Suggestion of Building

Shown as part of Living Room Theatre, Performance 2: Disco At The End Of The World, December 2012

Curated by Jemima Yong 

In Suggestion of Building, Sophie created the frames for a situation to take place that would be executed by the participants. The whole performance event took place in the living room of an apartment. She had only planned out the beginning of the action, which was a lot of small wooden pieces (from a Jenga game) that were placed around the edges of the space. Some of them had been placed to become a continuation of a shelf or the wall, others stacked in small formations on tables. 

People present at the event were aware that Sophie would be doing 'something' but not what and when. In between other acts, and unannounced, she discretely placed a single piece of wood in the middle of the floor and went back to whatever she was doing before. Little by little people would discover the piece of wood and begin to discuss amongst themselves why it was there and what would happen next. Some of them asked: 'Are we supposed to do something now?' This created an element of confusion and wonder. 

Nothing more did happen, until the next break, and Sophie placed a few more pieces elsewhere on the floor. At this point, someone took it upon himself to join in, and he ended up building a little house. Thereafter more discussion followed, and it took a while before other people joined in to elaborate on the 'building site'. The pieces stood to the very end of the evening and during other acts, that needed musical equipment to be moved back and forth across the space, there was a certain precaution not to turn the pieces over. In the small space everybody seemed more aware of where they stepped and as several of them had participated in creating whatever stood, it was if if they then meant more. 

Sophie's only intrusion was in the end of the evening where I and thereby all that had been built were at once destroyed. She invited people to start over again if they so wished. 

Participants had generated everything the piece became by their investment in the construction of the material. It was important that it was both an unknown territory for her as well as the participants, as they then constructed what was to be constructed together. It was a social event. But it was the individual who had to make the choice and 'act', observed by those around him and her.