Set within the beloved, gothic Graduates Memorial Building (GMB), Friday, November 15 saw Trinity Arts Festival (TAF) takeover the building for a night of punk appreciation in all forms. Attendees were immersed in the theme Don’t Make a Scene, a nod to the punk movement that took the United States and the United Kingdom by storm in the mid-1970s. Over a dozen Trinity societies came together to showcase performances from Trinity Orchestra and TradSoc, screenings by DU Film and Trinity TV, and face and body art from Visarts to name just a few.
“I wanted to do something a little more dirty and grimy”
I sat down with Ruby Tyson, the director of Trinity Arts Festival, a week before the takeover took place. She expressed that this year’s theme was something new for the festival committee: “Usually the takeover is based on making the GMB really pretty, but this year I thought it would be cool to make it a little more edgy. I wanted to do something a little more dirty and grimy.” This was perfectly executed with installations of crucified Barbies adorning the staircase, a bath filled with candles and smashed glass bottles of Corona, and bathrooms flooded with posters of referential repeated phrases including “YOU KEEP FUCKING ME” and “WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT MAKE A SCENE.”
Tyson, a final year Film Studies student, is doing her dissertation on the punk movement, so she had punk on her mind throughout the summer and certainly knows the ins and outs of the genre. “I was thinking about my dissertation and specifically the aesthetics of punk — punk visuals, the cinema movement revolving around DIY aesthetics and how transgressive cinema works outside the boundaries of Hollywood. I thought this would lead to some really interesting visuals and I thought to myself ‘that could make a good takeover theme’ due to the amount of visual culture surrounding punk and rebellious aesthetics.”
This year’s dress code was “disappoint your parents” — Tyson’s vision for the dress code was a “little nod to the rebellious nature of punk” but also intended to be entirely non-prescriptive: “it could be whatever you think rebellious fashion is. For me, I think rebelling against my own style would be quite conservative or feminine, so I feel like people can interpret this how they want.” And interpret they did — I found myself drowning in a sea of tartan skirts, safety pins and Sid-Viscious-esque spiky hair (my own pitiful attempt at this was of course made). The main focus in regard to designers and artists were Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen, the former having a cutout head stuck on top of a mannequin as the centre point in the Debating Chamber while a stripped back Trinity Orchestra played their punk-inspired set. However, Tyson also largely credited John Waters, an American filmmaker for inspiration. Each muse exemplifies the intersection of fashion, film and societal rebellion during this period, and all have an unwavering legacy.
“Dedicated to queer interpretations of punk and feminist interpretations of punk”
Before even setting foot in the GMB and being transported to, not a specific time or place but an entire genre — spanning continents — attendees marvelled at the stunningly lit building from the green lawn by the Campanile. Each window of the four storey building was lit in vibrant and eclectic light all the way up to the attic of the GMB, where DUDJ played a two hour set. The ground floor saw BotSoc, Tradsoc and Trinity TV combine screenings and music before one ascended the staircase to find DUGES’ confessions wall coinciding with spoken poetry. This room, according to Tyson, was “based on the more activist side of punk, dedicated to queer interpretations of punk and feminist interpretations of punk. I think a big inspiration for that was Riot-Girl and feminist punk.”
The pool room saw VisArts hosting face painting and body art. Combined with this, Fashion Soc were giving out haircuts in support of Movember and running a raffle with sex toys for prizes. This was a nod to Vivienne Westwood’s Sex Boutique that ran in London from 1974 to 1976 — a fetish and bondagewear shop cross hub of punk fashion, whose clientele included the four members of pioneer British punk group Sex Pistols. Next door the recreation room saw Top Floor Music performances showcasing the likes of Light Gallery and a mixture of artists from DUAMs, the final band being cut off during their rendition of Creep by Radiohead, continuing to play and excite the crowd while their mics were incrementally unplugged and their drum kit stripped of cymbals and parts. When one ascended the final flight of stairs one was greeted with DUDJ’s attic set, the perfect finish to the night.
“To have fun and not stick to the book”
Generally, TAF’s vision for this coming year is just to have fun and abandon the blueprint for what is expected of them. Tyson said “last summer I was thinking ‘Oh, I’m just going to follow exactly what we did last year because I don’t want to mess anything up,’ but there’s no reason to stress about sticking to the book.” We can look forward to over 40 different events over the course of the week in mid-February, including but not limited to guerilla gigs in the Atrium, art workshops and architectural tours, and the Pink Party — a celebration of feminist art. Tyson hinted that TAF may “carry the punk theme through to TAF week because I think it’s liberated us a little from the confines of TAF.”
