|
|
|
Jumbled up mixture
There's a lot more to street arts than jugglers and 'street statues' seeking spare change. It can include a whole range of artforms from theatre to puppetry and circus, music and visual arts - and very often a jumbled up mixture of them all. Performances operate at any scale from an individual 'walkabout' act, to a community procession, or a large-scale pyrotechnic theatre event with an audience of many thousands. |
 |
 Street arts have been gathering strength in recent years, with the formation of the Independent Street Arts Network (ISAN). The scene embraces dramatically different approaches. For instance, the Natural Theatre Company doesn’t perform ‘a show’ but rather people an area with immaculately turned out characters acting out a scenario. Often unannounced, and at first sight blending with the surroundings, gradually the eccentric behaviour becomes noticed and onlookers start pointing and laughing. Eventually the whole street comes to a standstill and onlookers become willing participants. In the Pink Suitcase piece, passers-by help ‘lost tourists’ to find each other and eventually join in to follow along on their walkabout. Other scenarios rely on incongruity, like the Coneheads – visiting aliens armed with completely the wrong information about Earth. |
|
 Inquisitive birds
Neighbourhood Watch Stilts International is also fond of aliens, like the ones riding 'large, wilful and inquisitive birds' in their performance Les Oiseaux de Lux. Their line up includes giant inflatable puppets and a sideline in pyrotechnics. Avanti Display prefer water as their element of choice. Mr Lucky’s Party involves 200 litres of water, most of which falls on the unfortunate Mr Lucky (and any members of the audience who stray too close to the action). |
|
Watch this space
The nature of street arts mean that much of it is unannounced and incidental, creeping up on its audience by chance, but there are also festivals of work, especially in the summer. The National Theatre runs a season of street theatre throughout the summer - Watch this Space - on the doorstep of the main theatre. Past performances have included slapstick, aerial acrobats suspended from a crane, and hour long plays with casts of thirty or forty people. Meanwhile, in Scotland there's Big In Falkirk, and Fierce! in Birmingham and across the West Midlands. |
| Street Arts are a way of slyly interweaving the unexpected into everyday life, of transforming drab, commercial public space into something subversive and surreal. As cities in the west become increasingly homogenous, these interventions are a welcome antidote. So if you spot an alien, a Light Bird or an immodestly Spurting Man, stop for the marvellous. |
|
|
