Performance 1: The Switch
Collaboration with Matt Irie
2002
Perfomance
Repeated four times
Two groups of two actors are at an art gallery reception where nobody knows that a performance is to take place. Each pair has the exact same dialogue at the exact same time, moving symmetrically with respect to one another, performing exactly the same gestures and mannerisms in synch with one another, with one member of each group periodically switching with the corresponding member of the other and resuming the dialogue. The entire script is repeated four times at regular intervals throughout the evening.
Our documentation video splices together footage from a rehearsal with footage from each of the four live events, so as to make the actors’ positions salient and to suggest the surreal quality that marks their presence.
