Splendour Knows Where the Party Is
posted by: Imogen Semmler 31st July 2010
Durational performance is in part a chance to witness the endurance and potential suffering of performers. Watching Mish and Lauren get RSI from blowing up balloons for "" hours each day reminds me of David Blane hanging himself from a glass box above the Thames in London for 6 weeks. Well, at least the girls could break for food, but I saw them at the end of each day and I tell you something, they were broken women.
The lovely thing about this artwork was that it developed and changed over three days. People could come back and visit, checking in on the girls’ progress and chatting to them. I don’t think that anyone saw it as a 'performance'. People saw two girls blowing up balloons in capes and came back to watch them pop them with arrows at the end. Sometimes it’s important to break down that wall between art and a non-art audience. If there had been a sign saying ‘this is performance art’ I honestly think that people wouldn’t have engaged with it. But the candid banter and chatting, the laughter and sometimes painful woes coming from the girls, it engaged the audience without any pretence, and even though they were ‘performing’ I don’t think anyone noticed that and hence no one was scared by the thought of not getting it. I think it rocked.
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