Visiting souls

Multimedia square was a groupexhibition including: Peter Greenaway, Ben Vautier, Colin Self, Darell Viner, Jårg Geismar, Sachiko Odashima, Arni Gudmundsson, Tom Phillips, Cecilia Parsberg.
The exhibition took place in a stylish building in central London with security guards at the entrance. My intention was to bring the subject of mental gifts into this business orientated area.

Landsdown House, the Saatchi building, London, June 1996

Performance

A piece made for the groupexhibition: multimedia square, Landsdown house, London June 1996.

I was present every day in a big open room. On top of the front wall I had put up the sign: Visting souls. I asked the visitors if I might try to draw their soul. I put the drawings (size A4) up on the wall as they were finished.

When drawing I used a simple system, I stuck to a given form, an outline of a torso. During the time I was drawing I looked into the eyes of the person in front of me much longer than I looked at the drawing and much longer than you usually do with a person you don’t know. The result depended on how much each of them agreed to have eye contact. When they looked in another direction I looked at the drawing. This was to maintain the concentration and create a drama of the situation, with respect.
The first visitors were disappointed; -Is this my soul? but when they saw that all of the drawings were similar, they started to compare them and read the small differencies. They also wanted to hear what I saw and how I interpreted them as personalities. Each drawing took about 4 minutes to make.

I was interested in commenting upon the situation when we sit in front of a doctor, therapist, medium etc; the need of being reflected by others and how one transforms and uses it. I also wanted to put people in contact with each other, the people who happened to be there at the same time. It´s a similar thought as the one I had in the concept of the exhibition: Who wants to be like mum and dad?

Performance by the artist and a visitor.