The Checklist

For a while now I have been rabbiting on about this Vorticism thing.  I reckon, like me, most of you were completely bewildered by what it was or how it is different to other isms and how it can be applied to performance making.  In a recent post I mentioned a short play I have written with my amazingly supportive workshop team.  Well, as a result, we have tried to distill the essences of Vorticism and below I am pleased to display our extractions so far.  Please note these are random quotes and observations from a range of sources and our own trials and errors.

VORTICISM CHECKLIST FOR PERFORMANCE MAKING

Vorticism = Expressionism + Neo-Cubism + Imagism

VIOLENT

Sharply defined geometric patterns. Conflicting forms locked together by intersecting lines and planes. Juxtaposed concrete instances to express an abstraction.  Starting from opposite statements of a chosen ‘thing’.  Discharged from both sides.  Reversed currents, friction.  Fighting from both sides for neither side.

CRITICAL

Criticism rather than creation.  Uninhibited attack.  Humour is used for ridicule.  Expressing the unpopular.

DIRECT

Treatment of the ‘thing’ with no sub-issues.  Isolation of a single image to reveal its essence through the use of luminous details.  Intensity maintained through focus and avoidance of secondary applications.

STARK

Use of nothing that does not contribute to the presentation.  Clear, clean - no blurring.  Clarity of definition.  Strong contours, sculptural solidity. Economy of language.  An adolescent clearness between two extremes. Narrow passages.  The image itself is the ‘thing’, and it is not ornamental.

IRREGULARITY

Not in sequence of a metronome.  No external limitations.  The form must be elastic enough to take the necessary material to avoid excluding something because it doesn’t ‘fit’.  Willingness to experiment with form. Synthesizing multiple perspectives into a single image.  An arrangement of colours and lines.  Certain forms are more expressive than others and therefore the most expressive form must be used. Use of all axes of space, not just one or two dimensions.  The organisation of form is energetic and creative, rather than imitative.

INTENSITY

The subject must inhabit the artist in the most intense way before it can be rendered into art. Concern with the relative intensity.  The vortex is the point of maximum energy.  It is a great silent place where all the energy is concentrated.  Exhilaration.  The moment that has not yet spent itself in expression.  The image is a radiant node or cluster.

PHENOMENOLOGICAL

Recording the precise instant when the ‘thing’ transforms itself from objective into subjective.   The most highly energised moment, the moment that has not yet spent itself. Depicting the subjective emotions and responses that are aroused.  The moment of spiritual awakening and suffering.  Man as a plastic substance receiving the impression.  The intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time.

REAL

The ‘thing’ is the vortex from which, and through which, and into which, ideas are constantly rushing - it is not an idea itself.  The proper and perfect symbol is the natural object. What the ‘thing’ IS, not what it is LIKE.  It is the primary expression of the subject avoiding mimicry.

REACTIVE

Interpreting the rapidly changing character of the modern world.  It is the moment when independent elements intersect in an unexpected way – they suddenly act on each other. The moment man directs a fluid force against circumstance – conceiving rather than reflecting or observing. Drive.  Inclusive of personality.

TECHNOLOGICAL

Art filled with modern technical advancements of civic engineering describing the vastness and manufacturing of the world.  Cool, clear cut consciousness of the impersonal harshness of the modern world.  The use of the most expressive form and technology for the subject.

INVESTIGATIVE

360 degree view. Subject is broken up and reassembled in an abstracted form.  A multitude of viewpoints to represent a greater context.

HISTORICAL

Comparison must be intelligent and not confined culturally.  All experience rushes into the votex – race, race memory, and instinct charging the placid future.  All the past that is vital  and is capable of living into the future is in the vortex now and will design the non-energised future.  The energy is that of tradition, of centuries of race consciousness, of agreement and of association.  It draws strength from it’s peripheries.  The past is connected to the future.  Past glories are respected.