Covet Me Care For Me is a durational performance installation in which the public participate. The work encourages the viewer to consider love, the passing of time, dissemination and cross-fertilization. The work was originally commissioned by Pacitti Company for the SPILL Festival of Performance, London 2007 and has since been shown at various venues since including the National Review of Live Art 2008 in Glasgow, Fierce Festival in Birmingham, Belluard Bollwerk International in Switzerland and Wellcome Collection in London (as part of Clod Ensemble's Anatomy Season 2011). The piece is usually shown once or twice a year!
What happens in the work?
The installation space is roughly divided into 3 areas. In the first area a gilt-framed picture of an anatomical heart is hung on a wall.
In the second, fifty glass hearts (made by glass artist Louis Thompson) are laid out on the floor, each containing a 'mongrel' object (a nurses fob watch with additional parts attached). These objects are then claimed one at a time by fifty members of the public over the duration of 3-4 hours. Other members of the public form an audience. In order to claim an object the member of public must dress in safety gear and then smash the glass heart containing the object with a hammer. This process is facilitated by Sheila in a small 'performance' area. Once this process is complete the member of the public is taken into the final area with their claimed object where it is carefully wrapped by another performer. The member of the public is then free to take the object home.
Links to a selection of reviews:
Photography by Nicolas Brodard
“Dangerously Seductive...”
“It’s an amazing experiment that reminds me of the process of falling in love.”
“What a strange feeling, to break a heart so easily and to discover it’s fragility. Thank you.”