(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 at South Bank
In the Personal Professional Development programme, in my second year, we were encouraged to do something ‘brave’ and public by the teachers. I wondered about the word ‘braveness’ which I thought would be a clash with what I previously 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 overnight. A clever wooden device on my back was made with the help of a technician and a fellow student whom we called Hanna B.
As I walked forward, the white strip of my train unrolled until it ended. It left a physical record of time passing while I was walking. I performed it on London’s South Bank in front of The National Theatre, and also in front of the college.
