I completed the May Challenge today. Which in a nut shell was to re-make Sophie Calle’s, Suite Venitienne. The piece saw the artist follow someone she met at an opening, undercover.
I decided like Calle to use a gallery as a starting point and began at Nottingham Contemporary. I waited outside until an appropriate person left the gallery. As it happened a person walked up the side of the gallery who I decide to follow. He was clearly a tourist, and certainly lost. I thought he would be interesting to follow as he may be sight seeing.
As I followed the tourist it became clear that perhaps he was a bad choice, he kept pausing, looking at the map and turning around. It was going to be hard for me to be discreet. At one point he stopped near a church where I pretended to take photographs before following him up the street.
The man continued to pause and check the map. He then headed onto a busier street and walked parallel to where he had previously been. He then turned into an alleyway which I followed him down. Part way he turned around and clearly saw me, as he walked passed I avoided eye contact. I walked on, paused and then turned back to follow him. We walked a little further and he stopped to check the map whilst looking at me, I walked passed as a diversion. When I turned around he had disappeared. He was clearly on to me. I check around the streets but couldn’t see him.
I then decided to follow an old lady on a zimmer frame believing that with her speed she should be easy to follow. I had intended to follow one person but after not spending as long as intended with the first person I followed a second.
I ended up following the old lady into Marks and Spenser. From there she spent over an hour looking at the same four isles. I followed at a distance as she kept returning to the same pair of orange trousers. At one point I made a diversion to look at a product and ended up loosing her. I looked around all the isles and couldn’t find her.
Its clear I’m not cut out to be a stalker nor am I cut out to be a secrete agent. This was the challenge I thought was the most intense and deeply challenging. The thought of doing this scared me but I managed get over my reservations and undertake the challenge. The experience now exists as a text and photographs, they are on my website:
http://www.ameliabeavisharrison.com/2010challenge.html
I am still applying to TV shows for the June Challenge, however no more auditions, just a few phone interviews.
