Nine women gather round the table to laugh loudly for five seconds then take four synchronized steps backwards surrounding the table. They then take it in turns to approach the table and perform simple gestures. This performance was created in responds to the exhibition title The Table; I considered the table as the stage for female performativity set at a dinner party. One woman holds a knife and fork in her hands and checks her teeth in the knife’s reflection. Two women move towards the table at once; they both politely stop and gesture to let the other go first. They smile, they never interrupt the conversation, they scan the table (as if checking everyone has wine), they agree, they serve, they read the room.
With thanks to Jasmine Newsome-Stone, Fiona Verran, Lydia Wood, Isabelle Hodgkiss, Adele Lazzeri, Amy Bentley Klein, Xiaoman Huang, Ginny Anne Peszynska and Amelia Brown.
