In ‘threaded insert’ I receive via headphones a series of instructions, for orientation, movement, speech, and other actions including spelling words, randomly selected from a database of short audio files. The content derives from guides and instructions for ‘proper’ speech, rules for social and public behaviour, and control or modification of the body.
The score is applicable to any site or any building, but is also specific in the spoken responses and movements it generates; ‘threaded insert’ could be anywhere, but when I am performing in a location, the work also brings attention to qualities and features of that particular space.
For Plymouth Art Weekender 2017 at The Athenaeum, I performed the work three times, starting from a different point in the building each time, mapping a different course and telling a different tale in response to the received instructions.
‘threaded insert’ was presented as part of a group project Tears in Rain for Plymouth Art Weekender 2017 at Plymouth Athenaeum, on Sunday 24th September. Tears in Rain was a day-long event bringing together a range of practices by artists whose work uses live or performance elements, alongside participation, moving image and installation. The programme mixed durational and installed work with timed events and actions, and the Athenaeum Auditorium shaped and influenced the work.
The artists in Tears in Rain were: Mo Bottomley / Katrina Brown / Mark Leahy / Steven Paige / Marcy Saude / Minou Tsambika
@roberta_mock (24 Sept 2017): I could have watched
@gmarkleahy‘s ‘threaded insert’ for about 8 hours.#airynothairy#PAW17
reviews:
Laura Reinbach reviewed this performance on her blog at An Airman without Wings.
A report by Andrew Jeffrey on the symposium Projectivisms:Way-making the Contemporary Projective, University of Cardiff, May 2018 mentions my performance there of ‘threaded insert’. It is published in the Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry 10(1).