liz sergeant
The Writing on the Wall
Performance 20 secs
December 2009
A twenty-second performance for the 20:20:20:20 show at Central St Martins highlights the intense pressure felt (mainly by women) at Christmas-time in the need to 'get everything done'. The strategy of making a list to ensure nothing is forgotten becomes the performance. As the tasks are frantically scribbled in an absurdly constricted place (a 20cm x 20cm wallspace, 20cm from the floor), the feeling of tension mounts, ironically concluding with the word "RELAX!"
The 'Writing on the Wall' is a phrase indicative of impending doom, taken from the Old Testament, when a hand writes on the wall 'Mene, mene, tekel, parsin', foretelling the demise of the Babylonian empire.