'Lovers, Liars and Laughter', performance

‘On Kissing’ at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, 14 November 2008:
Screening Andy Warhol's film 'Kiss' (1964) as a historical backdrop, the event looked at kissing, both as physical act and metaphor, as a gesture of exchange or desire, as hidden by the very anatomy of faces and bodies, as playing with the invisible aspects of love. Speakers: artists Melanie Manchot and Wiebke Leister, who will both be presenting new work, writer and curator Lisa Le Feuvre and film historian A.L. Rees.

Wiebke Leister's performance consisted of a live reading of her monologue 'Lovers, Liars and Laughter' read by the Shakespearean actor Kenneth Gilbert accompanied by a 32-piece colour slide projection of the photographs from the series 'Ever After' (23 mins). During the piece each of the eight photographs developed in four stages from either a positive into a negative or from negative into positive – the pale orange skin of the unexposed parts of the colour film not unlike human skin, turning into deep black shadow when developed as a positive. Written in the voice of a young female character, the monologue was read by a white-headed actor in his eighties, as if looking back at an event of his past. At the same time the dissolving slides gradually merged not only giving and receiving participant of each stage of their increasingly indecipherable kiss, but also the couples following each other.

The performances, talks and screenings were followed by a drinks reception launching her research publication 'Lovers, Liars and Laughter' (Fieldstudy 11), published by the Photography and the Archive Research Centre. This event is supported by the LCC Research Project Fund.

• https://www.ica.org.uk/whats-on/kissing
• https://vimeo.com/56443579