photo by Jim Harold 
photo by Jim Harold 
photo by the artists 
photo by Liba Taylor | Offshore Rig and The Navigators (1987-1988) |
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Bow Gamelan Ensemble London International Festival of Theatre Both these commissions from LIFT gave scope to the potential that our familiarity with the Thames allowed. Both required working around the tides to facilitate movements of vessels before and during performances. Offshore Rig on the Thames island Lots Ait included using high pressure air to produce bubbling water under the seats of the audience built on scaffolding in the river as well as high pressure water with analine dye to create a bright red waterfall. Aware of the dynamic Indian presence and culture in the local area of Southall, we invited the Treveni Kathak Dance Troupe whose delicate bell sounds and colourful presence contrasted wildly with our aluminium beer barrel ‘carillon’ and the dark industrial enormity of the site. For The Navigators we collected a flotilla of vessels to make performances between Bow Creek and Richmond. We spent several weeks living on the river and journeyed through London engaging different presences at various sites to suddenly extend and become part of the whole such as a giant hot air balloon rising up behind Richmond Bridge with people in the basket below playing foghorns. The most spectacular piece in the London International Festival of Theatre is non-verbal… The Bow Gamelan Ensemble are joined in Offshore Rig by American artist and percussionist z’ev. The work is presented on an offshore island in the Thames. Using a derelict dry dock with three enormous sheds they stage their spectacle. Exploring experimental areas in sound, performance, light and sculpture, Bow Gamelan create a work of great elegance and originality that is accessible without being compromised. A stream of semi-rehearsed, semi improvised ‘music’ created from fireworks and industrial junk (chimes, steam whistles, long swinging ropes of firecrackers) is interwoven with a variety of lighting effects (spotlights, flares, searchlights, coloured lights and gases). Subtle changes, or sometimes bold and sudden ones, create changing vistas and aural perspectives and rich sculptural silhouettes. Gallery Magazine Bow Gamelan Ensemble was the highlight of LIFT's first week… What they do successfully evades categorisation and amusingly blurs the highbrow-lowbrow distinction which dogs most performances. The sheer scale of the thing is a delight to behold, the unexpected explosions a regular cause of spontaneous laughter. The smoke and light constantly create a strange beauty where you would never have expected to find it. Offshore Rig is literally wonderful. The Sunday Times The packed banks of the River Thames have never been treated to tubes of smoke filled plastic erupting from a barge, miniature helicopters buzzing round like demented owls - you needed only to look away for a moment to miss firecrackers, giant mobiles of cymbals as high pressure fired water onto them, fire filled rusting jaws of baths opening and closing in crocodile like motion, or fleeting glimpses of a colourful hot air balloon, seemingly suspended amidst the traffic of Richmond Bridge. Evening Standard Back to the Bow Gamelan Ensemble main page. |