1973 – Archiving the Live

1973 at City Arts Centre, Edinburgh

A performance installation based on Janice’s personal collection of memorabilia, marginalia, texts, images and objects spread chronologically over 12 trestle tables. This is dance-maker Janice Parker’s personal trace of 45 years of practice. An archive of sorts that charts her practice through time and social history. What began as a memory aid for the artist has manifested as a collector’s obsession.

Described as a ‘civic archive’ by dramaturg Ruth Little the installation exhibits the diversity and values of Janice’s practice. It charts a history of community dance, the development of disability-led practice, tracks a social and political cultural history, both the planned and the incidental, and contains the presence of the, literally, 1000’s of people Janice has worked with over her 45 years of working with dance and people.

1973 exists as a catalyst and generator of questions, reflections and exchange. It is performative in that it does not exist without Janice’s presence. It has been host to a think-tank, a series of in-conversation events around archives, live-ness, memory, materiality and dance, a series of hour-long participatory performance events, a workshop, and as an immersive, reflective and conversational experience for everyone who encounters and engages with it. 1973 has hosted the general public, professional and academic archivists, disabled dancers and artists, professionals involved in community and socially engaged practice and the professional dance community.

  • Collaborators: Jo Verrent, Luke Pell, Emmie McLuskey, Jak Saroka, Katie Miller
  • Events: Jackie Kay, Diana Morton, Emmie McLuskey, Jean Cameron, Justin Hunt, Kitty Fedorec, Mark Richards, and Caroline Bowditch.
  • In development: Ruth Little, Deirdre Nelson, Dr Adele Patrick, & Rachel O’Neill.

Completed dates:

  • Tramway’s Unlimited Festival, Glasgow 16 & 17 Sep 2016
  • City Art Centre, Edinburgh (5th Floor) 18/19/20/22/25/26 Jan 2017
  • Glasgow Women’s Library 30 Jan – 11 Feb 2017

1973 was also the catalyst for To: My Future Body a new dance work choreographed by Patricia Woltman and Christina Wüstenhagen at KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin and for Emmie McLuskey’s Collective Gallery exhibition these were the things that made the step familiar, both in 2019, and whilst in residence at Glasgow Women’s Library influenced and ultimately changed the way the library worked with and activated their extensive collection.

Janice plans to develop more opportunities and residencies with and for 1973

Image credit: Niall Walker

Posted in Janice Parker Works, Works and tagged .