7/2/14
For my performance today, I decided to look at the ‘game’, ‘Five Finger Fillet’. It was inspired by Marina Abramović’s ‘Rhythm 10’, where she played the ‘Five Finger Fillet’ game and every time she cut herself she would pick up a new clean knife. She cut herself 20 times. She had recorded the sound of it and played it back. Next time she played the recording back and matched up the relevant cuts and misses to that on the recording.
This got me thinking about how I could perform something similar and I came to the conclusion of doing it psychologically, looking at the build up to it rather than the execution.
I did not speak through the duration of the piece. I wore a shirt, trousers, shoes, a tie and a jacket. I began by organising the audience to sit on the floor in a semi-circle, where I then placed newspaper at their feet.I continued to do so until the whole area had been covered in newspaper. I took my time with this. I then placed a large wooden chopping board in the middle of the space, again I took my time. I then took off my shoes. I then placed an empty to litre bottle onto the chopping board and pulled out a knife. I then demonstrated to the audience, how sharp it was by shearing the top off the bottle with ease.
I then placed my hand down onto the chopping board and flexed my fingers; I then removed my tie and jacket and rolled up my sleeve. I placed my hand onto the chopping board raised the knife, hesitated then stopped.
I then put on blindfold and repositioned my hand. I raised the knife and will one almighty bang I plunged it into the chopping board, just missing my hand.
As for the feedback, my presentation had the desired effect; the audience was in ore and of course fear. The build-up of the presentation is what allowed the audience to construct the fear into their own minds. This phscological build-up is something I want to take forward to my final piece in order that I can “Scare the s**t” out of people, but done so in a contolled and stylish way. Below are some of the reactions as the performance took place:
