dusk

Solo performance. dusk was a performance that had its premiere at the Hayward Gallery Waterloo Sunset Pavilion (22/8/06) and was then shown at Artsadmin's top-floor Steve Whitson Studio (20–22/6/07) and the Victoria & Albert Museum. dusk was my return to performance after a gap of ten years, using a very different kind of format. I threw the I Ching, did interior dream work and took the audience on a colour visualisation. Shamanic magic, internal dusk, the quiet event, letting the outside in. 'A series of works that constellate around the idea of dusk and its shifting, transitional nature. What is dusk? How do we feel when we are in it? What does it allow us to do? Where will it take us? Dusk allows us a moment in modern life to stop and find out where we are. It gives us space to slow down. At dusk objects start to merge with one another. This creates an opportunity to abandon the small self we often find ourselves faced with. It offers us a bigger view.' (From dusk Press Release) 'Using shamanistic techniques and drawing on the practice of astral magic, Michael Atavar creates a quiet event at dusk, bringing the outside inside, encouraging the audience to access dusk within themselves.' (From Artsadmin Festival Copy) 'As well as his web art work Atavar will be conducting a performance piece on the theme of dusk on Friday in the Waterloo Sunset Pavilion at the Hayward Gallery on the South Bank. I asked him what he would be doing and he replied that the audience would be 'setting the tone'. He would be 'taking the temperature of the room'. My wife is a psychotherapist and the jargon was familiar. It turns out that Atavar, as well as being an artist, also works as a Jungian therapist.' (From the Times interview with Grayson Perry) 'dusk takes place at the hour of dusk. Start times are variable, depending on the season. The performance is for a maximum of 40 people. The piece is usually exhibited in a gallery space and this environment must have a large window. The spectators watch dusk as it happens, in front of their eyes, whilst I enact a series of liminal experiments, using my own unconscious.' (From Michael Atavar’s Instructions for dusk) 'Last year, in September, when I first performed dusk a similar thing happened. The week after the show, I damaged my knees in an introductory training session at the gym and had to spend several months painfully recovering, with ice on my legs, unable to walk. It was as if the universe was mocking me for flying too high. The message was 'Come down to earth.' This time I thought that I had protected myself but perhaps I underestimated the psychological impact of the performance. Going into threshold space, crossing a line, throwing the I Ching – it's fraught with unseen danger. In the show I constantly remind the audience of the difficulty of the tasks and encourage them to proceed cautiously. Perhaps this is advice I really should keep for myself?' (From I Walk The Sunshine Road Michael Atavar Diaries 2007–2011 #14) ATTC-Minus 1: Michael Atavar for Psopo Bubble Supported: Arts Council England Website: Text, programming and audio files by Michael Atavar Original postcard: Rose-Innes Associates Graphic reconstructions: Richard Scarborough