My contribution to No Niceties exhibition - spoken word performance

In addition to all the responses from other artists to my publication, 'A lot can happen in 15 minutes', I used the 'No Niceties' exhibition as an opportunity to test out a couple of ideas relating to the text.

Given the success of the spoken word performances at the publication launch, I decided to create another to perform at 'No Niceties'.



My performance was scheduled after Stella's performance, so while everyone was focusing on Stella, my group of performers got into position, spreading out around the perimeter of the room, each facing the wall.

Once Stella's performance had finished, my performers gradually began whispering the phrase 'The ticking clock', a line from one of the texts within 'A lot can happen in fifteen minutes'. After a few minutes an assortment of other single sentences or phrases such as 'Desperately searching', 'You knew what to expect', and 'No explanation', were gradually introduced by all but one of the performers. This single performer repeated 'The ticking clock' throughout the performance, but the other performers varied the lines they were speaking.



As the performers changed the way in which they delivered their lines, increasing in volume and altering their tone, they also slowly moved backwards away from the wall and towards the centre of the room. They ended in a circle, each facing toward the audience with their back to the other performers.

As they neared the end of the performance, they became more softly spoken and returned to delivering the single line, 'The ticking clock'. At the point when there was some regularity and the performers were in tune with each other, I called out "No Niceties," marking the end of the performance.

My thanks go to the wonderful individuals who kindly agreed to perform this work with me.