Opening Night

 

So we made it as a group to the opening night of our exhibition successfully. It didn't end there for me however as I proposed to do a performance piece spontaneously.

My piece started off as a sculptural piece that I observed people walking around questioning what it was.

 

 

As more and more people arrived to the exhibition, I thought that organising a crowd for my piece would be necessary, so I wrote around the bucket that there would be a performance at 7pm. As time grew closer I headed to get ready for my piece. At a few minutes past 7pm, I wandered through the galleries and arrived to a crowd around my bucket. Dressed in my red dress I performed my piece.

 

 

 

My friend filmed the piece for me to display and look at. I am very happy with the response to my piece. I found the experience made me more positive to carry on with performance as a medium in my work.

As I wandered through the crowd to my piece I kept the same frame of mind, I focused on the bucket and shirts and began to dip the shirts into the bucket of water. I did however struggle to find the blood capsules I had made to pierce, but as I broke the first and released the food colouring on my hand there was a gasp from the audience as I held my 'blood' stained hand up . I continued to erratically slosh water about and cover the shirts. As the performance came to a close I became aware of the audience and wiped my blood stained hands down my face to imitate the tears of blood the Virgin Mary was alleged to of cried and stood up. I gathered the shirts together and kicked them into the crowd which provoked yet more gasps and walked out.

Overall I am aware the piece had its flaws, but it received a fair applause and I hope the underlying messages stay with people.

 

A few people managed to capture my performance and kindly shared their photos with me:

 

Katie Jane Hamill

 

 

Amalie Wilhelmsen

 

 

I also am particularly proud of the remnants of my piece as the blood stained shirts fit in well with the colour scheme of our exhibition, and the water splashes from tonight will slowly dry up.

 

 

Unit X has been a challenge but in the end proved rewarding for me as an artist. I will carry on the themes I have used within this project on into my future work.