A new work at The Perimeter Space, Griffin Gallery, London. Curated by Karen David.
7 September - 20 October 2017.
Anne-Marie Creamer’s exhibition A Diagram of Waiting at the Perimeter Space, the Griffin Gallery, takes as its subject the linear progression, and dramatic staging, of the transition of an actor into a fictional character, including the initial stages of the script, diagrams of the gestures and movements of the actor, props and lighting, the actor endlessly rehearsing a single scene, and finally silhouettes and props of the actors and stage.
Creamer has a long-time interest in theatricality, and the complicated ambiguities of presence, disappearance, and representation, which can emerge as the consequence of certain processes. In this, the theatre stage retains a complex position in her work, often proposed as a space of latent becoming; into fiction, into time, into differing identities and imaginary locations, and as such it is a constant reference in A Diagram of Waiting. This exhibition explores some of the paradoxes of an actor’s verisimilitudinous affectation of emotion and how this can be translated into different mediums and formats, using image, shape, colour, outline, text, and lighting as a series of related ‘presence effects’.
The exhibition has been developed from two interconnected elements, two related moments of waiting. One, a drawing, the qualities, and tension of which obliquely inform much of the exhibition, of a fragmented body waiting to be seen on a theatre stage. The second takes a scenario of an actor as they try to inhabit a fictional character. This is based on a series of stills taken from a moment of a rehearsal with an actress and lighting technician at Teatro Valle in Rome in 2012, elements of which featured in Anne-Marie's film,'Treatment for Six Characters'. Moments from this rehearsal have been refracted throughout the exhibition; turned into the basis for a short play, a diagram of notations of the gestures and movements of the actor during rehearsal, stills from rehearsal itself, and finally a series of cut out silhouetted figures taken from ‘Treatment...’ now turned into a reversed tableau made of silhouetted figures, set against geometric spotlit painted shapes and shown from the perspective of looking in from the wings of the theatre. A backstage viewing; A Diagram for Waiting.
Karen David, Griffin Gallery. 2017.
Exhibition link;
https://griffingallery.co.uk/exhibitions/anne-marie-creamer-a-diagram-for-waiting
Exhibition Pamphlet, to download click here.
A Diagram of Waiting, Screenplay, a micro play
Vinyl lettering
2017
This part of A Diagram of Waiting is a micro play, which uses the formatting of a page from a screenplay to present a fictionalized account of Anne-Marie's rehearsal with an actress for one of her own films, Treatment for Six Characters, aiming to present the moment of actor feels they have successfully embodied a fictional character.
This is a detail of the work 'A notation of the Movements and Gestures of an Actor During Rehearsal', including the movement of tears, which forms part of the wider work A Diagram of Waiting.
This large drawing was developed from rehearsals with the actress Simona Senzacqua for one of my Anne-Marie's film A Treatment for Six Characters. It layers several differing methods of notation and approaches to drawing to convey the movements and gestures of an actor in space.
This includes 'blocking notation', used by directors and actors to signal movement and gesture, including speed, pause, direction, and force, also directions of when to speak, lie down, knee, stop, etc. This notation language is set against Anne-Marie's tracing from her own film footage of the movements of the actress Simoma Senzacqua as she moved through the sequences of Anne-Marie's film Treatment for Six Characters, and includes the movements of her mouth as she spoke, and the moment's tears welled in her eyes as she embodied the part of a fictional character of The Mother in Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello's prelude to his famous play Six Characters in Search of a Character.
This section of A Diagram of Waiting places four images stills from rehearsals and the finally selected sequences from Anne-Marie film, A Treatment for Six Characters. Each presents the actress Simona Senzaqua's efforts to capture the role of the character of the Mother from a work by Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello. The stills are presented within a wooden enclosure with partial blue swagged canopy, a form of tiny theatre or a vertical room that also acts as a presentation device.
This section of A Diagram of Waiting takes two different film stills from one of Anne-Marie's films, A Treatment for Six Characters. Each of these centre on rehearsals from a key sequence of the film, which took place at Teatro Valle, Rome, 2012. Anne-Marie has turned the actress Simona Senzaqua and lighting technician Saba Kasmai into two silhouetted free-standing forms, which are presented with their backs to the audience of the Perimenter Space at the Griffin Gallery. Intending to propose that the main show is withheld and that the show is taking place in elsewhere this is a reversed viewing, seen from the wings of a notional theatre space.
A new work at the Perimeter Space, Griffin Gallery, London. Curated by Karen David. 7 September - 20 October 2017.
A Diagram of Waiting, Screenplay, a micro play
Vinyl lettering
2017