Performance

I’ll Never Let You Go (But I will, it’s inevitable, I can’t hold on forever, but I won’t stop trying)

in

Durational Performance (2019)

Relationships are hard. Like all things worth having they take work.

In love we make extravagant declarations and promises to each other: ‘I’ll always be there for you’, ‘I’ll never hurt you’, ‘I’ll never let you down’. While our intentions are good, we are human and fallible and unable to ever truly fulfil these promises. So what should we do - Give up? Not declare such things? No, we acknowledge our fallibility and just keep trying.

The performers take it in turns to carry each other, holding on as long as they can. Once they have failed they swap over and start again. they continue this for 3 hours. It’s not elegant, it’s not strong but it is persistent - it’s love.

PAST PERFORMANCES

StrangeLove Festival
24th Mar 2019
Brewery Tap Project Space

Natal (Idea in Gestation)

in ,

Interactive Performance (2016)

An intimate performance exploring the conception, nurturing and development of a creative idea, from inspiration through to fruition, using the visual metaphor of a pregnancy.

Addressing issues and concerns that any creative mind will have encountered when undertaking a project; the initial pride of having the inspiration, decisions on development, potential of collaboration etc.  The performance takes the form of a dramatic monologue delivered directly to the surrounding  audience, inviting, if not forcing, them to partake on this journey and share responsibility with the performer. 

PAST PERFORMANCES

Theatre in the Pound
Monday 20th Nov 2017
The Cockpit Theatre, Gateforth Street, London NW8 8EH

ProperGanda
Friday 4th Nov 2016
The Others, 6 Manor Road, N16 5 London, United Kingdom

Guerrilla Zoo's Modern Panic VII: Panic Sermons 
Sunday 9th Oct 2016
Bethnal Green Working

Cables

in ,

Durational Performance Installation (2016)

I fill a small space with cables, mounds and mounds of tangled cables, cables that work, are useful and very valuable - if they weren't all tangled together. In their current state they are obsolete and have been left to gather dust. I sort them out, I keep going until they are all done. On display to the public, they can see the show progression throughout the day.
It takes 8 hours. 

Some observations from during the performance:
09:45 - People on their way to work watch as I fill the window with cables. 
10:00 - More cables than I'd realised. Now that I'm in the door won't open, I'm more or less trapped. 
11:10 - It's quite therapeutic, following the cables as they weave in and out of each other. A massive puzzle. 
12:15 - 2 hours in and the hooks I was hanging untangled cables on has just fallen down. Now I'm sorting on top of the mess, doesn't feel or look like any progress. 
13:00 - I usually get really frustrated and impatient untangling cables, but I know I'm here for the long run so just taking it slow, taking my time and enjoying the task. 
13:10 - People on their lunch break come to see my progress and sympathise with me. 
14:45 - Everything here is so obsolete unplugged, unable to serve it's purpose, simply because it's tangled and no one has the time to untangle them. 
15:10 - Considering all the other potential uses for these cables, I could weave them together on a loom?
15:33 - My hands are really hurting, rope burn, dust, and a few sharp broken wires.  
16:30 - I'm starting to rush now, didn't think it would take this long. Doesn't seem to be getting much easier. 
17:10 - Rushing, hurts even more.
17:33 - All the people that passed on their way to work this morning starting to come by again, does it look like I've made any progress?

Cables donated by Relentless Number 5,  Central School of Speech and Drama and Colonia Forever

PAST PERFORMANCES

Artists' window take over as part of the 'Whose London is it Anyway?' Festival
Jan 2016
Camden People's Theatre

Wish List

in ,

One On One Performance (2015)


Amongst the party crowd there is a Christmas elf, interacting with people and small groups; inviting them to share their wishes for this Christmas. These wishes can be material things, help in a relationship/situation, a dream job, world peace or anything. To submit these desires people are encouraged to draw something to represent their wish onto the elf's arms in permanent marker, with the choice of whether or not to explain the meaning of the drawing. The elf will collect the wishes throughout the evening and continue to think and pray over all of them as long as they remain visible on their arms.

PAST PERFORMANCES

TMC Christmas Party
28th Nov 2015
TMC Studios

In Situ

in , ,

One on One Performance (2012)

In this place, in my place, what position will you take?

In relation to the issue of suffering ‘why does it happen?’ can be unhelpful, more important is 'what am I going to do about it?' Exploring the ideas of suffering and empathy, in a safe and secure environment in which all choices are confidential, this is a task based one on one performance in which the audience cannot remain passive. 

‘A tour de force of durational performance art revealing a mature and exciting new talent’
— Gill Foster

PAST SHOWINGS

Tempting Failure Festival
Sat 8th Nov 2014
 The Island, Bristol

Worth of Service

in , ,

One On One Performance (2013)

Worth of Service is an intimate one on one performance treating people to a cleansing encounter. Together the performer and participant discuss times when they’ve done a kind act for someone else, what provoked such an act and how it was received, considering the motivation behind labours that receive no monetary compensation - all taking place while the performer is giving the participant a foot wash. The encounter culminates with the participant’s wet feet being dried with the performer’s hair and the participant being asked to write down a service that they might provide in return for the performance - it can be anything that they think is of equal value, but cannot be money. The suggestion is hypothetical, they are not required to provide the suggested service, but all suggestions are collected on a board which is on display.  

 The act of foot washing is an ancient practice of welcoming honoured guests into the home, with instances of this featuring in the Bible, Homer’s Odyssey and many more. This performance is open to all, welcoming in anyone from the public into that position of honoured guest, in full display of the rest of the surrounding public. 

The piece puts into question what motivates us into acts of service, and makes us think about how we value other people, as well as ourselves, and what they have to offer outside of an economic scale.

Here are some of the audience's answers, when asked hypothetically what they would give in exchange for the performance:

Layers

in , ,

Digital Performance (2012)

This digital performance is concerned with the idea of layering, not only of multimedia with sound and video looping but also the layers applied daily to my face. Examining the metamorphosis that the face undergoes, the rigorous procedures performed to prepare the visage for the outside world, creating a state of flux and suggesting a fluidity of persona.

The video initially displays a video loop of the performers ‘naked face’. The performer goes through the routine of putting on a full face of makeup, with each layer of makeup applied live frames of that application are mixed into the video projection loop. Slowly the video loop becomes littered with flashes of these applications and eventually displays the finished ‘product’ - the socially projected image of the performer. 

In a similar way to the video mixing, a musician provides a sound scape created from the use of looping and pedals. Each layer of makeup is accompanied by another layer of sound added to the audio loop, so that by the end the  ‘busyness’ of the face is paralleled by the cacophony of the soundscape.

Trace video of the projected video output:

PAST SHOWINGS

51zero Festival
Oct 2012
Rochester Visitor Centre

51zero Voyager - Whitstable Biennale 
Sat 2nd June 2018 
Film Screening on the beach

Your Face, Your Self

in ,

One On One Performance (2012)

A one on one performance in which the audience are invited to take a journey with themselves. 

An interactive audio/visual installation for one person at a time, inviting the viewer to examine their relationship with their own reflection. They are encouraged to stare at their image while listening to an internal monologue that draws on psychology and literary texts, such as Ovid’s Metamorphosis, Oscar Wilde’s A Picture of Dorian Gray and Sartre's Nausea, all of which describe and voice the internal observations on one's outwards appearance. The audio guides them to examine family traits, scars, personal customisation such as piercings. Thinking back to our infant stage when we began to recognise our reflection as ourselves, going through puberty when we may have become more obsessed by our image and self expression, onwards to the history shown in the geographical landscape of our face forged by our lives and overall questioning whether you feel it is a true representation of your inner self.

experience the performance online

PAST SHOWINGS

51zero Festival
Oct 2014
Sun Pier, Chatham

Scratch Festival 
Oct 2012
Battersea Arts Centre 

Electric Medway Festival
Aug 2020