To Wait

 

Was a multimedia exhibition at Project Space Plus, University of Lincoln in June 2017. The show presented the public with a variety of works that I see as a series of meditations on what it is to wait.

Many of the works created during my research project did not actually make it to the exhibition.

To present too many pieces would have overcrowded the gallery and this would have contradicted the aim of the project which was to encourage a solitary and intimate conversation with the audience.
The size and positioning of the works urged the viewers to slow down and get close to each piece if they wanted to know what it was about.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The exhibition ended up being a very personal account of my experience of waiting but at the same time, being aware that in the current climate many people experience chronic waiting at the mercy of others, the exhibition was an attempt to find ways in which to give visibility to others who wait in less fortunate circumstances.

 

Reflecting about the exhibition as a whole and using the space to perform waiting in brought the following insights:

As I was setting up the exhibition I sensed that doing any sort of performance on the opening night would not be right. The performances if they had to exist had to be quiet and inconspicuous and therefore would benefit from taking place when the gallery did not have many visitors.

 

 

The performances became meditations on the work exhibited,

 

 

meditations on the writing that accompanies it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and meditations on my waiting for an audience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I performed on and off for about four hours a day for the duration of the exhibition. The performances stopped when anyone entered the gallery at that point I would welcome them.

When the viewers were having a look at the work I became conscious that I was just hanging about quietly waiting for them to finish and then I would make myself available to them for a chat or for any questions they may want to ask about the work.