PAUL GRIMMER
Waiting
A live performance relay, which explores physical and psychological boundaries and uniqueness. It exists at the border between the real and the imagined, between life and death. The body acts as a symbolic catalyst. It is both familiar and anonymous, present and dislocated. It is a nonverbal communicator of the unspoken. Manipulating traditional ideas of portraiture and tableaux, the work draws the viewer into an initially absurd visual engagement. This questions vulnerability, control, and power relations. The screen mediates what is seen and acts as a conduit between private and public, and between internal and external space. It simultaneously conceals and reveals. Because it occurs backstage the work invites a subconscious meditation on the role of performer and observer. A present narrative for an absent body is written. It is representative, reflective, and metaphorical. It is fact and fiction.
Paul Grimmer is a multidisciplinary artist who works in the North East of England. He graduated from Northumbria University in 2005 with a degree in Fine Art and has just completed a 1-year teaching fellowship there. He also co-directs piggyback, an organisation providing support and opportunities for early career artists with live and moving image practices in the North East of England.
Supported by Arts Council England.