Font
Font is a tableau vivant about intimacy, fear and disease. It presents the primal substance of blood as a symbolic and physical carrier of sustenance, and contagion. The ritualistic and immediate act of bleeding, and the blending of blood within the font, are symbols of alchemical union and transformation.
The trace left by the performance becomes an installation.
Font is largely informed by the hepatitis C positive status of McGregor. When the skin is breached, intensely emotive forces of trust, intimacy and power exchange take place between a positive and negative performer. In Font, the skin is the boundary between the Self and the world. The presence of a potentially fatal blood borne virus imposes a quarantine and stigmatisation on the carrier. The flow of blood in public thus becomes a graphic assertion of the Self against boundaries both externally and internally imposed.
Font was conceived about five years ago. With the passing of time, it evolved from an articulation of a coming together to a parting of ways. Another significance it collected was from the death in December 2006 of McGregor’s mother Gwenda from leukaemia; Gwenda’s only treatment throughout her brief period of illness was blood transfusions. The performance at Artspace was dedicated to Gwenda.
Font is the last collaboration of McGregor and Wojak.
performers: AñA Wojak & Fiona McGregor
photography: Finnbarr Featherstone, Jamie Dunbar, Waded
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