Yes, Let's Go (Manifesto 2)

The artists, work-seth/tallentire, were commissioned to make a performance for the week-long showcase of contemporary performance art, titled 'Sum of the Parts', and specifically focusing on collaboration. “Yes, let’s go. (Manifesto 2)” was a durational performance running for 10 hours from 10:00am until 8:00pm. It is the second part of a series of works under the title of 'Manifesto'. Developed out of ongoing research into the relationship on the politics and aesthetics of contingency, “Yes, let’s go”, engages the medium of durational performance to stage the provisionality of decisions and an ethics of dialogue.

Entirely wordless, the performers (Seth and Tallentire) communicate through action and repose, constructing and disassembling sites of shelter and/or monuments – sometimes horizontal, sometimes vertical – making use found materials (see output 1) around the vicinity of the artists’ studio. The constructions are also drawn into a dialogue with the moving and projected image – video, slide and OHP projection.

The ‘stage’ of the performance works across the entire floor of the gallery and incorporates the audience into its space. In this way, the performance makes no demarcation between the site of performance and the place of the audience. Additionally, the durational time-frame allows for a ‘coming and going’ with no requirement for the audience to sustain the full day. The exhibition was reviewed by Mark Wilsher, ‘Sum of the Parts’, in 'Art Monthly', no. 260, October 2002.