slave trader, trying to persuade Africans to board his ship for a new life of ‘freedom’ in America. Instead, in an attempt to inject a little additional contemporary relevance, I decided it would be useful to begin by showing some footage of Senator Barack Obama, who is currently running for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party – now bear in mind, the differences between Powell and Obama are pronounced, but I think you may understand my reasons for making this comparison. Obama’s autobiography is entitled ‘The Audacity of Hope’ and Powell’s, ‘My American Journey’. Now whether their fates remain the same remains to be seen. Ironically enough, at the time, Colin Powell’s resignation in 2005 was a godsend for this performance with much of the footage used coming from the glut of televised tributes and overviews of his career. But although the significance of Powell as a public figure has been overtaken by prevailing events, I do see in contemporary debates a reflection of many of my original concerns. Obviously, its not as simple as replacing the word ‘Colin’ with the name of the next great white audacious hope…whoever that may be. Of course currently, it seems the debate has been reduced to this singular question; is America ready for a president with the middle name…‘Hussein?’ and all that implies. President Barack Hussein Obama. So let’s just say that if this is indeed the last gasp of this particular performance, perhaps we could think of it in terms of a shift in emphasis from the topical to the prognostic. Whatever happened to Colin Powell?

NOT ANGRY. REASONABLE.

Robin Deacon is an artist, writer and filmmaker based in the UK. Working since the early 1990’s, much of his work encompasses live performance with a series of performed lectures that have explored journalistic and documentary approaches to arts practice. His work is characterised by a humorous and often satirical approach to the subject matter. His performances and videos have been presented in the UK and internationally in venues such as The Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (1996), The Young Vic Theatre, London (2000), Centre for Contemporary Culture, Barcelona (2006) and Tanzquartier Wein, Vienna (2007). Recently, he has become known for his works in political biography, with a series of performances on the lives of former US Secretary of State Colin Powell (2004 – 08) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (2005). These works have a strong multimedia element and are often rewritten in response to prevailing news events regarding their subject. The use of recorded interviews (some recorded covertly) is a key element of these and later performances. He has cited documentary filmmaker Errol Morris as an influence on this particular strand of his work. Current projects include a documentary film on the life of late US American performance artist Stuart Sherman, currently in the early stages of production. His most recent performance piece Prototypes (2006 – 08) stylistically references the output of documentary films produced by the British Transport Commission.

Stuart Sherman 2007

WHAT IS A PERFORMANCE ARTIST?

"Going up the escalator at Tottenham Court Road tube station recently, I saw an advertisement for some sort of new fangled digital camera. Below the picture of this consumer durable was the caption 'Performance Artist'. Looking at the caption, I wondered as to whether this was some bizarre allusion to the clichés of self laceration, nudity and profligate use of taxpayers money that are often associated with the phrase 'Performance Artist'. Perhaps the ad-men were even canny enough to have spotted the niche market amongst performance artists for tools of documentation such as the one pictured here." Read more...

TODAYS SPONSOR

"Believe it or not, when I was growing up, I was never racially abused by white children. Actually, that's not strictly true. I was called a Paki once, but being a case a mistaken identity, I didn't consider this to be a racist comment. But at school, it was amongst the black children that I was deeply unpopular. It seemed my education, my accent, my dress sense, my lack of any black friends, my lack of interest in the crude misogyny of rap music, its vulgar vernacular, my lack of any black friends…whatsoever...for some reason, all this was construed as being some kind of betrayal of my so called roots. Now reactions to this manifested themselves in several ways..." (from Colin Powell) Read more...

COVERT FILMING

Piers Morgan in the BBC pilot show First Edition (as yet uncommissioned). This footage was filmed through a small hole in a shoulder bag for the aborted Live residency. Read more...

"Not even by the remotest stretch of the imagination could you call this good. . .

...that is not to say that Robin Deacon's show isn't interesting: well interesting theoretically, if not always interesting in its theatrical execution. In fact, it tries to be rather too clever for its own good, turning his story of the search for the truth into a meditation on the treachery of truth and storytelling, and the way it is possible to find what you want embedded in any narrative; whether it is an announcement of the second coming, or a coded message in a school photograph that spells out the racial insult 'coons'". (Lyn Gardner on Harry & Me, The Guardian, 2004). For this and other reviews, click here...

Harry and Me 2004

FULL DISCLOSURE

The question of what is legitimate to put on a website remains. There is (personally speaking) an element of embarrassment relating to much of my early output. So, in the spirit of glasnost click here for examples of performances that seem to contradict the rather more cerebral elements of my current work.

COMPLAINTS

"I find it beyond belief that a sensible website such as yours should portray the photograph that is is displayed...with the man holding a station sign up. He is stood with his back to the direction of train movements, obviously trespassing on railway property, with his right leg on uneven ballast, less than one foot from the power rail. If you, as I have, on numerous occasions, had to go out onto the line to collect the remnants of children and adults that have been struck and killed by trains, or the children I have dealt with that have suffered horrific electrical burns from the conductor rail, sometimes fatal, always life changing due to damage caused to tissue/burning, then maybe you would not consider displaying such a photograph."

Complaint submitted regarding publicity image for my Terminal Decline tour, 2005. For offending image, click here...

GERMANY NEEDS A MERKEL

A residency at Berlin's Sophiensaele during the summer of 2005 culminated in Dispatches, an 'outsiders' response to the German general election. The gentleman below had no idea who Angela Merkel was, but claimed to have drunk a Coca Cola with Jesus in a bar in Eindhoven...

ROBIN: You don't know who Angela Merkel is?

PREACHER: No. (pause) I know what a Merkel is!

ROBIN: What's a Merkel?

PREACHER: The things that Jesus did...

Read more...

MEET THE PARENT

They Used To Call It A White Elephant, a peformance and film at The De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill during 2005 saw me comprehensively upstaged by my own father. Read more...

CV PROTESTS

There is a suspicion that 'interventions' by artists that purport to be politically motivated are in fact ego driven, with more of an interest in personal notoriety than in the efficacy of the act itself. Perhaps this due to the fact that those of us who go through the art school system are taught as individuals pursuing a personal 'vision', or in some cases, celebrity status. (from Return Your Consumption...) Read more...