Traces of Being
Material: 50 meters of black satin double sided berisfold 7 mm width ribbon, 30 kg of salt, No. 15 Swann-Morton sterile disposable scalpel (retractable), pendant lighting (London variation: one bulb. Leeds variation: three bulbs).
Action: 30 minute allocation to strip, wrap head in ribbon, breathe, cut ribbon away and flesh. London variation: cutting hair. Leeds variation: moving blind through three points & under a cascade of falling salt.
Context: The first in a series of phenomenological actions that were to originally form a triptych and latterly culminated in The Lived Body series. Traces of Being was shown at Act Art 8 in 2010 as a solo work and again in an expanded version in collaboration with Llewyn Maire in an event curated by Elizabeth Kilby at Seven Arts in 2011.
Originally conceived to encounter a de/construction of Being through identity, existence, and object the work took on a wider dialogue around the multiplicity of Self/s born of simultaneous subjective and objective gaze.
Production Management: Cis O'Boyle (London), Hannah Moore (Leeds).
Facilitated by Elizabeth Kilby, Adam Young and with support from Lisa Newman
2011
Seven Arts - Leeds, UK
2010
Act Art - London, UK