Omnibus took place at the National Review of Live Art, The Arches, Glasgow.

An hour for a year is a long time in performance. In homage to the long-durational performances of an earlier generation, and with a nod to those great indefatigable heroes of past actions, Marcia Farquhar will be hosting a marathon, live-in, 30-hour rumination on the subject of the last 30 years. All happenings, histories and goings-on since the late 1970s will be considered fair game.

Personal, political and punkish by nature, this open-plan seminar will see the performer reconfiguring and/or reconsidering old works of her own and of others, screening videos, giving readings, playing records, conversing, cooking and catnapping. The Omnibus is both a reflection on the experience of history and an experiment with duration and endurance, as Farquhar will be staying with her audience whether or not it stays with her.

Formal and informal seating will be arranged around the room, with come-and-go attendance encouraged through daytime hours and advance-bookable places available for the overnight shift. The public will be able to gain access until 3am and then again from 9am.

Marcia Farquhar is an artist working in performance, photography, video and object-making. Her practice revolves around the stories and interactions of everyday life, particularly in relation to the meaning and histories of objects. Engineering unexpected social interactions in which the distance between audience and performer is frequently breached, Farquhar probes the nature of biographical and autobiographical storytelling as a strategy that is forever renegotiating its relationship with truth. Her site-specific events have been staged and exhibited internationally in museums and galleries, as well as in lecture theatres, kitchen showrooms, pubs, parks and leisure centres.

 

‘Farquhar’s stage presence is difficult to pin down. Her performances aren’t about stories or props, but a magical charisma that radiates between the past she describes and the audience in the here and now’ Mary Patterson

 

Review: Realtime arts