Kepler's Unicorn

'Kepler's Unicorn', Vitrine Gallery event 'Sounding Off', March 2010.

I made a chalk circle at dusk in a spotlit area of Bermondsey Square, opposite Vitrine Gallery.

I then dressed as a Unicorn, all in white, with a lit bulb for a tongue and wind up teeth in the mouth. Thus attired, I stood inside the circle striking poses, which I thought might be suggestive of equestrian statuary. I 'sounded off' using a pound shop rave horn, or by winding the teeth and holding a loudhailer up to their percussive chatter. When it got cold I took to circling the circle too to keep warm. The rave horn gradually slipped from a booming honk to a moaning, sad, trumpet like report.

At one point in the evening a girl approached and loudly informed me that she had done a performance before which involved using a Unicorn head as a puppet which only told the truth, and seemed angry that I was making something similar. I suggested we work together but she didn't seem keen on the idea. Later on, peering through the nostrils of the Unicorn head, I noticed a guy standing in front of me with his hand out. I have no idea how long he had been standing there but it seemed like quite a while from the intensity of his posture. I didn't realise at first that he was trying to give me some change.

When it got too cold I went into the 'project' side of Vitrine Gallery, where there were other timed and durational performances going on. Seeing that the stage was empty I got up on it and began chattering into the microphone, butting and chewing it. The plug was pulled after a while of this, more aggressive Unicorn antic, and that was the end of the work.