Duets with 5 Strangers
Tempting Failure
Matthews Yard, Croydon

In the 80’s I did a performance at Chisenhale, in which I had invited a friend, Chris Miller, artist/philosopher, to interrupt me at an arbitrary point, chosen spontaneously by him, so that the audience would think he was a stranger trying to join in. I wanted the performance to evoke uncertainty in what was actually happening. It provided a rich variety of response including embarrassment, anger, verbal and physical interventions, disquiet, laughter and puzzlement. I often thought about future strategies to find a way to work with an actual stranger, immediately and in front of an audience.

In early 2016 I asked the first stranger to enter my space, MoCa Trowbridge, Richard Green, if he would make a work with me in London at Tempting Failure Festival later in the year. I said we would not discuss it at all and we would not meet up again until we met on stage. He agreed.

I then asked the organisers at Tempting Failure to invite 2 people who didn’t know me as well asking them to invite a random busker. I also asked the artist/musician Jem Finer to invite a friend, whom I didn’t know.

The following text was sent by the organisation Tempting Failure to all 5 strangers:

As a part of the evening programme for the Tempting Failure 2016 Festival, on evening of 23rd July in Matthews Yard (Croydon), Anne Bean is planning a work called ‘ Duets with 5 strangers.’

… we would like you to take part in this unique performance.

She would like to work with people she doesn’t know, until they come
together ‘on stage’ for this event.

They would each, consecutively, make a ten minute work together with
her, live in the moment in front of an audience.

‘Together’ can be seen as responding or not responding to each other,
sharing a moment in space/time in whatever way seems appropriate to
each of the participants at the time.

The equipment already in the space will be a PA with 2 microphones and
stands and some simple lighting.
The participants will not be chosen by Anne Bean.

Anne Bean wishes to maintain the spontaneity of this encounter and so
will not be involved in any discussions or enquiries beforehand but
has given Tempting Failure her full permission to deal with anything that arises.

I was invited to write a text for Droste Effect Magazine before the event:

‘Duets with 5 Strangers’ is about the making of work. ….the fear, the anticipation, the focus, the hopes, the hopelessness, the desires, the passion, the absurdity, the perplexity, the reaching, the rawness, the bewilderment, the questioning, the laughter, the connectivity, the buzz, the fizz, the heartfelt, the soulful, the pathetic, the shifts, the drifts, the uplifts, the needs, the drive, the ego, the authentic, the LIVE.

I will bring nothing but my own body to the space….the material of the work for me will be entirely the stranger.. my awareness of their awareness and sensing their awareness of my awareness ..the focussing, …our antennae searching for clues …psychically probing each other and outwards into the space of the audience—taking them with us on this unknown flight. I would like the work to grip and stir and disturb and challenge all of us in the space and to create an intense witnessing and engagement by the audience that in turn feeds the participants in this unknowable sharing, …. this ontological gambolling—this awareness of awareness.

The 5 strangers in order of appearance were:

Lucy Hutson – www.lucyhutson.com

Dominika – a violinist busker

Alex Brenchley – www.alexbrenchley.co.uk

Richard Green (Trowbridge)

Robin Bale, a London-based poet/performer and sound artist. He makes improvised performances utilising verbal and non-verbal vocalisation and musical equipment. He also makes recordings that experiment with aural space and what he calls “dub aesthetics”, the creative deployment of studio technology to create sonic landscapes that reflect the fragmented space of urban and exurban environments. His performances incorporate ritualised antagonism, the intonation of found texts and enigmatic phrases, historical trivia, grunts and howls, and the pouring of Special Brew onto the floor as libation for the spirits of the dead. The texts are infested with sphinxes, ghosts and winos. These performances have often taken place in, and are responses to, what nowadays passes for public space.
www.robinbale.blogspot.com
https://soundcloud.com/robinbale
https://robinbale.bandcamp.com/album/schuld

Richard wrote the following:

Thanks for the opportunity, I found it very enlightening…..The only rule I gave myself in the performance was that I was not going to speak. I had the piano to speak through, if necessary. My reason for this is I believe I have a second self who is betrayed every time I open my mouth. He is a troubled, unhappy child, desperate to be heard, but with no words. I wanted to give him the stage, it seemed like the ideal setup, as you made such a generous open-ended offer in the performance criteria…… I had found myself in a rather stuck, catatonic state, which rather limited my options, but if I had been a more experienced performer, I might still have found away to initiate more (albeit probably hostile) interaction with you on stage. I don’t regret that, …… but also it could be said the performance was perfect just as it was. A vignette, which stays with me, and maybe the audience too. …It was a challenge for me to stay away from language, intensely uncomfortable, but it opened a door for me. This is where I need to go – although I shouldn’t need a stage for that.

photographer Julia Bauer