HANNAH CLARKSON
all the time the buzzing (2024). Upholstered salon chairs, voice.
Watching Beckett’s Not I (1973), one sees only the floating ‘Mouth’ and, barely visible, a shrouded, silent ‘Auditor’ stage left. The audience cannot see the chair keeping actress Billie Whitelaw in her place: “My head was clamped in otherwise I’d get the shakes and it would start to quiver”. Blindfolded, Whitelaw is situated in the comfort of her choosing, in a cage-chaise constructed for her in a gesture of care.
What if Mouth were to settle into a salon chair instead, side-by-side with a listening companion rather than a silent Auditor? What would they talk about? How might the care designed into this chair prompt conversations around ‘self-care’ and friendship, an opportunity for togetherness and transformation?