Michael Mayhew, an artist based in Manchester, has been commissioned to produce a piece of work for this year's inaugural Manchester International Festival as part of PANDAmonium, a Manchester Firsts commission.
His piece, The Gathering, is part of a larger project called The Vanishing, and investigates the notion of vanishing people, vanishing places and the ultimate act of a vanishing species.
The Gathering deals with vanishing people, and Michael is looking for participants to take part in the piece.
This will involve participants arriving at Manchester Town Hall, where the piece is being performed, and sharing a story about someone who has disappeared from their life with Mayhew and his collaborators.
Working with sound artist Eric Lyon and a team of five performers, the participants of The Gathering will be invited to come to the Great Hall at Manchester Town Hall at a pre-booked time between 12.00 and 18.00 hours. They will be invited to share their stories during 15-minute pre-bookable slots. These stories will be recorded by the team.
Immediately following the interviews, in just three hours, Mayhew and his team of collaborators will create an instant response to the stories they hear. The recorded audio will inform a sound installation that will be developed throughout the day, and the team will develop a performance piece based on the material generated and collected.
The participants, plus a wider public audience, will be invited to return to the Great Hall at 21.00 to watch the performative response to the gathered stories of those who have vanished from our lives.
Anyone who has a story about someone has vanished from their lives, and who has 15 minutes spare on June 29th between 12:00 and 18:00 to tell their story can book a 15 minute slot by contacting mayhew & collaborators at ag @ michaelmayhew.com . There is also further information available from here, if anyone has any questions regarding the project.
About the Artist
Michael Mayhew is a Manchester based artist, who has been creating performance work for 20 years. His work is truly inter-disciplinary, embracing performance, visual art, installation, sound, video, object based work and critical writing. Mayhew makes art which responds to a particular time and place, and whose performative language is determined by each location and its community. The work is politically engaged at the same time as being personal, tender and intimate. Previous works include 333, Always Forgetting What Is Beneath Me and Something Tender.
For more information about the artist and the company visit http://www.michaelmayhew.com