Displacement activity was a series of performative actions I undertook during Synecdoche's month-long [dis]place residency at The Vestibules, College Green, Bristol, September 4th to October 2nd 2017.
Displacement activity (noun)
'a human activity that seems inappropriate, considered to arise unconsciously when a conflict between antagonistic urges cannot be resolved.'
I am a compulsive knitter. I expected to spend any spare time during this residency knitting but unfortunately, probably as a direct result of this obsession, I had tendonitis in my left wrist so had to stop, for a while at least.
Knitting is like breathing to me. I normally have some knitting with me and I knit wherever I am - on buses, on the beach, in the park and in the pub. It has a meditative quality about it; it calms me and helps me focus. Also, as I generally knit large pieces, I need to knit whenever and wherever I can in order to get enough knitting done.
Without it, I am bereft.
So, for this residency I have been spending my time on what I'm calling my displacement activities:
- responding to the spaces by experimenting with a series of temporary installations and interventions
- writing down comments and conversations that I have had with visitors and my reflections on that feedback
- documenting the residency by photographing the ways that the spaces change with time
It's hard to categorise what these displacement activities are, but I've decided that their public, performative aspects are probably most significant, so I'm calling them performances...
Here is the documentation of all 12 displacement activities during the residency, with some comments from visitors and some of my reflections:
And here are the individual displacement activities:
Displacement activity #1: Pill packets and Post-its
Displacement activity #2: Mobile soft sculptures
Displacement activity #4: Drawing in space with elastic …. (and a monkey) and here's a video:
Displacement activity #5: Helium balloons... and here's a video:
Displacement activity #6: Helium balloons and mirrors
Displacement activity #7: Look up, look down
Displacement activity #8: Pill packets and hair
Displacement activity #9: Sculpting with pill packets and a stapler
Displacement activity #10: Shadows, light and reflections
Displacement activity #11: Collaborative drawing Watch a video here:
Displacement activity #12: Projection 1. And here's a video:
Displacement activity #12: Projection 2 See the video below: