'Water Table Performance'

Water Table PerformanceThis performance artwork took place in an empty Victorian Swimming Pool, at Templemore Street, in East Belfast, as a part of ‘Against The Light into the Headwinds’ Exhibition.The performance was a durational artwork and involved the slow lifting of a table using clamps and wooden batons added to the legs. Lengths of wood were clamped in turn onto the table legs and longer lengths were added so as the table rose up higher and higher during the performance. Several objects were placed on the tabletop e.g. a silver ball on a silver tray. A plumb-line was suspended below the table and emphasized the changing tilts of the table as the performance proceeds. As each baton was discarded from the table and a new longer length was added in its place. An A4 printed image was then stapled to the discarded baton and it was placed on the edge of the swimming pool. These images were derived from Northern Irish Rivers with an overlay of the logo from a range of Oil & Gas Exploration companies, which had been operating in the region.Each wooden length was placed in such a way as to mark the former water level in the pool, i.e. the deeper the pool, the longer the length of wood used.As time elapsed the table was raised up, eventually to the level of the walk-way around the pool. In this way the table ended up being level with the audience as they walked around the pool-side. Other items within the work included: a series of taped lines on the end wall of the pool, a broken bench with a photograph of Stormont Assembly Building attached, small wooden models of buildings perched on the ledge at the head of the pool, various metal bowls, clamps etc.