SELF/s Portrait
Material: 50 meters of black satin double sided berisfold 7 mm width ribbon, 1 pair of large scissors per participant, uniformed neutral monochromatic clothing or nudity, 1 small suitcase per participant.Action: (following a workshop focused on breath, projection of Self and trance) participants enter an agreed space at a set time, wrap their heads in ribbon, find their centre, breathe and then cut themselves free (avoiding any self harm) and then exit the space without acknowledgement. Ribbon may be left or removed with respect to the environment.
Context: This is a disseminative action through open-commons that may be reproduced freely by anyone. A detailed score is available on request. It offers the reciprocal enactment of a multiplicty of SELF/s with each participant, acknowledging how each individual brings something distinctively different to the presence of an image and its perception. It facilitates a visual representation of the artist’s self-portrait in the traditional sense and simultaneously destroys a Cartesian hierarchy through embracing the shared multiplicity that exists through each of us.
This work has been facilitated by tjb at MPA in Berlin, Germany and HFWAS in Birmingham, UK, and Panoply Performance Laboratory in Brooklyn, New York City, USA.
Berlin participants: Taylor Ayling, Daniel Holmes, Thomas Newton, with tjb.
Birmingham participants: Alastair Flindall, Sarah Fortes-Mayer, Rebecca Homer, Loretta Hope, John Kadens, Suze de Lee, Khembi Maynard, Andy Miller, Hannah Millest, Emilia Moniszko, Tom Newton, Kimvi Nguyen, Jodie Laura Ollis, Rachel Parry, Nadine Paige Riley, Helena Sands, Alvin Tran, Jade Williams, Samantha Williams, with tjb.
Brooklyn Participants: Julia Cavagna, Angela Frieberger, Audry Celeste Worster, Butch Merigone with tjb.
2013-2015
Month of Performance Art - Berlin, Germany
HFWAS - Birmingham, UK
Panoply Performance Lab - Brooklyn NYC, USA
Photography - Ray Spence