The Palest Light, curated by Pepa Ubera, was an evening of performance art that seemed like it was trying very hard to be a profound social comment, with fairly average results.

The evening consisted of five performances presented by different artists. However, there were commonalities between the pieces. For one, the effort that went into trying to make the audience feel something, whether that be discomfort, relaxation. There’s nothing wrong with wanting your audience to emote, but I personally felt the creators sometimes sacrificed the enjoyment of the audience to achieve this, which isn’t necessary.

Whilst the audience, who were immersed in the space on deck chairs and bean bags, were coming in, there was music by Polbrone, two brothers who played what could be described as subdued electronic. This felt like background music more than a performance that the audience was meant to give their full attention to.

Following that there was piece by Alice Chauchat with Togethering, a group solo, which involved a monologue about hospitality and the ‘dance of companionship’ that accompanied Chauchat’s jerky, awkward contemporary dance. Perhaps this is coming from my own ignorance, but the monologue felt like someone trying to articulate a philosophical idea, but not quite succeeding. I could understand Chauchat may have been trying to convey the joy of connecting with people and shared experiences, but it seemed like it was trying hard to be something deeply meaningful when it just did not resonate with me.

Marco Fabio’s Sound Bath followed, played on organic instruments such as the gong, the Himalayan bowls and crystal bowls, for which the audience were advised to lie on our backs. This portion of the evening was lovely, and seemed far more genuine than the other pieces. The sounds were beautiful and I found it to be very calming. I became restless after a while, but I imagine if one did meditation, or if you simply had more concentration you could easily sit and listen to the calming sounds for longer than thirty minutes.

Now came easily the weirdest performance. It involved strange poses the audience were meant to create with strangers, such as ‘lips on back of knee’ or ‘tongue on eyelash’, whilst another monologue was spoken, which was in itself uncomfortable to listen to. Any symbolism or deeper meaning to the performance was lost on me because it was too overwhelmingly awkward. The performance is part of a series called Health-E by Deniz Unal, which is about “the role of mainstream healthcare and the biomedical model of western medicines – its procedures and ideologies that govern and exert power over the individual”. But I got none of that during the piece. I was only thinking that my lipstick is going to ruin my poor partner’s lovely white trousers.

The final piece was entitled Ellipsis Land, and was very much in the same slightly pretentious arty lane as the other performances of the evening. My understanding of the piece was that it was a comment on the impact of media in our lives, but I’m really reaching for an understanding. The performers began the piece lying face down, squirming, whilst being filmed from an overhead camera which was projected onto a screen. Over the course of the piece, the performers writhe their way to standing, and continued to thrash violently around the space, whilst intertwined. During all of this, there were disembodied voices, saying “media”, “brain”, and “cable” etcetera. With this piece I could draw some meaning, and whilst it still felt a little forced, it didn’t feel completely artificial.

Overall the evening was a strange experience, and not one I would call entertaining, but it was certainly interesting, and very captivating, I’m sure, to those who enjoy out-of-the-box performances.

 

The Palest Light played at the Lillian Baylis on 3 and 4 March. For more information about the event, see www.sadlerswells.com

Photo: Josefina Camus