Detail

bone passage

August 2004,

Fabrica, Brighton (for Live Art Forum South East)

An aisle of bones from the font to the altar steps. This gallery is a converted church, and above hangs a sculpture of brighton pier made from rope and hair. Each audience member takes a paper inviting them to sit somewhere along this path of bones and sing or hum a continually at a pitch of their choice. Starting slowly I carry water from the font in my cupped hands, singing and splashing it over the nearest bones, walking through the corridor of voices, up and down repeatedly collecting and distributing water. Voice and movement become more urgent, even hurried as I try to carry water enough to wet the bones at the far end, the ritual becomes human, stressed. When all the bones are wet the singing audience are silenced one by one with a touch of the shoulder.
I sit on the altar steps and sing some plainchant, the task complete.