During my interest in Marina Abramovic's performances I began to think more freely in terms of what I can do and what materials I need to use to achieve my ideas. I began to make what I call small performative interventions in charity shops. It consisted of me visiting charity shops and trying on coats/jackets/blazers, men's and women's that I saw around me. I put them on, feeling the previous owner's energy, experiencing how the object has molded to the owner and looking at the imperfections that for me are full of information. Subtle imperfections such as warn buttons that are about to fall off, loose piece of thread, warn elbows - they all can tell you a lot about the owner.
That leads you on to ask more and more questions based on the state of the object. I became more and more interested in knowing more about the owner by trying coats on and investigating them. I perfectly knew that I would not find any true information, however I became interested what kind of questions my brain will think of in relation to what I find unique about the coat. Whilst trying on and wearing a man's blazer for a couple of minutes I had a moment when I really wanted to write something about how I personally feel in it. Whilst wearing it I quickly wrote down what came to mind and slipped the piece of paper into the blazer's pocket. I did not mind if the next owner finds it or if it is left there unnoticed for years.
This experience has given me an idea to see how something like this will work out in a different setting, for example, the project exhibition (16th March 2016).
I have thought about doing a one on one interaction with people who come in to see the exhibition. It does count as a performance, however, it is a performance that isn't easily visible. The only person that will know that a "performance" is happening is the person that I will interact with. I thought about asking the person whether I can swap coats with them for 10 minutes and if they say yes, I will swap coats and walk around the exhibition space exploring how I feel in it and what I can figure out about the person based on the coats condition. For example, if the coat smells of cigarettes I would know that the person smokes. The perfume can also say a lot about the person. Just little things that I might be able to pick up on based on wearing the coat.
I am not sure if I would leave the notes that I make in the pockets, as I did in the charity shop. I think I will keep notes on every interaction I make - successful or not successful. I think there might be a potential to form another piece of work from them or at least read them and see what I focused on the most in my writings. Analyse them. In the charity shop there was no interaction with people (it was just me and the object), this time there is and it changes the piece of work. Inn charity shops I could freely explore the pockets but this time it is somebody’s belonging and it is not acceptable to go in people's pockets.
This time it is also about the willingness of the person to give me their personal belonging to wear, which also says a lot about them.
I realize that I will get negative responses as well as positive. If I will not get the chance to swap coats with the person, then I would ask them whether he/she could give me something from their pocket that they don't need any more. Then I will move on to the next person.
~Ev
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