And the worst thing is you do it to yourself / Desire notes / Hotel room notes / Lament / People assume I’m an only child / Practical Masochism / Stand-up / Tempest: an epilogue /
Stand-up 2 / moving image / installation view and subtitled still / 9:06 / 2013
His lips turn to teeth, he touches them to my
chest. I finally start to move, I try to stand. His other arm is around my
waist, he grips me tighter and tells me I won’t get away that easy. Smiling. He
paid for my drinks, we both know this. He thinks that his grip on my body shows
me how strong he is. He feels I am tense. He tells me he knows how to loosen me
up.
Presented as a short monologue and the second in this series, Stand-up 2 shows a girl recounting a night out. It is stark, deadpan; there are few cues for the audience, only the description of events. Things happen, things that are often considered grey areas, misunderstandings, or are simply too commonplace to mention. Issues of responsibility, passivity, power, shame and complicity arise for both the character and the viewer. Employing stand-up as a visual motif aligns it with a sphere of popular entertainment reliant on controversy and taboo as much as enjoyment and fun. There is something theatrical undermining the content, which is careful not to say too much, even in describing it as ambiguous one adopts a stance.
Screened at The Sir John Cass School of Art, Clear Lines festival at I’klectik Art Lab, London and Womanity Festival, Oxford
Streaming link here