“If you would just like to take a seat”
“What’s your name please?”
“o.k someone will come out and get you in a minute”
This performance took place in a photographic darkroom. Each participant was asked to book a five minute time slot. They were greeted by a receptionist and asked to wait for the guide (Rachel)
She appeared from round a corner with a clipboard and a stopwatch, checked their name on the list and took them to the entrance of the darkroom where she presented them with a camera and explained the following instructions:
“During the performance you will have three minutes and in that time you can take three photographs with this camera. If you hold it slightly away from you, at chest height, that will be the best.”
The participant was then led into the darkroom which was completely black. The guide made sure that they were standing in the right place, checked to see everything was alright.
“From this spot you can step to the right and the left but not any further forward. In three minutes time I will come back to get you. OK? “
Standing alone in the darkness armed only with the camera the participant slowly became aware of another presence in the darkroom. Unknown to them, the performer (Hannah) was hiding there, in an enlarger booth. She slowly made her way round the room, using the surrounding equipment to make sounds that gave clues of her whereabouts.
The participant would decide when to take their three photographs, knowing that the camera’s flash would illuminate the space, allowing them to ‘see’. At the same time the camera was recording that split second in a photograph.
The performance was designed to set up a situation where the participant would experience an event that they simultaneously documented. They acted both as witness and catalyst for the performance.
Participants were also invited to return and view the resulting documentation, giving them a forum where they could discuss their experience of the piece with others. They were then given one of the photographs as their record of the event.
Many searched for ‘their’ three photographs amongst the 150 taken, with different participants claiming the same image as their own.
The piece explored what it means to experience a live performance, to remember it and to view it through sometimes misleading documentation (the photographs were perfectly exposed although they were taken in complete darkness).
(performance and installation) photographic darkroom at ERRN, Exeter, March 2003