The Plough

Follow this link to see a new film, 'The Plough', made for Tethervision, an online arts channel.

http://www.z058.com/tether/projects/tethervision/episodes/13simonraven.html

Man in the Mirror

The Walrus

'The Walrus' was a performance made in May 2010 at the Ragged School Museum, London, as part of a 'Parlour Collective' event.

Working in the 'education space' of the museum, I made a pair of pupils out of cabbages, bread and wooden dolly pegs. These were placed on small chairs, and adorned with pipes and dunce caps. I then boiled a kettle and filled an empty oyster shell with salt and boiling water. Holding a disc of mirror over one eye like a monocle, and using a torch to illuminate it, I dropped fake tears from a pipette onto the mirror and down my cheek.

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.

A Unicorn's Hunt

HORSE RABBIT HAT

'Horse Rabbit Hat' was a performance made at Milton Keynes Gallery as part of an event titled 'Animal Magic', curated by Rebecca Birch (Ledge Gallery) March 4th 2010. The show coincided with an exhibition by Marcus Coates: 'Psychopomp'.

Seated in an office upstairs in Milton Keynes gallery wearing a horse head, with wind up teeth cellotaped in the mouth, and circular mirrors glued on as eyes, I performed a series of terrible magic acts. Black plastic roses were produced from my sleeve, and a white rabbit from a hat. A deck of blank and mirrored cards was shuffled and offered to the audience. An egg was broken and put into a glass. After an hour or so I went wandering round the gallery, posing next to prop mannequins adorned with clothes from Marcus Coates performances/films. Later I returned to the office and set up a sculptural version of my act, chatting to audience members and winding the horse teeth remotely for photographs, whilst standing behind a door.

THE HUNTER

'THE HUNTER' IS A RECENT FILM/PERFORMANCE MADE TO CAMERA, IN A FOREST JUST OUTSIDE NOTTINGHAM, UK. A HOODED FIGURE WALKS AWAY FROM CAMERA, WITH A JOKE ARROW APPEARING LODGED IN HIS HEAD. THE WORK IS PART OF AN ONGOING SERIES OF PERFORMANCES WHICH DRAW FROM, AND ARE NAMED AFTER STELLAR CONSTELLATIONS.