What do the audience come to expect when they watch a performance? Is disappointment a bad thing? Does there always have to be a climax? Does the recitalist have to boast confidence? These are the questions I try to address through positioning of my body, location, duration, volume, insecurity and disbelief. By producing something without considering its aesthetics, I don’t know how it will be interpreted by an audience, and that’s where my relationship with them becomes important. Playing around with how I present myself and where I present my poetry, determines whether the spectator feels awkward or relaxed as a listener. Often, the audience cringe and feel embarrassed because they have never seen someone read out a poem with blancmange on their head or peas in their mouth. I want them to experience someone singing badly but trying their best to sing like an angel. The term ‘failure’ has been flung about recently but I do think it is important for me to neglect precision.



Urged by my dislike of microphones and stages, I push to find alternative ways of showing my work. Each delivering is individual so my imagination is constantly challenged. Each performance aims to be distinctive so the audience walk away with something fresh, not an act which has been practised and rehearsed. I have read in a box, on the floor, in the corner of a room, whispered whilst collaborating with a sound artist. The audience experience poetry with visuals. My main interests are language and performance and this is an ideal way to mix the two. I want to create a situation so that the poetry doesn’t take over, this is usually done by causing some distraction. According to ‘Writing Degree Zero’ by Roland Barthes, language and style are both subjects which appeal to conventions, so they are not purely creative. He explains that it is what you do with them; the specific way in which you choose to manipulate language and style, that is the unique and creative act.

My work is whimsical and although the poetry is written prior to the event, the delivery itself is very much on the spot.