In the 12 hour durational performance ‘How to save your skin when disaster strikes without warning’, Low Profile read, try to learn from and test each other on the survival advice offered by the 1960’s publication, “The Book of Survival” by Anthony Greenbank.
“The Book of Survival” is made up of 265 pages of information about how to survive brake failure, constipation, ants, claustrophobia, falling debris, electric shock, ghosts, heart attack, cracked lips, loneliness, fall-out radiation, burglars, sandstorms, altitude sickness, being lost, darkness and so on.
Once read, the book offers the promise to leave its readers mentally equipped ‘to survive’. Throughout the 12 hours of the performance, the artists and audience navigate the strange content of “The Book of Survival”, repeatedly putting this promise ‘to the test’ (in the relatively ‘safe’ environment of the gallery) in the hope that they will learn how to survive, against all odds.
They (of course) can’t prepare for the emergencies not covered, the missing chapters and the mis-remembered golden rules.
>> This is a bookwork that accompanies the performance DRY RUN part 2: How to save your skin when disaster strikes without warning.
“DRY RUN parts 2 & 3” are part of an ongoing research project supported by Plymouth College of Art
