As I was looking at something so architectural as the panopticon, I wanted to bring in something sculptural into my performances. I devised a ‘stage’ a wooden frame which took up and commanded the space. I see the gallery space as a panopticon. We look from the central space of a ‘white walled space’ outwards towards the paintings or sculptures. These are the windows, the doors of the cells portals to a reality which is no ours. Panoptic themes naturally reside within this space. Foucault relates to the panopticon. ‘We know the principle on which it was based: at the periphery, an angular building; at the centre, a tower; this tower pierced with wide windows that open onto the inner side of the ring; the peripheric building is divided into cells, each of which extends the whole with of the building; … All that is needed, then, is to place a supervisor in a central tower and to shut up in each cell a madman, a patient, a condemned man, a worker or a school boy.’[1] The supervisor is the person looking at the artwork, each painting an illustration of the person in the cell. ‘visibility is a trap’[2]
In Crows (2017) I attempt to become that supervisor. The supervisor in my tower, my stage, the wooden frame. Using various objects, I begin to produce miniature performances, by not finishing the action of each miniature performance I begin to build tension. At one moment I make a slip knot, I hand the other side of the rope to an audience member to hold onto I drop the rope and move on. Following prison structure between each performative action I washed my hands and face. ‘at the first drum roll the prisoner must rise and stand as the supervisor opens the cell doors, at the second drum roll they must be dressed and made their beds, at the third, they must line up and proceed to the chapel for morning prayer. Work, prisoners go down in the court yard where they must wash their hands and faces and receive their first ration of bread.’[3] I controlled myself by doing this, controlling in the way I could have been in the prison itself. Control.
I continued this ritual using a gas mask to cover my identity. ‘Madness is childhood.’[4] Foucault tells of a reason for the asylum and prison and that is to control the poor and remove identity. This mask though not only removes my Identity it is also a method of control, it is intimidating. I am not in a hazardous area where one may be needed, am I alluding to the fact that the white powder is something other than flower. Either way it helps build tension and I sort to continue with the performance. I add further to this tension by alluding towards a hanging when this fails the first time due to the audience member dropping the rope I hand this back. I climb back up and insert an umbrella. I jump down and take a teddy I had earlier given to a separate audience member, rip its head off and return the stuffing to her. I pour the bowl of water over my head and return to my clothes breaking out of the central stage, rupturing tension. I walk off.
[1] Michel. Foucault (1991). Discipline and Punish The Birth of The British Prison. 4th ed. London: Penguin Buoks. 200.
[2] Michel. Foucault (1991). Discipline and Punish The Birth of The British Prison. 4th ed. London: Penguin Buoks. 200.
[3] Michel. Foucault (1991). Discipline and Punish The Birth of The British Prison. 4th ed. London: Penguin Books. 6.
[4] Michel Foucault (1961). Madness and Civiisation. France: Librairie. 252.
(part of my dissertation draft copy plan)
