| Tract Live A rt |
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| Site specific live art and performance in and around Penzance, Cornwall, over three weekends. Summer 2006 | ||||||||||
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| Information on this site will be updated as part of the Tract Live Art Programme | ||||||||||
The other performers in the first weekend of Tract Live art tended to look to the past for inspiration. Sarah Jane Pell, on the other hand seemed to draw on an uncertain technological future, and all the tension, paranoia and anxiety that goes with this.
Sarah’s performance in Newlyn harbour started late in the evening. Fittingly, the dark night sky gave her performance an expansive and anonymous backdrop. Those who attended found Sarah dressed in black, urgently briefing an entourage of technicians and assistants under a spotlight, standing on the roof of the cabin of a large boat.
On her head was a clear Perspex sphere, like a giant goldfish bowl, that was filled slowly with saline solution. The process was amplified by a microphone so that the harbour resounded with gurgling noises. Sarah breathed by means of a small mouthpiece and as the sphere filled and became heavier her face became more and more distorted.
Once full it was hooked onto a wire so it was supported, and Sarah attempted to achieve a state of tranquillity and calm, before the sphere was once again emptied of water. She was then wrapped in survival blankets and driven off in the back of a van.
There was little that was comforting or reassuring about this performance. At one level, whilst inside the sphere, Sarah was stripped of her humanity. Gagged by the water, she could not speak or breath properly, and could only communicate using hand gestures. There was also the ever-present possibility of drowning which added tension, and made the audience complicit in an act that was potentially dangerous.
There was no easy reading of this work. Whilst the context of the harbour seemed to bring out certain obvious maritime themes, these were less important than the seductive and fetishistic visual impact it made, together with the feeling of unease it induced in the audience. This unease was undoubtedly a manifestation of some of the deep-seated fears that it tapped into.
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