Lay your table the Lawley way

Sophie Calle : if I could be another person I would be Sophie.
A French writer, photographer, artist...
She makes rules the dictate her day and plays games with life. Some of her Ideas have fed directly in to my work, for instant the following (not forgetting vito Acconci), although I guess ive moved on a bit from this now.
Performance has been in the forefront of my mind for a while, but I hadn’t found one word to describe these things I was reading about (being carried around the city by its occupants, eating only a certain colour of food for a day, dragging a stick along railings…) and these things I wanted to do but not as ART just games ( follow people and guess who they were, be a different person for a day, start walking not knowing were I was going but recording the noise around me) .until a year or so ago my only real though about ‘performance art’ were it involved rolling around naked covered in paint (hmp) .

My knowledge on this subject broadened after writing a research essay on Performance art that explore the use of audience participation, something I want to explore further (I will include the essay in this blog).

The electives I hoping will open my eyes to performance in a much broader sense. These are some of the things I like to do in my work and what I thought about in our first elective discussion.

• Use my surroundings (the city, public places) as a studio space. I like to have time to do drawings etc in a room with a desk but most of the time I find this place stagnant and I feel like time has stopped. I want to go out in to the real world, see people move around, objects working together, sounds competing.

• Letting go, becoming someone else or adopting another person’s movements. I think this is why following was challenging at first because it so hard to completely stop thinking about was you want to go and let a stranger lead. You have no ideas were they are going but its exciting and refreshing. You don’t have to think about yourself just about not losing them and keeping them in sight. Walking with out a destination, and being carried along by the crowd just enjoying the sites around you.

• Performance is exciting because it’s happening in the moment, is unpredictable. Everything that’s happening in the space/place at that time can contribute to the piece (for better or worse)

• The relationship between Audiences and performer is a thing of much concern for me. Works that have audience interaction interest me ( essay explains this fully)

• Doing performances in public places. I really like the ideas of this little girl going round Ikea and trying out all the beds. For her to do this was perfectly natural, this is of course what beds are for. Small intervention in to normal everyday life can be really effective, they make you look inwards.

I feel like there’s a lot to think about and I want to research more artist including Diana cooper and the Situationist, and also get ‘Perform’ by Jens Hoffmann and Jona Jonas out the library. It was really interesting to here other peoples thoughts on performance. I haven’t really ever spoken to many people about it . And my performances are more like games then anything, maybe I have to become a bit more serious and start asking myself why im doing these things?