MASTER PROJECT
How can I use public spaces as a stage for the theatricality of everyday life?
I took this year to redefine what theatre meant to me and if it was possible to create theatrical happenings without ‘actors’ or ‘stages’.
Taking influence from the ‘everyday’ during these tumultuous times, I found comfort in the banality of daily routines and rituals like commuting and eating. Nowhere is the everyday more prolific than the public spaces we share intimately with strangers. Exploring common experiences with real people in recognisable spaces was my attempt to engage with a different kind of audience.
My work was strongly influenced by differences in culture I was experiencing in Belgium and what that means in a post-brexit landscape.
Pigeons became an important part of my project as they are synonymous with our experience of public spaces in the western world, particularly cities. They became a universal language to express my fascination with human behaviour in public spaces.
How to blend into the crowd
Taking inspiration from a pigeon I saw wearing a piece of bread like a shakespearean ruff, I asked members of the Antwerp public to recreate this moment, using costume to tell an absurd anecdote. Some people were very hostile and seem threatened by my request, this tension was reminiscent of the broader “liberal” threat that has been harnessed for the benefit of the Brexit campaign.
How to share food with strangers
Inspired by picnic season I wanted to draw from the similarities you can see in pigeons’ behaviour and that of children. There was a chaos and freedom to both picnics that lacked all the social graces you would expect.
How to Embrace your difficult neighbour
Drawing from private acts in public places I installed a toilet for a flock of pigeons that inhabited a friends courtyard.
How to claim you own space/invade others
Part of my “man-spreading” series I wanted to publicly address the issue of men’s territorial behaviour in a public setting. A theatrical gesture familiar to commuters around the globe.
How to avoid talking about Brexit
Studying in Europe cemented my idea of “englishness”. It is something I cannot hide or change but there were points when I definitely wanted to. This is in response to my secret pride and embarrassment about being British.
Inspired by Hans Eikelboom and street style photography I explored the nonsensical nature of Antwerp roadworks and the universal language of street signs. Whilst investigating the graphical nature of signage I aimed to give a physicality to the man who lives in the street sign, interested in the strange authority these signs have.
How (not) to have a private moment in a public space
A photo series further exploring the idea of performing a private act in public. I visited every wetherspoons in central London documenting the idiosyncratic nature of ‘spoons toilets as theatrical settings in their own right whilst playing with voyeurism and intimacy.
How to make a crowd disappear
An installation combined with video to highlight the tube as a space we share strangers. It is our mission to remain totally anonymous in this intimate space.
