Freedom of speech: (Noun) “the right of people to express their opinions publicly without governmental interference, subject to the laws against libel, incitement to violence or rebellion, etc.”

Over the past two weeks I have been consolidating my initial ideas for performance. The poetry I had written during the first few weeks of my process has, from assessement, a subtle political undertone regarding free speech. About speaking out and having a voice. This has since led me to reconsider the poem 1st September 1939 by W.H. Auden. In particular the last two stanzas:

All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.

  Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame

In bold I have highlighted the sections of these stanzas that really stand out to me. These lines in particular create images in my head and might be used in more that one way in performance. In essence the performance that I want to create will, broadly speaking, be inspired by notions surrounding Freedom Of Speech.

The Son Of Man

Rene Magritte. Son Of Man

Rene Magritte’s The Son Of Man is another influence that I found interesting when considering the notions surrounding freedom of speech. The painting is said to be a self portrait of Magritte and despite the fact that the majority of his face is hidden by the green apple one can just about distinctly notice the left eye protruding from the blocking fruit. Of the painting, and of the apple itself, Magritte said this:

At least it hides the face partly well, so you have the apparent face, the apple, hiding the visible but hidden the face of the person. It’s something that happens constantly. Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sot of conflict, one might say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present.

                                                                                                         (Anon, 2017)

Drawing attention to the section highlighted in bold, we are in a very media led society. The media controls how we think and how we operate, broadly speaking. The media shows us the news or a politician tells us something. This ‘information’ hides yet more deep-seated information which the ‘informer’ knows about but doesn’t make reference to. So in effect Magritte speaks true of this concept when he suggests “Everything we see hides another thing.” We are a more speculative society. With access to online archives, social media platforms we are able to process and discover lots of information. Which is hidden or otherwise presented outwardly. “we always want to see what is hidden by what we see” is something that resonates in today’s society. The media shoves information and news in our faces. Information that becomes incredibly biased depending on the political allegiances that, that media organization is linked with. Typically this tends to be geared towards showing us a middle-class, conservative viewpoint. They present us ‘news’ that hides the actual ‘facts and figures’ that we need and want to know. This is how I interpret the painting in relation to modern society.

I have since been thinking about stage images about how to start the show. I am thinking of starting the show posed and dressed similar to Magritte in his painting. It would be a very surreal moment to start the show. In order to create the apple effect I would like that use a projection of a green apple straight onto my face that covers it. The apple can have religious connotations with knowledge in relation to the story of Adam and Eve. Knowledge and free speech work hand in hand and whilst this image plays out visually I would want to have a recording of myself speaking the two final stanzas of 1st September 1939 underscored by some synth-like strings.

Bibliography:

Anon, (2017). [online] Available at: https://www.quora.com/What-does-Rene-Magrittes-The-Son-of-Man-mean [Accessed 8 Mar. 2017].