International Cleaner
The main street, which the studios are on, is so busy with so much activity happening will anyone notice if I did a performance? Does it matter if there is an audience? There is always a market on along the main street, people eat overlooking or sitting on the pavements, I even saw two people playing badminton outside a shop. In England I feel street life is very controlled and sanitized with activity restricted to inside shops, shopping centres, and organised events. I know people say that this is because of our weather however it is cold in Chongqing but this doesn’t stop the hustle and bustle of the streets. Along the road there are lots of benches, which are always being used, I really like the design of them as the seating is close to the ground. This has sparked off an idea to do a performance using the benches, I like the idea of cleaning them.
Last night we went into the centre of town and we did some shopping in a large store, where I bought some props. I bought some cleaning products, plastic stool and plastic sleeves. In the studio today I have been experimenting with laying out the cleaning products and I just couldn’t help but put on my fancy dress flight hat. I am going to call myself ‘International Cleaner’ and clean the benches, Chloe will video it for me. I would like to video inside the International Festival of Art and get a tour of the exhibition with someone translating for me. The advertising signs for the Festival are basic with white Chinese symbol on a red background. I would like to make flyers that are designed in the same style as the Festival advertising with the symbol for power and hand these out in the street to passers by.
I performed my first intervention ‘International Cleaner’ on the street and I was a little nervous as I just kept thinking no one would notice what I was doing. I was wrong my cleaning ritual drew the public in and people stayed to the end of the performance. The piece lasted about 20 minutes and viewers commented ‘is this art?’ which for me is the biggest compliment. My intention with the ‘International Cleaner’ sign was to subtly critique the opening of the ‘International Art Festival’ and question the meaning of the word ‘International’. There is something ridiculous about using the words ‘cleaner’ & ‘International’ together as we only usually associate this term with high culture, business and travel. This performance exposes how the word is selectively used to promote/advertise products. As a foreign artist I felt that the act of cleaning the benches was also a personal offering to the public.
