May 22 performance: WELCOME

I have indeed gotten lucky.

The weather on the whole this weekend has been pretty dismal. But somehow, I manage to keep rain drops at bay while we have been out there doing our thing.

I'm really happy that I took the time to wander around when I arrived in Ottawa... time to look at potential locations and get a feel for where I wanted to place what, to see if any spots spoke to me.

The site we are occupying for today's intervention, WELCOME, is just perfect. This corner island is slightly elevated and sits amid a variety of main attractions. We are in between the Château Laurier and the Conference Centre, with Sparks Street, and Parliament Hill behind us, as well as the fabulous vista that overlooks the locks of the Rideau Canal and the Gatineaus way beyond (are these the Gatineau Mountains? I should check my facts before I state this. Someone, please correct my error if I am indeed mistaken!).

Five of us are lined up to, once again, follow the curved shape of the stone balustrade behind us (of course now reminiscent of the curve that the kissing couples filled in front of the fountain on William Street, two days earlier).

So again the performance people both fit in with - and respond to - the architecture at hand, as well as create an out-of-the-ordinary dynamic with passers-by. We are living statues. We create a brief monument/moment in time.

I love the possibility of this dual role - one that underscores the body's simultaneous relation to other living (yet mortal) beings and to the "permanent" structures all around us (the stairs, the buildings, the mountains, the monuments).

The outcome is stellar. That is to say, we are wonderfully situated on a site that virtually becomes a stage. People walk past us with smiles, waves, questions, confused looks, sometimes disdained looks, and many many cameras! We are now part of a whole whack of pedestrian's and tourist's photo albums. Part of their experience of visiting Ottawa.

I think I (inadvertently) picked the ideal time to do this - it is a holiday weekend and the fact of the not-so-great weather did nothing to deter people's outdoor escapades.

May 21 performance: ESSEN

Oh food. My favourite subject. My biggest mental block. My ongoing love-hate relationship! So what better way to deal with the demons than to invite them in - and others to join me for the ride!

We're doing ESSEN (Eating) at the Shanghai restaurant in China Town. I'm not sure who selected the location but it is a brilliant choice! The food is fabulous. And the company is swell too.

The owner Don (or co-owner, apparently it is a small collective) is very welcoming - also taking photos of us, while we eat and feed each other.

Five couples in total. There were supposed to have been more, but, some didn't show up. Which is fine - the thing that I have learned a great deal about in doing these group intervention/actions is that YOU CAN'T CONTROL EVERYTHING. A huge lesson, to be sure. And so these performances are about LETTING GO of what doesn't work and just going with the flow of what does happen.

It is a gentle, subtle gesture, this performance. Véronique (public programs coordinator at the OAG) points this out early on as we're getting started. She is my eating partner. I think about this. Yes, it is subtle. In this current incarnation of the performance, it's not something that would hit you over the head (as participant or observer), but exists, rather, as an almost innocuous interference/disruption. And so this poses a question: does it need to be big(ger) in order to be effective? Easily arguable on both sides. But it all comes back down to the intention(s). What am I doing this for? And for whom?

From a perspective of mindfulness, I am mostly concerned with how present I am with the piece as it is unfolding. So from this angle, it is about being with a small, internal process.

This time around, hoo boy! Am I am ever aware of how strong I am struggling with my need to control how things are done - in this case at what pace I eat and what items I choose to stick in my mouth. So much for my spiel from above. But no, I do deal with it by giving myself a strategy. I decide that for the duration of this meal, I am not going to make suggestions or describe how I would like V. to feed me - I tell her instead to just offer me food as if she were preparing to take it in herself.
She will set the pace and make the choices. I will just go with it. What a challenge!

And then thinking about asking her what she would like, and if I'm shoveling food in to her mouth too quickly; all details that don't occur immediately. So it does become a negotiation - as opposed to a straight forward eating of a meal.

I do these performances to give myself the opportunity to slow down. (It seems to be kind of working).

Using chopsticks is a nice change - as is passing plates around. Adds interesting factors to the mix (I've only done this with forks previously).

Our post performance discussion includes:
- Noticing how those who usually eat fast, eat more slowly in this setting
- And the opposite too!
- The challenge one of the participants had in being fed by her 5 year old daughter
- How a conversation with anyone else during the meal (except the person one is 'working' with) is nearly impossible because just eating and getting food to one's partner takes up all of one's concentration.

My own personal observation:
I was still hungry at the end of my meal. And there was food left over but I was too shy to ask for more because a) I was the last one to finish eating and didn't want to make a fuss about staying longer. And b) I didn't want to appear like a glutton or something. A-ha. Still not comfortable with my food/body relationship.

May 20 performance: DRUG

Top of William Street - a little pedestrian lane leading to the Byward Market
off of the main drag, Rideau.
There are two curved fountains flanking the entrance which make for an area that is highly visible, yet not dead centre of a pathway that pedestrians would then have to negotiate.

I like this set up for a number of reasons:
- The couples are particularly integrated into the architecture of the space, filling the curve of the cement/brick/railing and neatly tucked in behind the flower arrangements and light post. Little fountain flowing behind.
- This area also becomes a sort of stage - very visible to the passers-by and barflies sitting across the way on patios - yet slightly off to one side.
- It is such a heavy traffic zone! It feels like people are just swarming around us.

Comments and stares abound. Some people even stop to really watch. Many ask "What exactly is going on?" Others photograph and yet others ask if they can join in.

These two young women, part of the young crusty/punk types who hang out here 'en masse' query me directly: "Why is it just boy-girl couples?" And I reply: "Because these are the ones who volunteered."
So they offer their services and jump right in. I place them in front of the light-post, they are now a centre-piece. They also receive the most jeers and heckles of all - but mostly, it seems, from friends or acquaintances of theirs who just want to egg them on. They are brave!

[Interestly, it is mostly younger people, teenagers, who stop to talk to me, often wanting to know "Why are you doing this?" and "Are these 'real' couples?"]

Two more points of interest for me are the inadvertent references this rendition of DRUG makes to two previous public
interventions: Sylvie and I in Rome at the Corner of Four Fountains, re-activating the dried Roman fountains and the same kissing performance as done in St. John's NFLD - also in front of the Scotia Bank Building!
Oh, and the association with a Bank, of course (but that's another story: www.bankofvictoria.com).

Final thoughts: I didn't participate in this current interpretation of the piece. I'm still not used to not being *in* my own performance. But I am appreciating the opportunity to stand outside of it and look at the whole picture. To see the performance unfolding in its public context, and the way the work is a part of and apart from the world around it.