Doing Performance Art in Public.

I have never ever done something like this in my entire life but I did last weekend. I have performed in two productions whilst I've been at university, both have been assessed performances I couldn't escape. The thought of performing in front of a willing audience made my skin crawl. Doing this today in the beginning made me wish that the ground would swallow me whole. I managed to pull off a durational performance as I sat there in the cold and rain for 4 hours whilst I sketched away. The only durational performance I've done before is raving my lil head off with my fave DJ Gareth Emery for his 6 hour set at the Albert Hall in Manchester last February.

As part of our contemporary performance module we have to base part of it upon our practice and give examples. Since my practice in limited due to being combined honours and preferring the theory and shying away from the practical; doing something like this took big balls for me. With my anxiety I hate strangers enough as it is, but I decided to bite the bullet and bloody do it. I was 'busking' in Liverpool city centre outside Lime Street Station. I sat there sketching for 4 hours and after a while placed a cup on the floor for people to put money in if they fancied (surprisingly they did).

The point of the piece wasn't about me getting over my fears of the public, It was to show that anyone can do art and performance art anywhere. You don't have to be classically trained in fine art or attended a prestigious drama school to do these things. I also wanted people to be able to see art whilst they're busy doing their consumer Saturday shopping. Most people who walked past me gazed at me and then at the art I was creating. People don't spend their leisure time going to galleries staring at paintings anymore. They spend their time by spending their money in shops as the capitalist system wants them to,

So not only was I trying to show that you can do art anywhere it was to allow the public to see a piece of performance art and piece of art original art, rather than mechanical simulacra reproductions. The overall aim was for one person to look at the art, never mind the hundreds who gazed for the 4 hours I was there for (even in the rain I carried on going). I think it worked. And I managed to draw this in the four hours pretty proud of my pencil skills considering I only started sketching with them last year.

What you waiting for go do your own little piece of performance art. It's not as scary as it sounds, 

Thanks for reading,