I had some good news a couple of months ago: a curator at Tate Britain got in touch asking to programme “Doing Words with Things” for a BP Saturdays event this October 22nd.
Marianne the curator and I have talked about how the work was first performed for the London Word Festival at the RichMix earlier this year, and agreed some adaptations for the environment and audience of Tate Britain.
When Alex and I originally performed the work together at RichMix we were restricted by my limited knowledge of BSL. This time round I’ve been looking for two fluent users of BSL who can work together to sign and sculpt simultaneously in continuous knowledge of what one another are saying and doing.
After a long search I’ve made contact with two Bristol-based BSL poets Richard Carter and Paul Scott. I haven’t yet met them in person but I’ve enjoyed watching their performances online with the help of some written translations and linguistic commentaries (part of a BSL poetry research project at Bristol University):
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/education/research/sites/…
Tomorrow I’m going to Bristol to meet them both for the first time for an initial conversation and rehearsal. Richard has found an interpreter, I’ve found a meeting room, Tate have agreed the rehearsal costs, and all the practicalities seem pretty much under control. Now it’s just the actual WORK we have to worry about.
