Water's Edge
is a durational performance that lasts the length of time it takes two performers to pick the meat from a crab. Stage left the crab sits as an object, dead, on a plinth. The performers dismember the crab and pick the meat centre stage. The waste shell is placed into a glass bowl of sea water, stage right. During this task-based process a soundtrack is played made up of instructions from a guided walk along the water’s edge and through a fishing town. The audio assembles ideas and experiences of living by the water, from the perspective of men from the fishing industry and other strangers.
Once the crab is prepared, and audio journey completed, the audience and the performers eat the crab together (on bread and butter with a little pepper, salt and lemon juice). The questions that are provoked from the piece can be discussed over the crab as the performance transforms itself into a conversation.
The piece addresses our relationship with meat tracing the process from nature to culture.
The act of preparing a crab is graphic, as one by one its legs are detached from its body. To define this we prepare the crab one leg at a time, slowing the process allowing the image of the transforming crab to be dwelt on by the audience
Once the crab is prepared, and audio journey completed, the audience and the performers eat the crab together (on bread and butter with a little pepper, salt and lemon juice). The questions that are provoked from the piece can be discussed over the crab as the performance transforms itself into a conversation.
The piece addresses our relationship with meat tracing the process from nature to culture.
The act of preparing a crab is graphic, as one by one its legs are detached from its body. To define this we prepare the crab one leg at a time, slowing the process allowing the image of the transforming crab to be dwelt on by the audience
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Video of Water's Edge performed on the harbour at Fal River Festival