When thinking of a performance or experiment, I was instantly drawn towards the idea of a task. Completing a task, or setting a physical challenge that had to be completed, despite obstacles or impediments which may affect the process. When thinking of a task, a durational performance offers much more to both performer and audience member, than one which is time restrained. “The phrase ‘durational art’ implies a specific construction of time, a deliberate shaping of it to effect a particular experience for the viewer or the audience” (Scheer 2012, p.1), and it is the construction or deconstruction of time which I believe has the possibility to hold the most performance potential.

Melati Suryodarmo’s ‘Butter Dance’ experimental performance, although uncomfortable to watch, made for fascinating and compelling viewing. Every time she falls you inwardly gasp, wondering if she is going to get back up again; if anything is broken or if she will just give up on her set task because the pain and bruises become too much.

This performance of (as a concept) a simple task is captivating. No façade or artsy pretence; just one woman deciding to dance on butter, in heels, to the beat of a steady rhythm. Experimental performances such as these “mark identities, bend time, reshape and adorn the body, and tell stories” (Schechner 2002, p. 28), even without a vocal narrative. And this is something I wanted to explore further; to have a task set, and for it to be completed in front of an audience. The first idea which materialised within the group was that of completing a jigsaw.

(Photo taken by Lauren Watson: 28.10.13)

Initially, we wanted to develop this idea into a more performative piece, with the use of multiple jigsaws (one for each member of the company to complete), while all being in one pile, with us not being able to leave the space until your own jigsaw was completed. However, after just 40 minutes of attempting and failing to complete just one 1000 piece jigsaw between the six of us, this idea quickly dissipated. Although it started off as a novel and slightly entertaining task, our excitement and positive outlook quickly disappeared, and in its place we were left with fits of anger, an almost constant stream of expletives and multiple urges to throw the puzzle pieces out out of any window we could find.

(Photo taken by Andrew Tinley: 31.10.13)

With the jigsaw idea well and truly buried for the sanity of everyone involved, we then turned to food, and the idea of feeding and being fed. For our first experiment we each brought two items of food; one which we liked, and one which we hate. We then placed all these items on a table, and got an impromptu audience member to give each one of us an item of food.

Russian Roulette with food.

As seen in the above image, not everyone received foods they liked or bought for themselves. For this experiment to work, it was imperative that the ‘audience member’ didn’t know our likes and dislikes, this way they could not be biased when handing out the food. From this experience, the magnitude of what we wanted to achieve really started to make itself apparent. Eating is a day-to-day task, without which we wouldn’t survive…but what happens if we over indulge in this life saving task; forcing ourselves to eat food which repulsed us. Even though this experiment lasted merely minutes it was a difficult process, with members of the group retching and fighting down sick. Even though this would make for a personally difficult experiment for us as performers, it wouldn’t be all that stimulating or enjoyable for the audience. Therefore, from this experiment we decided to choose foods which we liked, but to eat them in abundance.

Theatre, and especially contemporary experimental performance “have been deployed as key metaphors and practices with which to rethink gender, economics, war, language, the fine arts, culture and one’s sense of self” (Ridout 2009, p. vii), and this is hopefully what we hope to achieve, although physically we are just completing a task which we have all agreed upon; to eat. Eating is a necessity. A vital part to any life. However, some people go days without eating, while other gorge themselves to death. And for 6 average sized girls to potentially gorge themselves to the point of sickness starts to question the social position of food, alongside that of young women, while also on one level questioning and challenging body image acceptance. Why would six, healthy girls who care about their image and size want to binge? These are questions which we hope the audience wills start to ask themselves, after all, “to witness an event is to be present at it in some fundamentally ethical way, to feel the weight of things and one’s own place in them, even if that place is simply, for the moment, as an onlooker” (Etchells 1999, p. 17).

Works Cited
Etchells, Tim (1999) Certain Fragments, London: Routledge.
Ridout, Nicholas (2009) Theatre & Ethics, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Schechner, Richard (2002) Performance Studies: an introduction, London: Routledge.
Scheer, Edward (2012) ‘Introduction: The end of spatiality or the meaning of duration’, Performance Research: A Journal of the Performing Arts, XVII (5) October:  pp. 1-3.