Guangzhou Live11, Guangzhou, China, 2011

I want an empty word to fill, Part III


I start the performance by entering the space with a frosted glass bowl filled with 9 liter of milk. I pass this bowl to an audience member and speak out the sentence “In the beginning was a word, an empty word.” As next I take out of the glass bowl a rubber ball and let it bounce through the space.  After I passed the glass bowl two times more to an audience member I leave the bowl with the second person and take a black gaffer strip to cover my left hand and partly my left under arm. I stretch my left arm and cover with the right hand my mouth. Immediately I start to breathe loud and rhythmical till I nearly hyperventilate.

As next I take out a scalpel and start to cut the black tape on my left hand. While cutting the tape, small pearls are dripping slowly out of my mouth. As next I take two prepared roses, present them and speak out the word memory, take of the leaves and let them slowly fall down. I take the next two roses and speak out the word opinion; I brush with the roses slowly over my face and neck. I take the next 2 roses; speak out the words direct response and scream immediately at the roses. I take the last two roses and say the word intimacy as next I bring both roses completely in my mouth and leave them finally fall out the mouth again. I stay in front of a pile of destroyed roses and light a hidden firework in the roses. It burns for few seconds in different colors and produces quite a bit of smog. After this action I say the words “At the end was a word, a radical word” and go directly to a chair in the back of the space. I step on the chair and jump directly in the direction of the audience. As the last action I take out rose oil and walk along the audience and let them smell. At one person I stop and let her smell a bit longer, I look directly in her eyes and slap myself one time in the face. I leave the space.

photos: Guangzhou Live