Touch Wood 2 & 3 - Poetry Walk and Evening Amphitheatre performances

Touch Wood (2) - live performance, as part of 'Poetry Walk' at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve, an event organised by Hari Byles.  With PB, inc on harmonica.

Touch Wood (3) - live performance in the outdoor amphitheatre, evening, at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve.

Touch Wood (2):

A perambulatory performance, around the Nature Reserve, sequencing micro-locations within the site that I had been manoeuvring in previously.  Re-performing these manoeuvres to journey around the site, with PB on harmonica.  Snips of hair posted through the chicken wire fence.  Foot hovered over the low stone wall.  Shoeless foot and shoe-in-hand as I swing the open gate.  Heliotropic lilac wool to criss-cross bind my leg up a tree.  A sudden dash with PB to the amphitheatre.  Stepping onto the log with harmonica from PB, and balancing-crouching to tie my head to the thorn bush.  

Touch Wood (3):

A seated performance, with reading from my book 'Touch Wood', skipping from one passage to another within it, and snipping of hair while I read.  Hair, ultimately, covering face, obscuring my face and muffling sound.  Snippets of hair falling into the book, and retained in pages.

Photos by Hari Byles (some edited GB)

Touch Wood - Kupola performance

'Touch Wood (1)'

Live performance at Phytology/Bethnal Green Nature Reserve, for Kupola event, 2019

With PB

Part of my residency at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in 2019-20

Screenshots/stills from film by Michael Smythe

Touch Wood Residency

In 2019 - 2020 I had a residency at Phytology/Bethnal Green Nature Reserve which I called 'Touch Wood'.

I made artwork and experiments in the Writer's Hut, herb garden and nature garden.  I produced experiments, live public performances, an artist's book and 3 large scale billboards.

I was invited and supported by Hari Byles and Michael Smythe.  

DUST Haircutting Performance

For the private view of DUST I gave a Haircutting Performance.

The performance was unnanounced, taking place in the living room of Hovel, amidst the exhibition.

From the DUST Table Collection I removed a reel of white cotton, a pair of hairdressing scissors and a pile of tiny brown envelopes. I then pulled forward the chair, which was against the wall. I sat, in silence, and put the envelopes on the floor to my right, the thread and scissors on my lap. I then separated a lock of hair from my head, took the scissors and cut it off. I bound the end of the lock of hair with thread, and tied it. I leant forward, picked up an envelope from the pile, and placed the lock inside it; licked and sealed the envelope. I then placed it to my left, on the floor. I repeated this process, cutting locks from my hair and placing them in an envelope, forming a pile of filled envelopes. The process was slow and laborious; it was unclear how long it would take to complete the task. From time to time I shuffled through the filled envelopes, counting and neatening the pile. The people present watched in silence and stillness. The sound from two films in the exhibition played, repeating; sounding like waves, water, or sometimes trains. When I had cut enough hair locks to create a substantial pile of envelopes, and consequently had altered the appearance of my hair, I counted through the filled envelopes. I put down the cotton thread, scissors and unused envelopes, rose from the chair, then gave an envelope containing a lock of my hair to each person in the room.

Here are some still frames from a film of the performance.