Analysis of eyeless in relation to 'the Performance of Self'
The first performance of my research project, I drew upon images from my written autobiography (an exercise I undertook on the advice of my supervisors) and extracted this image, of voluntary blindness and blind manoeuvring of a space, from memories of my childhood. I considered this image to be evocative, that it could act as a sign, an emblem of experience beyond my own. I also hoped the image of an aestheticised vulnerability could operate poetically to express an abundance of ideas from surrender and trust to fear and the contradiction of closed eyes behind graphic wide open ones.

Part of the success of the work lay in its interactivity, I had to touch people and engage with them. I was open and defenceless, exposed (especially when I revealed my breasts with their nipple-eyes) but this allowed others to feel at ease with me and open too. I encountered no difficulty with audience members in a venue full of hundreds of people, among them many groups of young men. The effect of the work was both humorous and uneasy/edgy as the viewers deal with my physical engagement and contact alongside the fake/mock eye contact I appeared to make.

In traversing the space I invariably met and spoke to individuals personally (in a one to one intimate way) not seeking to obscure my action or the reasons behind the performance, I explained simply what I was doing in good humour and with respect. My encounters with audience members were intimate, engaging and positive.