Disembodied;
Nude at the Window
1994
Super-8mm black and white film
transferred to single channel video
silent
Group show
Duration: 1’03”
Performance: 4 hours
Super-8mm camera: Sasha Koura
Sponsorship: Paul Mitchell
Location:
The Tannery,
Bermondsey, London
Washing my hair crouched over a bowl of water of various durations is a performance that I have come to repeat in different places. It is the chosen location that gives meaning and context to this simple, routine action. This performance took place in an old warehouse in South London...the room is dirty and filled with decay and dust and the detritus of abandonment awaiting development; light shines in brightly from the open doorway into an otherwise dark space. I perform the act of washing my hair for 4 hours continuously. The white aroma of shampoo gently creeping away from my crouched position. Visitors eventually have to step over the creeping foam, and they gather and watch from seated positions on the floor around me. The black and white Super-8mm film captures my presence like a smear, looming out of the ghostly gloom.
At the point where proximity and distance lie
giving life to the stark white foam, encroaching
bearing its sweet aroma beyond
enticing you in through the open doorway.
Passing through transience
engaging with timelessness.
You are confronted by a familiar action that is out of context; where time is compressed and all the life in between is elsewhere. A doorway from the bright sunshine outside leads you into this bare dust-filled room, which is otherwise quite dark. A past of activity reiterates, as it waits for new life in refurbishment.
A figure in the far corner transfixes the image of a painting, washing her hair over a single bowl of water. The weathered grit and mould of the room's disuse become buoyant with aromatic foam, spilling a presence into absence.Paul Mitchell Shampoo-One: Chamomile extract, (deionised water/chamomile blend), sodium laureate sulphate (derived from coconut), cocamide dea, sodium chloride, cocamidopropyl betaine awapuhi extract, rosemary extract, jojoba oil, kelp extract, aloe vera gel, wheat germ oil, keratin amino acids, polyquaternium-28, henna extract, panthenol, hydroxypropyl, methylcellulose, methylparaben, terasodium edta, fragrance, critic acid, methylchloroisothiazlinone, methylisothiazolinone.