A piece of music in which the vocal soloist is given a tattoo in the last fifteen minutes, live on stage. In Laura Bowler's Advert, performed by Laura herself together with the Hamburg-based Decoder Ensemble, you can experience just that. Not unexpected when you realise that Bowler trained not only as a composer, but also as a theatre maker. She studied after the conservatoire at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, mastering the techniques of Polish theatre innovator Jerzy Grotowski. This has had a huge influence on her work.
Grotowski requires actors to give their bodies totally. The vocal apparatus must produce sound reflexes so quickly that thinking - which would destroy all spontaneity - has no time to intervene. As a performer, you must try to eliminate concrete obstacles. This applies to everything: the movement, the gesture, the facial expressions, the suppleness of the body, and the voice.
Podcast
In this podcast, Laura Bowler talks about her ways. For example, she learned to box years ago, and it has given her strength she didn't have before. The control she gained over her body also led her to get tattoos, something that was considered unthinkable with her background and social status.
But she tells us more. Advert is about how we are increasingly forced to exhibit our own identity. On social media, but also in life, and on stage.
"In the UK, if you want to get a grant from the Arts Council, it's almost no longer about the work you want to make, but about your audience, and what you want to tell them. I think that's very important too, but I think a work of art should also be valued for its own sake."
Self-pity
"It feels like you have to use every possible useful thing about yourself that has nothing to do with your art to get funding. So things like the fact that I grew up in a working-class town and didn't go to public school, those things are somehow considered useful. So there are things about your identity that you might want to keep private, like your sexuality. You may not want to use it in your work and some people do and some people don't, but the feeling prevails that you are pushed to reveal things about yourself."
In this podcast, Laura Bowler does talk about a few things, but mostly about her way of working. About how she likes to deconstruct works, how she uses her theatre experience for her music.
"Advert is also a reaction to being forced to account for personal choices in my life. I am also making a satire about an artist wallowing in self-pity."
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