Daniel Hunt

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Lifeline: Performance Information

A long paper banner is stretched the length of the space. There is a text that covers the banner, handwritten in black ink. It covers the entire surface, and from a distance appears to form an abstract image consisting of long wavy lines, although the text’s characters are large enough to soon become readable when approached.

The performance simply consists of the action of a performer reading the text out loud, although this is done with strict adherence to certain rules and attitudes, and with not inconsiderable obstructions;

The performer only reads precisely what is directly in front of them, making it necessary for him to be constantly moving along the banner using a side-step motion. When he reaches the end of the banner he immediately walks (in a normal manner) back to the start, so it is quickly established that the nature of his recital and its delivery is dictated by rhythm; the un-natural even series of words spoken as they appear, the regular breaks in the text at the end of each line, and the performer’s footfalls.

The performer is narrating his own life-story (or commenting on it) as it is being lived or experienced. The metaphor is strengthened by the presence of two more performers, a woman dressed in evening dress and a man in a bear costume, who sit at each end of the banner consuming food and drink. Every so often they each in turn get up to either dance with the reader (the Woman) or fight with him (the Bear) and in doing so create a spontaneously realised, but nevertheless structured choreography, born of a mutual desire to persist with an activity or the pursuit of a goal despite it conflicting with another’s.

The entire performance lasts approximately ten minutes and is accompanied throughout by inappropriately cheesy cocktail jazz.

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