Ongoing collaborative project “The Reluctant Performer” with artists Alice Walton and Anna Lucas.

Through a number of studio making days from 2023/24, Adam Gillam, Anna Lucas and Alice Walton set in motion a making-conversation to play with the idea of being reluctant performers, appearing (and disappearing) in their image making. 

The use of three cameras/tripods recording what occurred, determined a space of production, creating a ramshackle set, in which props, bodies and equipment were constantly framed and reframed through activity. A sort of absurdist dance emerged seemingly motivated by a desire to capture the determined efforts of the artists to remove themselves from the frame. 

In progress film form this collaboration was included in ‘Making Bread with your Feet’ at the recent Midlands Conference of Critical Thought as part of the Gentle Gestures strand curated by Alice Bell, Danica Maier and Mark Kasumovic.

Working images from The Reluctant Performer, 2023-2024.