In Shot in the Dark I wear a dress painted with glow-in-the-dark silkscreen ink. I hold a cable release that triggers a miked-up camera with no film in it, which in turn activates a flash unit. When I squeeze the cable release, the clank of the camera mechanism can be heard as the flash momentarily illuminates me and my costume, leaving my glowing dress hovering in space.

While my formal concern with this work was to explore the live generation of images, and to control my own image from within the performance, I also wanted to be able to appear and disappear. I was aware of ways in which images of my performance were being made ‘live’ in the retinas of the eyes of my audience and I worked with this, often triggering the camera and lights before moving sideways to create after-images in which my head would separate from my body.

In the performance I worked on and with the surface of my dress in different ways; from bending sideways to form visible shadows in the folds of the material before triggering the flash, to putting the cable release in my mouth and using my hands to leave outlines on the material.

There had to be no light in the room for the visual phenomenon of the performance to work, and each time I did a version I meticulously darkened rooms with gaffer tape and bin bags, so no light could seep in.

I transported the dress to venues in a lightproof bag to make sure it remained unexposed before the performance. I would get dressed in a dark room, putting a coat on over my dress before the performance, so I could remain hidden in the space as people arrived. At the end of the performance, I put on the coat for a second time, and disappeared once again.

In this work I wanted to control the image-making process from within my performance and make live performance images. The ‘live’ moments in the work were not reproduced in their entirety, since the optical phenomena being experienced by the audience could not be captured on video or film.

Shot in the Dark is a precursor to the fictional performance work Connotations - Performance Images 1994-1998 (1998). It forms part of a series of performed sound works that I performed in art spaces, night-clubs and music venues, including Record (1994), Microphone Skirt (1995), Crystalline (1997) and Hook and Eye (1998) .

The top three photos of Shot in the Dark were taken by Christopher Hewitt at his space Hollywood Leather in London, 1997. I’m not sure who took the photo lit up by the flash, but think it was taken at a festival called Visionfest in Liverpool around 1997. The score and text were written by me in 1996/7.

SHOT IN THE DARK NO.2

(Kuenstlerhaus Schloss Plueschow, Mecklenburg 1996)

COMPONENTS

1 X coat
1 X SLR camera w/ auto wind
1 X cable release
1 X flash unit
1 X glow in the dark dress
1 X hand held flash unit
1 X tripod
2 X contact mics

Both the SLR camera and winder have contact mikes attached to them. The camera is triggered by a cable release and acts as a switch to discharge the flash unit. The light emitted from the flash unit 'charges' the luminosity of the glow in the dark dress. Needs total darkness.

PERFORMANCE NOTATIONS

Hand held flash on dress
Flash on dress and turn
Forward, tongue out, flash
move round, flash
Body building
Twist down
Waltz
Face forward
Tum
Walk back
Hand on bottom
Hands - flash - hands
Hands flash faster
Turn
Hands on front
Coat - flash - close
End

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"Shot in the Dark' is a performance which involves the two components of light and sound. It is a part ot a series ot three performances which take place in the dark and which use differng processes for the body to illuminate itself. The light in this piece is produced by a photographic flash unit, the sound by an amplified camera and winder. In the pertormance a miked-up camera triggers a photographic flash unit which in turn illuminates and charges up the light sensitive dress that I am wearing. I am seen momentarily as the flash discharges after which the image of the glowing dress hovering in space is all that is left. The light from the dress glowing partially illuminates my inner arms and the tops of my thighs, my body being only partially visible other than by the light of the flash unit. During the cycle of the performance the dress repeatedly glows and fades accompanied by the mechanical soundtrack of the camera mechanism.”