7-23270 7-23270 was a collaborative performance based on and around the notion(s) of why we commit suicide, it was performed in 1998 at Victoria Studios, Shakespeare Street, Nottingham, by Claire-Lise Braun, Phillip Ryder and Paul M Stafford. |
The piece was named after the section of [The Suicide Act 1961], quoted below. Suicide Act 1961 (9 & 10 Eliz 2 c 60) 7-23270 1.Suicide to cease to be a crime.- The rule of law whereby it is a crime for a person to commit suicide is hereby abrogated. [Suicide Act 1961, s 1.] Claire-Lise Braun performed a series of stylised performance/dance movements that represented the following reasons that the group decided led to people commiting suicide. Revenge, self-loathing, senselessness, money, isolation, giving up, lonliness, pain, hypersensitivity, lack of control/control, emotional imbalance, no light at the end of the tunnel, no point to life, arrogance, feeling abandoned, escaping fate/fate, no hope, desperation, anger, more pain than pleasure, frustration, stuck in a rut, no way out, and a cry for help. Claire - Lise had a Marshal amp strapped to her stomach and a microphone attached to either arm. During the performance all of the sounds that she made were being picked up by the microphones and sent through to a recording booth, where Phillip Ryder manipulated the sounds through feedback looping. Claire-Lise also created feedback at key moments throughout her movements to represent the silent internal screams of someone who is contemplating suicide. Paul Stafford sat in the same space as Claire-Lise Braun. At the beginning of the performance he had a piece of whitewashed chipboard strapped to his chest, a wood chisel on his lap, and nine smaller pieces of whitewashed chipboard sitting infront of him. As the performance starts he begins to chisel onto the breastplate a picture of a hand holding back a clenched fist, as the piece progresses he chisels the following words onto eight of the smaller pieces of chipboard and strap them onto his arms and legs. Real, Life, Faith, Hope, Joy, Trust, Love and Passion. The opposite emotions and reasons for living to those that Claire-Lise is representing. A microphone attached to the underneath of one of his arms picks up the sounds that he makes during the performance and sends them through to the sound booth, where Phillip Ryder feeds them back into the performance space unchanged. The interaction of Claire-Lise Braun and the sounds that she creates, and how Phillip Ryder alters them before feeding them back into the performance space represents the lack of control/control factor of the piece, whereas the interaction between Claire-Lise Braun and Paul Stafford represents the subconscious (Claire-Lise) and the conscious (Paul). The whitewashed chipboard segments that are strapped to Paul Stafford are representations of the armour/defenses that we put on and up, to protect ourselves from the unpleasant side of life. To close the piece, Paul Stafford chisels 7-23270 onto the final piece of chipboard, and places it onto his lap. Claire-Lise Braun then walks over to him, slowly, and removes all of his armour, the subconscious stripping the conscious of its defenses, she then goes back to her performance space and continues her performance in slow motion, as Paul Stafford stands up and walks out of the performance space and into the sound booth with Phillip Ryder. Here he switches off all of the equipment piece by piece, the brain slowly dying, and walks back into the performance space. As he returns to his place in the space he hands the final piece of chipboard to a random member of the audience, a simplistic suicide note, Suicide is not illegal I am doing nothing wrong. Then Claire - Lise ceases to move completely and Paul Stafford appears to fall asleep in his chair. The end of the piece signifying the end of life. Written by Paul M Stafford |
Copyright © Paul M Stafford 1998 |