What Debbie Hopes for
Tonight, Photo © E&L Studios/FrenchMottershead
Social was a live art platform looking at social rituals and roles. How do
expectations shape experience? At what point do we question whether
something is real or performed?
Presented as a one-night-only private members' club and hosted by London's
Surdoc Social and Latvian Welfare Clubs, Social took on each venue's
characteristics and added subtle interactions activating audience
and performer, including a marriage, Latvian Folk dance lessons, a
stripper and many other exaggerated social behaviours.
The actions were performed by FrenchMottershead, the staff and members
of each venue, collaborating artists Robin Deacon,
Laurence Harvey, Rosie Thwaites, Matthew Walmsley, Mark Wayman and students from Goldsmiths and Central St.Martins.
Social - Surdoc Social
Club, Surrey Quays, London, 24 September 1999
Surdoc is a CIU-affiliated working man's club originally for local
dock workers, that now offers local men and women discounted beer,
live music, entertainers, sports, day trips, bingo, disco and karaoke.
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| Matthew gets punished for
petty crimes |
New experience |
Flyer |
| What people hoped
would happen |
What happened |
| Suzanne |
"new experience" |
| Clare |
"get
really drunk and have a dance" |
| Andy |
"something more sexist" |
| Kate |
"a special dance
that isn't forced by a performance artist" |
| Fenton |
"to be surprised,
delighted and get off with a woman downstairs" |
| Carola |
"lots of fun" |
| Norman |
"not to get too pissed" |
| Marijke |
"courage to sing
for a pint downstairs" |
| Mira |
"Stripper" |
| Matthew |
"to be suddenly short
listed for the Turner Prize, win and for the Northern Line to
be no longer flooded" |
| Scott |
"drink as much liquid
as I can" |
| Debbie |
"get home in one
piece" |
| Matthew |
"a good time, experience
something different from the usual Friday night" |
| Milica |
"more
structural performance" |
| Katie |
"a good
hard snog" |
| Mark |
"strippers
and 50's type burlesque" |
| Wayne |
"get home" |
|
| Julie copped Matthew and stripped
him bare. |
| A limo circled the building all night
and D-list celebrities never appeared |
| The crab-man touted a Southport processed
sea-food basket |
| London Electricity power supply contracts
were signed on beer soaked tables |
| People gushed and cooed at the fantastical
announcement of a marriage |
| An underground worker tried to convince
people that the tube was the only option, and ushered them to
the station |
| DJ Slim Jim inspired the
thought that body-pop was the way to go |
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Social - Latvian Welfare Club, Bayswater, London, 10 December 1999
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An interventionist
gets a little to close to people trying to hold a decent conversation. |
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| The
Latvian Folk Dance club invites audience members to join the Friday
night rehearsal |
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| An interventionist persuades
an audience member it would be fun to guess her weight. |
An interventionist sweeps
an audience member off her feet during the Tango. |
Later, the same interventionist
tries his luck with another woman. |
A group
of performance artists bring their nomadic private members' club Social
to the Latvian Welfare Club (DVF). Housed in a large 5 floor regency
building in London's Bayswater, they rub shoulders with the conventions
of the DVF, inviting you to experience and respond directly with a
range of realities distinct to this social milieu.
The DVF was a social and cultural centre "for a race of
people with a strong liking for sausage, sauerkraut and beer".
They stocked a large selection of flavoured vodkas, shot straight
from the freezer, and there were guestrooms available at £18.00
for the night including breakfast.
Photographs courtesy of the audience via disposable cameras.
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