site-responsive performance with wild weeds amongst a looping of Squaresoft’s 1997 Final Fantasy Tactics’ characters dying screams accompanied by installations of four stacks of script from the prologue of the aforementioned game, approx.. 45 minutes.
performed at Parish Church of St Mary & St Eanswythe, Folkestone, UK for Tiding, produced by ]performance s p a c e[, 2022.
video documentation by Marco Berardi and Baiba Sprance.
photo documentation by Manuel Vason and Tristan Broers.
writing by selina bonelli.
translated into Kusabue (study of Sellsword), pencil on paper and photograph cutouts on a fragment of printed video game script mounted on cardboard strut, 21x29.7cm, series of 15, 2022.
A male body dressed in pale grey found sitting on a pew of Parish Church of St Mary & St Eanswhythe. Nearby him was the permanent exhibition of the Unknown Warrior, equipped with his tomb replica accompanied by a human size black and white photograph of Revd. David Railton, the church’s curate from 1914 to 1920, still in his military uniform. The performer started with cutting his jeans, exposing his knees as he stood up and placed them against the edge of the pew. He was then slightly crouching, quite awkwardly, also balancing his body while at the same time applying friction between his exposed flesh to the cold wooden surface of the pew
Beside him was several wild weeds, collected from the church lawn which he used in his attempt for a game of grass flute. He clasped his hands together, almost as if he were praying but ironically towards the gate of the church as his back was then facing the altar. The blade of grass between his thumbs, they however were silent. He repeatedly blew into his hands but all was heard was an eerie loop of dying screams played from several portable speakers hidden amongst the rows of pews. They sounded unnatural and dramatized as they were recorded from Squaresoft’s 1997 tactical RPG, Final Fantasy Tactics.
Throughout the performance, audience may also encounter stacks of paper in three different spots within the church interior. One by the main door, a diptych by the altar and finally a stack by the back exit. On each was printed the aforementioned game’s prologue segregated script which also took place in a church. A battle shortly ensued after those conversations and death followed.
“I am a knight no longer.” answered Ramza when asked of his conscience. The site specific performance-installation of a body performing a (silence-d) gesture of grass whistling is a personal reflection of the very same moral. Through revisiting past influences, masculine identities and clerical architecture, the piece questions death and potentially violence as it also unintentionally echoes with the church’s Unknown Soldier. While it remains an open-ended conflict, it is also often projecting defeat and hopelessness. To his stature Ramza pointed further, “Just another sellsword”.