45/50 Lynne Marsh

10 Nov-15 Nov 2015

Overview

Lynne Marsh’s practice is situated on the threshold between documentary and staged events, and recently concentrates on the interrogations around sites of cultural spectacle such as the studio and the concert hall. Her new work, co-produced with the Opera North in Leeds, brings forth an altered experience of the infamous opera La Traviata, presenting it in its entirety. Mimicking the framing device of a play within a play, the video installation produces a production of production. The music guides her camera as Marsh explores the fragility of the ‘live’ event. Throughout the piece, Marsh observes stage managers, technicians, costume dressers, props personnel and the performers, bringing an operatic tradition into context with present-day realities, pronouncing the mechanics that create an experience. Producing a new mise-en-scene for La Traviata, composed of its processes of routine labour around the stage, she reveals a choreography of support between the behind-the-scenes and the ‘grand narratives’.