Performing Paper

A Jackanory-style performance, combining live storytelling and filmed drawings. Jackanory not only references my childhood and formative years, but for me the format of the programme was intimate, as if the famous actor out of his/her usual acting role was reading to me alone. This intimacy is highlighted further through the relationship between the actor and the handheld qualities of the filmed illustrations. I constructed the performance by presenting the non-linear narratives from a series of stories set around memories of 1980’s Wythenshawe. The live readings take place and activate spaces, creating a specific environment for the recordings. This footage was then juxtaposed and intercut with the specific drawings. The drawings act as a way of exploring the narrative and highlight the fragile, unpredictable, non-linear nature, and the slippage between fact and fiction. The video has been presented on an old cathode ray tube TV that emphasised both the nostalgic reference and the idea that history is as much constructed through television as through physical experiences. The presentation of the work also explores an expanded notion of drawing that includes film, drawing and performance.