Version 1: Camera 1 - Live Art Interaction (above).
Version 1: Camera 2 - Live Art Interaction (above).
Version 2: 1-2-1 Interaction (above).
A LETHAL INJECTION OF MASCULINITY
A cross discipline work that was staged in two different ways, a live art interactive piece and a durational 1-2-1 interactive work. The work addressed the way in which we're all labelled in society and how labels are put upon us (whether we choose them, or not). The work also looked at issues surrounding HIV and Aids, and the miss conception that HIV is a gay virus. As a gay male artist I'm particularly interested in the gay labels that exist in today’s society. The way in which some gay slang words that were traditionally used as a homophobic insults have now been adopted by some gay men as a way of communicating between themselves and other gay men.
Version 1: Live Art Interaction.
Initially the performance space was empty except from a line of white florescent lights on the floor. Dressed in white coats and white surgical boots (looking like a cross between doctors and butchers) Lee Adams and Ernst Fischer wheeled me into the performance space on a stainless steel table. My body was wrapped with string that was pulled so tight that my body fat gathered, baring a resemblance to the stringing up method used by butchers when preparing a piece of meat. Lee Adams and Ernst Fischer began to cut the string away from the body and then Vanda Playford (also dressed in a white coat and surgical boats) walked into the space and began the procedure of taking blood out of my body. Using a butterfly needle, syringes and tubes she extracted my blood and then once the blood began to flow, she laid the tube from the needle in my arm into a stainless steel bowl on the floor, and let the blood fill the bowl that laid beneath me. Lee Adams then took the tube that laid in the stainless steel bowl and placed it into another bowl, whilst pouring the blood into a tray on a trolley next to me. The public where then invited to place a pair of latex gloves on, and take one of the rubber stamps from the trolley, dip it into the tray of my blood, and stamp my body. Thereby branding my body with gay slogans such as batty man, bum boy, faggot, queer, bender.
Devised: Oliver Frost.
Featuring: Oliver Frost, Lee Adams, Ernst Fischer and Vanda Playford.
Performed: ACT ART 2, 291 Gallery, London, UK.
Version 2: 1-2-1 Interaction.
The visitor first encountered the work whilst queuing up outside a room. In a white medical coat my sister Hayley Frost let visitors into the room on a one to one basis, I laid on the floor naked, surround by several rubber stamps (the same stamps that were used in version 1 above). The visitor was invited to interact with my body on the floor by again placing a pair of latex gloves on, and choosing a stamp/stamps to dip into my blood and mark my body. Hayley Frost then left the room so the visitor could interact completely on a one to one basis with me. The atmosphere in the room was initially very controlled and ordered, however after Hayley Frost began to leave the room the energy became more interesting and varied. Verbal dialogue took place between some people, whereas the act of stamping these words onto my body for some, was a disturbing and upsetting act, and they quickly left the room after printing on my skin.
Devised: Oliver Frost.
Featuring: Oliver Frost + Hayley Frost.
Performed: Minutes To Go, Triangle gallery, London, UK.
A cross discipline work that was staged in two different ways, a live art interactive piece and a durational 1-2-1 interactive work. The work addressed the way in which we're all labelled in society and how labels are put upon us (whether we choose them, or not). The work also looked at issues surrounding HIV and Aids, and the miss conception that HIV is a gay virus. As a gay male artist I'm particularly interested in the gay labels that exist in today’s society. The way in which some gay slang words that were traditionally used as a homophobic insults have now been adopted by some gay men as a way of communicating between themselves and other gay men.
Version 1: Live Art Interaction.
Initially the performance space was empty except from a line of white florescent lights on the floor. Dressed in white coats and white surgical boots (looking like a cross between doctors and butchers) Lee Adams and Ernst Fischer wheeled me into the performance space on a stainless steel table. My body was wrapped with string that was pulled so tight that my body fat gathered, baring a resemblance to the stringing up method used by butchers when preparing a piece of meat. Lee Adams and Ernst Fischer began to cut the string away from the body and then Vanda Playford (also dressed in a white coat and surgical boats) walked into the space and began the procedure of taking blood out of my body. Using a butterfly needle, syringes and tubes she extracted my blood and then once the blood began to flow, she laid the tube from the needle in my arm into a stainless steel bowl on the floor, and let the blood fill the bowl that laid beneath me. Lee Adams then took the tube that laid in the stainless steel bowl and placed it into another bowl, whilst pouring the blood into a tray on a trolley next to me. The public where then invited to place a pair of latex gloves on, and take one of the rubber stamps from the trolley, dip it into the tray of my blood, and stamp my body. Thereby branding my body with gay slogans such as batty man, bum boy, faggot, queer, bender.
Devised: Oliver Frost.
Featuring: Oliver Frost, Lee Adams, Ernst Fischer and Vanda Playford.
Performed: ACT ART 2, 291 Gallery, London, UK.
Version 2: 1-2-1 Interaction.
The visitor first encountered the work whilst queuing up outside a room. In a white medical coat my sister Hayley Frost let visitors into the room on a one to one basis, I laid on the floor naked, surround by several rubber stamps (the same stamps that were used in version 1 above). The visitor was invited to interact with my body on the floor by again placing a pair of latex gloves on, and choosing a stamp/stamps to dip into my blood and mark my body. Hayley Frost then left the room so the visitor could interact completely on a one to one basis with me. The atmosphere in the room was initially very controlled and ordered, however after Hayley Frost began to leave the room the energy became more interesting and varied. Verbal dialogue took place between some people, whereas the act of stamping these words onto my body for some, was a disturbing and upsetting act, and they quickly left the room after printing on my skin.
Devised: Oliver Frost.
Featuring: Oliver Frost + Hayley Frost.
Performed: Minutes To Go, Triangle gallery, London, UK.
