Text by Rebecca Travis
Paul Becker – Floor/Ceiling/Window/Wall: Draft 2
Floor, Ceiling, Window, Wall – a series of nouns denoting the basic layout of an interior space.
In this case the interior is that of CIRCA Projects in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a disused industrial engine shed turned contemporary project space. As part of the ongoing ‘Space Release’ Programme, Paul Becker has chosen to respond to this transitory art venue by creating a series of texts, played out as one-off readings or presented as printed objects in parallel with current exhibitions.
The first draft of Floor/Ceiling/Window/Wall (Space Release #12) was performed back in February alongside the exhibition TO DO by Emma Hart and played on the theatrical and physical capabilities of spoken word. A trained actor performed a solo reading in the heart of the engine shed, with the lighting provided by a singular swinging bulb, casting fleeting shadows around the four surfaces referenced in the work’s title. Becker’s intention here bore no relation to the sense of heritage omnipresent in the space, focusing instead on the size and sound of a single voice reverberating in the large dimensions of the room.
The second draft of Floor/Ceiling/Window/Wall (Space Release #14) stepped back from performance into written word, presenting a re-worked and edited version of the performed text as a Risograph print, available for pick up from the rather less architecturally loaded entrance way to the gallery. Printed as four sides of A3 copy paper, the text is confusingly arranged so that initially there is no sense of coherent reading in the formal sense. One side is a duplicate of another, making for a seemingly endless loop reading of a dialogue that oscillates between the characters of ‘traveller’ and ‘note-taker’. There are subtle references to the nuances of the existing space, interwoven with narratives that swiftly move from one subject to the next – a jumpy, uncomfortably ‘close’ writing style reminiscent of Kurt Vonnegut’s in Slaughterhouse 5. Modernist literature is a key reference point for Becker’s written work and he cites Kafka, Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter amongst his influences.
The presentation of the text – as something to take away, a personal object to read at one’s leisure – is counter-acted by a second live reading; offering a collective and immediate viewing experience. This time the text is read by Becker himself and a second participant, their two voices conversationally playing off each other. They are seemingly ruminating over the possibilities of a space “…as though therein lies a…what? A cabal of some description perhaps” and soon descend into supposition, unfolding a twisted narrative which culminates in unintelligible phonetics. The intimate nature of a live reading, the gathering of a hushed audience at the threshold of CIRCA with a gentle breeze seeping through the doorway all makes for a heightened sense of awareness, of words, of environment.
The reading forms a pre-emptive draft of the next text in Becker’s Space Release responses, In Camera, which when re-drafted again will be presented while the gallery is closed in the summer months. What form that presentation will take and where the words will lead from here is for Becker’s artistic and authorial process to determine.
Paul Becker – Floor/Ceiling/Window/Wall: Draft 2 is on display at CIRCA Projects, Newcastle until 29 June 2013.
Rebecca Travis is an artist, curator and writer based in Newcastle.
Published 24.05.2013 by Steve Pantazis in Reviews
571 words