Not tonight darling, I’m washing my hair
Smallbone of Devizes, London and Kent, 2007. Curated by Sigrid Wilkinson
These are images from the second version of Not tonight darling...
developed from a work originally made for home, London in 2001. This
version was made for two evenings of performance art at Smallbone of
Devizes’ showrooms in the UK, one in London and one in Kent.
The audience witnessed Goldwater in her red dress enjoying a warm milky
bath. Over several hours she extracted very long hairs, one strand at a time,
from the luxurious tub in order to create a veil to hem herself in with. As one
audience member stated, she was ‘…backing herself into a corner’… the more
hairs she extracted the more established her self-imposed cage. Goldwater
was engaged in a lengthy, and impossible, task – that of attempting to
clarify through transformation.
Hot Soak
home, London,2005/ Queen’s Hotel, Penzance, Cornwall – Newlyn Art Gallery/
Art Surgery, 2006
Hot Soak was made for home, London, 2005 and then performed at the
Queen’s Hotel, Penzance, Cornwall for Tract: a Live Art Festival, 2006,
curated by Art Surgery and Newlyn Art Gallery.
The audience enter a bathroom alone to find Goldwater in the half-filled bath
clothed in a red sequinned dress which seeps its dye gradually into the
water. She places an ice cube in the visitor’s hand and positions it in such a
way that the cube will melt directly into her mouth for the five minutes spent
with her. Goldwater then spits the water into the bath, dries the visitor’s
hands, and awaits the next person. Hot Soak is a one-to-one performance
where the audience become co-creators of the work through material and
physical exchange. Without them the work cannot exist.
Photowork collaboration with Manuel Vason
exposures, ed. Manuel Vason, Lois Keidan and Ron Athey.
Black Dog Publishers, 2003
This series of images was made in collaboration with photographer Manuel
Vason, for the book exposures. This work in a slightly different formation was
included in Tate Liverpool’s exhibition, Art, Lies and Videotape: Exposing
Perfomance in 2003 (cat.).
Goldwater and Vason worked to create performance images true to
Goldwater’s practice that would transcend documentation and become
artworks in themselves.
cleanliness is next to godliness, but dirtiness is next to
heaven
Dulwich Leisure Centre, London, 2001
Goldwater was interested in matters of hygiene and the desires of the
everyday in public places and co-devised cleanliness… in a swimming pool/
bath house with four performers – in order of images above - Nicole
Robinson, Adura Onashile, Sef Townsend and Jenni Potter. A site-specific
promenade piece, the audience were led to view different hubs of,
reconsidered, physical activity, such as the men’s toilets in the basement,
the abandoned bathtubs and the 2nd class poolside changing cubicles
accompanied by a disconcerting and compelling sound design by Joseph
Hyde.
thirsty work
The desert , Arizona, USA, 2000
Goldwater was invited by the Institute for the Arts, Arizona to make a
performance for a web-cast. She chose to stand on a large block of ice in the
desert and then silently waited for it to melt.
wet
1998
wet is a lament to love, giving advice on how to remove those stubborn
heartbreak stains. The endless trickling of spit and salt, a walk through
rainfall ‘on stage’ and an erotic but traumatised text all seek to survive a
journey through blood, sweat and tears.
shown in a variety of spaces such as an old boathouse in Manchester for
iqun, and galleries for example, La Centrale, Montréal and A-Space, Toronto,
Canada.
pucker
1996
pucker explores how sexuality revolves around the mouth. Delivering a text
full of subtle innuendo, marking the space with hairnets, handbags and a
false gold nose - all of which appear from a variety of unexpected places, -
Goldwater, and the space, gradually become soaked by falling ice. Finally all
objects are suspended and set swinging, releasing a spray of water in a truly
satisfying climax.
pucker was performed in a variety of spaces including Western Front,
Vancouver, Canada and CCA, Glasgow.
Untitled
1996
For approximately six years alongside her performance art practice,
Goldwater explored the world of clubs and cabaret wishing to introduce a
performance art sensibility to an entertainment context. Therefore, she
made all kinds of shows in a huge diversity of environments where revelry
and experimentation became no strangers.
• Photographs by Steve Tanner, Lucia King, Manuel Vason,
Megan Fraser, Liane Harris & Barbra Egervary.
