I had the pleasure to attend a performance workshop with the artist Angela Bartram today after receiving an email from one of my tutors about 15 spaces available for it. I eagerly took this opportunity, partly as my work for Unit X is taking a form in the medium of performance, but also as in my first term on Fine Art we received an artist lecture from Bartram that stood out to me, and everyone that attended. In that lecture Bartram showed us a piece in which she licked a dog for the entire duration of the video. This shocked the audience and I thought it was powerful as it stuck in my mind. I found Bartram's work ballsy and witty, she opened my eyes up to elements of performance art I had not yet thought about.

For this workshop we were told to bring 4 items. A piece of food that we find delicious and a piece of food we find distasteful. Also an item that has sentimental value to us, and another that has no meaning at all. I chose to bring chilli crisps, malt loaf, a teddy I have had since I was 5 and a half burnt candle.

As the morning began we sat and discussed performance, and got Bartram's perspective of it. In her own words 'everything you do is a performative action'. Everything that a person does from the minute they wake up is an action, from sitting up, to brushing your teeth, to travelling.
There is a difference between 'performance' and 'live art' as I found out. Performance is something that the audience can expect to get, yet live art is random and often done without the audience being aware that it was going to happen.

There are many types of performance art, one being One to One. This is where you perform to one person, and your piece is often memorable as it challenges awkwardness and how far a person is willing to react.
For our first task we were told to eat a bit of each of the foods we had brought and write down in great detail of how we were reacting to these things. Then we had to find a partner and reinact and describe how the food tasted. The girl I was partnered with found that when I ate and described the malt loaf, the food that I despise, she found herself cringing at it, even though she likes the food herself, so I feel like I did a good job.
We then had to work on a short piece with our partner that we could perform to the rest of the group. We used two sofas for our and put the foods we liked on one side and the food we dislike on the other. We'd take turns in swapping sofas, but if you went to the sofa you liked you lay on your back to eat the food as that's a pleasurable, comfortable way to consume food. If you went to the side you dislike you had to lie on your front as it was an uncomfortable way to lie as you are pressing on your stomach.
After performing this piece we were told to create individual speed performances with the item we had sentimental value. I chose to tell the story of how I got my bear at a young age, but in a creepy way as if the bear was like a boyfriend to me. I wanted to also reflect the fact that if you do the things you did as a child now it seems creepy and sinister as an adult. I performed the piece one to one with each member of the group and aimed to make them uncomfortable, but ended up apologising and reassuring them that I wasn't really like that. I think I fell down in that performance because as soon as I made eye contact with the person watching I started to panic.

I think this workshop inspired me a lot to carry on with performance art. I saw some strengths come out within myself, but also saw when things weren't working which I think was vital. I am now a lot more positive about my performance piece I am working on for Unit X, and hope that this workshop has boosted my confidence.