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The Why, How, When, Where, Which
The Why, How, When, Where, Which
...In what way are we being asked questions? The question still hangs there
in the room like a bloody big elephant. Tusks, teeth, trunk. The elephant
speaks, she tells us in plain English – because she’s an English elephant -
that she might have the grammatical appearance of a question but in this
case she is something else. She is a critical judgment disguised as a question.
Something a bit more tricksy, maybe, but equally weighty, equally loaded.
And what she wants is a response but not an answer, not a full stop. She’s
calling for something with a bit more….room.
1
Yoko Ishiguro1 Occupied2 Male and female toilets3 Usually I would use the urinal
but I am forced to ‘go’ in a cubicle by a Yoko, who is dressed in a panda costume4
Durational, over the whole day – this is an occupation after all and it is difficult to
Artist name1 Title of work2
occupy quickly5 There are people and objects and there is this panda but I need to
‘go’ – this is the main thing on my mind. And so I forge a direct path towards the
cubicle – as if to say to the panda, “this is also my toilet”. There are other people in Setting3 Audience4 Duration5
the toilet, people who are not there to go to the toilet. I begin to ‘go’6 I am aware that
my feet can be seen from the gap at the bottom of the cubicle7 Relived and steadied, I
begin to compute the multitude of objects that are colonizing the toilet space: a singing
doll, toy soldiers arranged strategically on the floor, toilet paper stuck to the walls
The beginning6 Feet7 Objects8
explaining the definition of an occupation, clothes on hangers hanging from cubicle
doors and other paraphernalia of a life condensed into a suitcase8 Yoko is Japanese, she
is not from the UK9 Usual toilet sounds: water, flushing, air freshener being dispensed
alongside a doll singing this high pitched digitized tune10 We do not talk to each other
Origin9 Noise10 The words11
– there are virtually no words. Male toilets in particular are spaces where conversation
end25
blocks of language,’ she said much later, after she left the stage9 Very quiet contrasted
with the noise of struggle, the noise of failure – a particular type of noise which
reverberates throughout the entire studio, perhaps throughout the entire world?10 Big
placards – titles, which in their handwritten simplicity contribute to a(n un)certain
move away from words, a reduction11 because of the stage space, this black box12 Did
you expect it to turn out in this way?13 How different it is performing on a stage to,
end25
black soothes, cleanses and stains in turns6 Black, bare, soft and wide poking out of the
bottom of his trousers7 A large knife, a bottle of industrial bleach oven cleaner, a wire
scrubbing pad8 Of doubt. Of blackness that might be dirty, wrong or different and (my)
whiteness as clean. And all the shades of grey (brown?) in between9 Scratch. Scratch.
Scratch. Coarse abrasion of wire and skin, two things, two sounds, that should never
5
Artist name1 Title of work2
Poppy Jackson1 Untitled2 Low ceilinged lecture room divided diagonally3 Sat on does she/he do?19 A book20
the floor4 Digestible5 She presses play - sound of birds6 Bare feet hover over the iced
cake and then gently press down – cake oozes, cake breaks, cake gets stuck to feet7
Four or five small black wooden sticks (broken) ghetto blaster, blanket, cake, candles,
bunting8 Englishness9 Crack, crack, crack, crack……the sticks breaking through the
A painting21 Something big22
bird song10 NO WORDS11 Why no title?12 She is standing on the cake that I wanted
to eat13 A crushing feeling, worse than the crack of the black wooden sticks14 In the
middle now a depressed and destroyed cake I screw my face up Delicately wraps
15 16 Something small23 A question24
the bunting round her hands - hands become elongated by bunting, red juice oozes
over body17 Becoming a bird18 Nothing more than necessary19 ‘The Home Expert’ by
Dr D.G. Hessayon, 198720 Silver Jubilee commemoration china21 Big cake22 Small foot23
What is it that is so good about making a mess?24 I could have had more (cake)25
The end25
6
East End Collaborations is an annual platform for young London based Live Art artists organised by the Live Art Development Agency and
Queen Mary University. Participating artists - 2009: Oreet Ashery, Angela Bartram, Alexander C. Bede, Ben Connors & Holly Darton, Richard
DeDomenici, Sheila Ghelani, Susannah Hewlett, Helena Hunter, Yoko Ishiguro, Poppy Jackson, Rachel Mars, Martin O’Brien, Jiva Parthipan,
Lindsey Price & Francesca Millican-Slater, Simon Raven, Siân Robinson Davies, Georgia Rodger, Jungmin Song, Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa, Lisa
Wright.