Collected Texts
Phil asked me to send him some text from my experience of working in China and I thought it would be a good idea to use my blog and pick out bite size phrases. In my work I like to collect written texts such as observations and actions as part of my visual research for my performances. I originally started my blog as a way of documenting my residency, which took place in February 2010 although I have continued to write about my practice. The idea that work just stops or is completely separate from that period is not so and I feel that the residency has provided the seed which has since sprouted into a succession of new performances in the UK. I feel the opportunity to participate in the residency at the Chinese Arts Centre is another chance to make new work in collaboration with Phil Davenport and raises the question of how to communicate past experiences which happened in China within the context of the Chinese Arts Centre in Manchester.
Blog bites
Just one of those details that gets lost in translation
People turned up later and missed the party
I did get stuck for a moment
Uncertainty whether I could get over
Strange leaving party
Not sure when it started and ended
In-between the audience
Learning as a means to getting
Making it and not making it
We are seen as novelty
We somehow pull it together
Muffle of people speaking and traffic noise
Giving you some peace and quiet
Let go of the control
Trust in others
Feed it to all the guests
Trying to communicate
Can sound a bit scrambled
Climb the ladder and get over the top
They were very worried I might fall
Torn between two spaces
Stack, order, display
A gap between two buildings
Arriving, working, leaving
Felt like a tourist
Looked at
Not spoken to
I am not there
I am not here
He set off a belt of firecrackers
Better Life, Better People
One World, One Dream
A world of sameness
Tried to remember
Broken western pop songs
Sliding across off the edge of the screen
I can’t order my own food
When I speak