Einat Amir
Enough About You
9–18 October 2015
VIP preview: 9 October, 7–10pm
TRIAD
28 Field St
London WC1X 9DA
Hours: Daily 10am–2pm and 4–7pm,
Friday 9 October 10am–2pm
TRIAD is pleased to present Enough About You, a performance by Einat Amir and a premiere in the United Kingdom.
Enough About You engages the public in an experiment of social interaction. The performance is entirely dependent on the viewer’s will to become an active participant and, in this case, to become an art object and the subject for contemplation.
Enough About You is a concentrated ensemble of human emotions, a symphony of facial expressions and acts of sincerity, displayed in three white booths containing members of the audience.
The performance consists of three soundproof booths placed in the gallery space. A maximum of 15 people at a time are directed into the performance. Randomly selected pairs are led into the booths by the host and asked to respond to a prerecorded conversational structure from the artist, provoking emotional responses that build a bond between the two strangers. The spectators who are not chosen to go into the booths stand against the entrance wall, observing those within through the glass front of the booths.
Every movement, facial expression, and emotional shift of the room is completely exposed, but not a single word or sound can be grasped from the outside of the booths. The clinical white light from the booths washes the people inside, creating distinctive frames of concentrated human emotions. We watch them laugh, blush and sweat, creating gestures of excitement, nervousness, surprise, awkwardness and sometimes attraction. As they cannot see the other pairs in the other boxes, they often seek for the approval of the people standing outside the boxes.
Enough About You creates a state of mind that is almost therapeutic, while simultaneously challenging the spectator’s role. This framework for viewing is innovative both in respect to art history and to the history of theater. While the work’s dynamics require openness and confidence from its viewers, their investment is rewarded: like watching a Greek tragedy and at the same time being a participant in it, the experience has the potential to be powerful and emotional.
TRIAD, within its research activity and curatorial practice, is aiming to facilitate a cultural conversation and public awareness on performance as a relevant form of art in contemporary society. Historically born at the beginning of the 20th century and represented by various forms of body-centric staged activities, performance is today a medium of social analysis and the embodiment of a sociological and political language.
Einat Amir (born in Jerusalem) works in the media of video installations and live performances. Amir’s work is infused by a great interest in contemporary socio-political issues. She efficiently sets the reality against the fiction and allows the viewers to take the responsibility of setting their own limits by creating choices for them to be confronted with. Amir’s work has been shown in major venues such as PS1 Contemporary Art Center New York, PERFORMA13 New York, Palais De Tokyo Paris, Istanbul Museum of Modern Art Turkey, Whitechapel Gallery London, The Kitchen New York, Museum of Contemporary Art in Roskilde, and Lilith Performance Studio Malmö.
Timing: Performances run for 15 minutes, twice an hour. Performances begin on the hour and every half hour. Each performance requires a minimum of ten participants.
Free entry
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