everyday life

Reading time:

(2001, object & performance), second-hand cloth: 42 meter long x 42 cm wide, a wooden holder: 129 x 62.5 x 19.5 cm, a stone, and clothes designed by the artist & made by Mary Gayton

Everyday Life (2001), performance in South Bank

In the Personal Professional Development programme, in my second year, we were encouraged to do something ‘brave’ by the teachers. I wondered about the word ‘braveness’ which I thought would be a clash with what I thought about art, and that I’m still not sure about. I fretted about it for a while, then I accepted the word and wanted to do something as they wished us to do. So, I wanted to do a performance and it became my first ever performance.

I found the white material in a car boot sale, I designed a costume and a friend of mine confidently made it for me, literally over night. A wooden device on my back was made with the help of a technician & a fellow student we called Hanna B.

As I walked forward, the white strip of my train unrolled until it ended. It seemed to leave a physical record of time, passing while I was walking. I performed it on London’s South Bank, in front of The National Theatre.

Everyday Life (2001), performances outside Camberwell College of Arts & outside of National Theatre in South Bank

(Thanks to Mary Gayton and Hanna B for object making, and Melanie Davis and another classmate for the photographs and a video recording)