Scarcity or plenty? – Book Review
Lewis Hyde, The Gift: How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World (Edinburgh: Canongate, 2007; first publ. 1983)
Like Marcel Hénaff’s Le Prix de la Vérité (see forthcoming review), Hyde’s book is a reworking of the concept of gift, as analysed by Mauss (‘Essai sur le don’, 1923-24), Lévi-Strauss (Les Structures élémentaires de la parenté, 1949), and others.
In this case, Hyde focuses on the arts, making characteristically bold claims for the scope of his work. To give him his dues, The Gift is a a wide-ranging treatment of the topic. Beginning from the classic starting point in social anthropology, Hyde goes on to offer a detailed analysis of usury in the Christian West, including some good points with regard to Calvin and Luther. The latter, for example affirms ‘a scarcity of grace and gift’. Scarcity becomes a dirty word when Hyde contrasts it with plenty in this section. Furthermore, he identifies that in a gift-based system any surplus is passed forward to the recipient, while in usury the surplus is retained by the creditor.
There are also fascinating chapters on Walt Whitman and Ezra Pound, and insights into the workings of political and business economics in 1970s and 80s Capitalism.
Certain themes recur throughout Hyde’s study. The most prominent of these is the grouping of money, Logos, and commerce over and against gift, Eros, and imagination. It is easy to see which grouping Hyde finds most attractive, and only in the final chapter does he begin to ask how the two groups can interact. It is here that more thinking is required, to see how the arts – and society at large – can reincorporate the idea of plenty into our scarcity-driven thinking.
Filed under Arts, Books, English, History, Society | Comment (0)Treasured – A Secret Journey: Theatre Review
As a finished piece of work, ‘Treasured – A Secret Journey’ (performed at MAC, Birmingham 9-27 June 2010) is dramaturgically convincing. Having previously seen ‘Treasured’ (The Other Way Works, 2006), from which the current performance has been developed, I particularly appreciated the introduction of a narrative thread to accompany the jewellery which nevertheless remains the real star of this show.
In its new form, the show has come to be structured around the promise of a story. The audience member happens upon an isolated yurt on a stormy evening and is welcomed in. Tea is made, and one is invited to choose a story.
Already at this point the theme of choice comes as a shock. To choose one story is to reject another (although there is nothing to stop you from going around again, if you enjoy the first one). But to choose is also to embrace a limitation and to celebrate a thing in its particularity.
Whichever piece of jewellery and corresponding story one chooses, one still gets to see the other pieces. And this is both frustrating and exciting, because it heightens one expectations for the piece one has chosen. Next, the audience member is led through an enactment of their chosen story. Each of these has been specially written for the show, and while each has its own ‘feel’, there are commonalities.
Depending on the story one has chosen – and without wanting to give too much away – the audience member experiences another choice, but this time it is not their own. Standing in the place of a girl or a young man, whichever is the main protagonist in the chosen story, the audience member witnesses a moment of decision and its consequences. The decisions enacted all seem to have a moral, although in one case this is darkly ambiguous. The effect is to see desire and temptation ‘in slow motion’, as it were, and from the outside. This is both troubling and cathartic. It helps that one is encouraged to linger and reread ones story again at the end of the performance.
Alongside the narrative core of the show are powerful nonverbal elements. At one point one is mesmerised by a flower opening, or by the sound of distant thunder. One runs in pursuit, or is chased, hunted down. This is exhilarating. Lighting, set, and soundscape work together to create a magical atmosphere, while the cast use touch, voice, tone, and movement gently and persuasively. The effect of the whole experience is to make one feel immensely privileged – treasured.
Filed under Arts, Birmingham, Narrative, Theatre | Comment (0)The biggest pyramid scheme of them all – Art Review
‘What’s in it for me?’
by New Display Strategies
17 February – 27 March 2010
Seventeen gallery, Kingsland Rd. London E2 8AA
Beneath a pyramid structure, a video traces the exploitation of the masses in the creation of such prestige icons as Versailles, skyscrapers, and – of course – the pyramids. We hear a quote from the Chicago Tribune that compares such decadent architecture with eating nothing but cake, and we are reminded of the words of Marie Antoinette to this effect.
Behind us is another pyramid structure displaying… cakes. And pretty decadent cakes at that!
A third and final element in the show is another video which apes a Calvin Klein advert. Various ‘artists’ in jeans pose for the camera, while the offscreen voice of the photographer asks them slightly uncomfortable and inappropriate questions. “So, you’re an artist [...] Have you shown internationally? [...] Do you ever make love in a show? etc.
This show runs until 27 March and is highly recommended.
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