2-Fringe Statement

Adrian Hall, 'this artist':

'We recognise things by realising what they are not.'

This artist doesn't like the notion of 'performance'. The proscenium arch is a different 'window on the world'. He wishes to be 'of the world'. 'Nothing special' is very special to him. He dislikes the thought of 'virtuoso'. He hates any implied 'suspension of disbelief'. He reveres 'the ordinary'. He respects 'the real'. He likes the notion of 'a blurred confusion of realities', which might insinuate all kinds of deeper nuances within the casual viewer.

'Frisson' he thinks a good word though French.

'The body' is just some convenient stuff to use, he says. This artist's body is very ordinary. Also worn. A recognizable cipher of a person first, then maybe a male, then maybe of a working male. Then maybe a parallel identification takes place, a recognition. Or not. His mother might see his father there. Perhaps even herself. Not herself but the other one. A heightening of shared reality is fine. We can all relate. Maybe? Male / female - who cares? We are all cripples in this world. You are or you are not. Self defined we do, and create our own hell.

The working man is what he is. This artist is what he does. This artist tries to get by, choosing to do what he can. Nothing special. This artist is persistent. This artist tries to do sometimes what he can't.

To the Fringe Development Group, via Geoff Noeller.

So anyway, the blurb of Carla's not withstanding, what I should like to do is a kind of action or a performative gesture somewhere specific, which may well be some kind of discrete installed work, which happens to make use of my self.

As a 'work' it may require fixing to the wall or hanging from a chain block for instance. A certain amount of endurance may be required on my own part. And a degree of help needed from one or two others.

As I think about this - it might be good to plan a suite of three 'placements' such as these, around the city during your week of activities, which will connect obliquely to form one work. Which we might call simply, 'three placements - the artist as architecture'.