The Red Carpet - documentation from performance at 'Response', October 2010

Just edited a short clip from the documentation of 'The Red Carpet', which was performed during 'Response' at Landgaurd Fort last October. The work was made specifically for the gun corridor in the fort and lasted for approximately 2 hours.

The red cape/carpet was made by Jo Brossman.

The Red Carpet - images from Response, Landguard Fort, Felixstowe

The performance took place as part of a 3-day event at Landguard Fort in Felixstowe called Response, curated by Helen Lydia Green and Michael Lumb for GRIP. The Fort was an amazing setting, full of hidden corners and corridors, holes and history - standing strong against industrial backdrop of Felixstowe Port.

The performance involved working with costume designer Jo Brossman to create an exaggerated red cape which measured 2600 cm x 120 cm. With this cape concertinaed on my back I bowed before the audience at the opening to one of the long, narrow lamp corridors in the fort. The end of the cape was moved over my head and placed at the feet of the audience. I moved slowly backward along the narrow space, unfolding, covering and revealing - filling the space with a river of red. I heard voices - is there someone under there?

images, Emma Johnson

images, Karen

'Response' at Landguard Fort - Palimpsest (Scar)

I am developing a new performance work for 'Response', an event taking place in October at Landguard Fort, an English Heritage site on Felixstowe Harbour in Suffolk. Responding to the site, a stronghold, the work will approach themes of power, dominance and submission - referencing the king - the red cape of Caesar and domestic work, service and repair. Simultaneously healing and inflicting - smoothing over and opening an old wound.

I am interested in using the corridor spaces of the fort - the veins and arteries of the building. I am working with the title Palimpsest (Scar). The work will explore the idea of writing and re-writing, covering and revealing, the fort itself has undergone a number of architectural additions over the years, being re-written in stone. I have been thinking about the history of the place, a military history, battles fought by men, written in words on pages, now re-enacted - what is really told? What is lost? 

Unfolding, slowly, moving backwards and forwards in time, a welcoming and a warning, soft underfoot - a red carpet - a red river.

Grimmer&Steele Trust - Sessions at Proximity Effect, Plymouth Arts Centre

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Press Release -

29 November 2008 – 11 January 2009

You are invited to the opening event
Friday 28 November, 6.30–8.30pm
The exhibition opens with demanding performance by Leo Devlin curated by Red Ape, arm wrestling by Ray White and a performance by guests the Grimmer & Steele Trust, heralding the start of this daring programme.
ArtsMatrix and Plymouth Arts Centre are also supporting three artist-led projects in the city of Plymouth: Pilot, U:1 studios and new work by Café Concrete.

Exhibition
29 November 2008 – 11 January 2009
A series of performances, installations, videos and live music by visual artists from the city of Plymouth. The group is brought together for the first time, each with their own individual practice and curatorial experience, to consider the effect of their proximity to the city and each other.

Low Profile embark on a marathon performance: watching the entire 1st series of hit 1980s TV show MacGyver, back-to-back, cataloguing numerous ways of saving the day: rolling under doors, escaping burning buildings and fooling the guards.

Rooting contemporary music to locality and heritage, onec have invited bands and musicians to interpret songs of the sea for a compilation LP. Ray White creates an arm-wrestling forum in the galleries, alongside a relaxation room by the Grimmer & Steele Trust. Nick Grew, in collaboration with Heidi C Morstang, presents a new films, Grain Silo, featuring the erstwhile relic of Plymouth’s skyline. Marianne Torrance continues her research with people who share her passion for ecology, exploring art and marine science collaborations, in partnership with the Marine Biological Association and Plymouth City Council. Red Ape is an enquiry into the relationship between language and live performance. Curated by Mark Greenwood, the project explores issues around male identity and anxieties.

Curator Paula Orrell explains: "We have offered a selected group of artists the opportunity to curate/develop an exhibition in collaboration with Plymouth Arts Centre. The objective is to develop a critical space for the artists to examine their own context and offer up a broader understanding of their work. It encourages exchange and development of links between artists in the region, country and beyond, considering the current climate of the visual arts and the development of audience and profile within the city of Plymouth."

Performance Etiquette

Etiquette (one-to-one performance, 2008)

This shows the original plan for performance set up and an image of the actual set up captured at the Performance Time Festival. A 9 day festival of live art hosted by an organisation based in Istanbul, Turkey called GalataPerform. The work was performed in March this year as part of a group exchange organised by performance artist Carole Luby. The exchange was funded by Arts Council England, North East.

The work manipulates a very simple set of performative codes of conduct to consider structured interaction. I was interested in setting up a situation where the usual performer/spectator relationship, and the balance of power shifted. Considering the formally accepted etiquette of clapping - often completely inappropriately - at the end of a performance or piece of live art. Someone mentioned to me that clapping at the end of a performance originated in some cultures as a way to ward off evil spirits, as though silence itself was a dangerous thing. This has interesting comparisons in our culture, as silence, is something a lot of people have a problem with. Silence when in company is reserved for your very closest friends and family members. Maybe we use clapping in performance in similar ways, to mask ‘uncomfortable’ silence, perhaps to chase away our personal demons, make ourselves feel better or feel accepted, feel like part of an understanding group. Maybe we are simply playing our role as the viewer.

Interestingly enough I was able to chat informally with many of the Turkish people who had participated in the work immediately afterward. It transpired that the cultural differences between Turkey and the UK had completely altered the reading of the work. Though I had always been aware that the work would be a slightly uncomfortable experience for the viewer and myself I had not expected what actually happened. I have used the word 'interrogation' before to describe the primary focus or intended area of study within the work. However, the Turkish police force and their methods of questioning obviously charge the word with much greater significance for the Turkish people. Many of the individuals who I spoke to recounted very strong feelings of fear, all caught up with the idea of being interrogated by the police. Apparently in Turkey, questioning (interrogation) can happen randomly and was described as being almost like torture. Feedback was translated to me from a Turkish girl who said she had always dreamed of being in the spotlight, up on stage performing, but when the work placed her in this position all she felt was panic and discomfort.

Video and istallation Work 2004 - 2007

Tenderness (digital video, 2004)



Negotiation 1 (single screen digital video installation, 2004)




33.3 (multi-screen digital video installation, 2005)

The Rules of Engagement (digital video, 2006)

Yours, Sincerely (digital video, 2007)