An Entire Room Full of People

2021, 2 hr live performance, TMAG, documented by Gabrielle Eve

i’m in a place doing the stuff

copying people but maybe they won’t get it but maybe they will

it might not be very good

i’m very excited

no i’m not

don’t talk to me if you find me

or do

i’ll be waving at you

this is about this room

the art I’m doing is good you probably won’t get it

An Entire Room Full of People was part of the collaborative exhibition In II Minds, which was created in response to Dark MoFo’s Paradise Lost: Thomas Griffiths Wainewright (2021); shown at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. I spent the evening hovering throughout the space, behaving in ways that are not far from, but still exist just outside of the ‘social norm’.

I was deliberately, obviously, both excited by and bored by the presence of other people. I was empowered, confused, mischievous, whimsical and skittish. I followed, mimicked, hid, smiled, frowned, leaned, crouched, sat and stood.

Most of all, I stared.

A stare that burned the backs of heads.

A stare unbroken until I’d break it.

A stare that consisted of both, yet was neither of, flirt and fear.

To be flirtatiously pulled in, only to fear and be feared -

- and then I would move on.