NEXT-PREVIOUSLY-MEANWHILE: a Performance Piece

The video attempts to draw attention to and critique the contemporary value system attached to the artistic document and its role as a form of commodity in the art industry. It comprises three sections subtitled as Next, Previouslyand Meanwhile (N.B. a 3 minute edit of the piece appears on the website, the full 9 minute edit available on request). In the first section Next, three speakers set the scene for the piece, which plays out as a type of symposium within a tiered lecture theatre. The most complex section Previously then changes the pace of the piece and attempts to re-enact key dramatic moments from a previous performance entitled Rehearsed Practice. This re-enactment is performed backwards; the original dialogue has been reversed for the actors using phonetics. The sequence is then reversed in the edit so that it plays forward in the final video with inevitable and obvious corruptions of articulation and movement. This strategy attempts to metaphorically construct a reflexive, critical response to my recent research and practice. The last section Meanwhile brings the viewer back to the lecture scenario for a mock conclusion to the symposium using a question and answer session couched with an absurd use of props and dialogue. The reverse scene in particular, references the repetition of certain actions and discourse within the artistic field. It specifically relates to the patterns observed and documented in the annual selection process conducted by one of Ireland’s key artistic structures in a previous artistic project entitled A Structuring Structure