Paul Couillard 3 - Thursday July 24, 2008

A couple of thoughts and conversations about Paul's piece have come up during the many meals we have shared in the past 15 hours (Latitude and their sponsors have kept us on a rigorous feeding regime - this gastronomical endurance piece is killer! and wonderful!)

Paul said he wonders about whether or not he will continue doing 24-hour pieces. The effects on his body become increasingly marked. Of course I find this a shocking reminder that we have bodies at all (!) and need to be mindful of them as they age and change. As Paul tells his students who wants to leap off bridges or hang themselves in freezers, "Remember, you only have one body." Interestingly, despite the 24-hours without food or sleep, he found his piece to be more emotionally demanding than physically. He said he heard so many painful stories. However, he often had a hard time figuring out what the questions was, what the dilemma he was being asked to rule upon. And the responsibility of reaching a verdict was weighty.



All of us were stunned by the beauty of the images Paul created during this process. He had a few props: gauze bandages; 5,000 pennies (or $50, what one is paid for a day of jury duty); a ladder; 12 clips lights; and 12 chairs. It seemed that Paul created a hundred images over 24 hours, each breath-taking in its simplicity. Sometimes the lights were attached to the performer's head like prosthetic eyes, sometimes the performer wrapped his head in gauze and held a penny between his lips, sometimes lights and pennies formed a trail. The performance ended with the pennies perched atop of the room's baseboards, sending a northern-light-like glow up the walls. Two chairs were attached through a length of bandage, casting a shadow upon the floor along which the performer balanced. Indeed, balance and measure was present in all images, all gestures, all presence: beautifully so.