Out of the way: 3 square walks

Cathy Turner & Stephen Hodge

Queen Square, King Square & Berkeley Square, Bristol (February 2003)

Commissioned by the Arnolfini, Bristol, as part of the In Between Time live art festival, this project comprised three sets of printed instructions for three walks. Each walk explored a different square in central Bristol, close to the festival venues.

One for Queen Square, site of major, drunken riots in 1831. One for King Square, where John Wesley used to preach. And one for Berkeley Square, which we associated with the philosopher, Bishop Berkeley. Each of the walks dealt with intoxication in some way, through drink, riot, religion, philosophy...

Walk No. 1

Walk No. 2

Walk No. 3

Under Cover

Cathy Turner & Stephen Hodge

Arnolfini Bookshop, Bristol (April 2002)

Under Cover was an installation created for the Live Art Forum South West platform event. As visitors to the bookshop approached the shelves they could hear collages of whispered texts through twelve concealed speakers, seeming to be spoken by the books themselves.

One hundred books were chosen from different sections of the shop and the opening lines of each book were read out and recorded. The work explored the layering of conflicting, complementary, reassuring and dissident voices within the bookshop area and the idea of these texts as performers in an enclosed space - a roomful of voices, all wanting to be heard.

At Home

Cathy Turner with Parida Manomaiphibul, Sawita Diteeyont, Kamla Al-Hinai & Erica Mott

17 Mansfield Road, Exeter (December 2001)

Four MA students from Exeter University Drama Department each took over a room of this terraced house, creating within it a performance installation relating to the current season in their home countries - Thailand, Oman, The United States. In the fifth room, Cathy Turner's installation presented a table laid for an English Christmas, with each place recalling 'another person' in the war in Afghanistan.

While Kamla threw empty plates out of the window, Parida wrote notes to her father in invisible lime-juice. Sawita demonstrated her achievements in the kitchen and Erica watched a home video while stitching together newspaper images.

The Morning Walk

Cathy Turner & Stephen Hodge

Central Exeter (September 2001)

The Morning Walk was a guided tour of the city through the eyes of Peter Thomson. It was created on his retirement for an event attended by former students and colleagues.

The walk was based around 11 Exeter sites of particular significance to Peter. At each of these sites the walkers were met by one or more people, dressed as Peter (complete with beard). These sites included his favourite route to work, his former house and the County Cricket Pitch on which a team of 'Peters' was seen to be playing. On each occasion, 'Peter' would share a simple anecdote, relating to his working life in the city.

Housewarming

Cathy Turner

17 Mansfield Road, Exeter (December 2000)

Housewarming was an exploration of a new house as a private world, a personal 'Narnia'. It took the form of a guided tour, with an invited audience (approximately 15 people).

From the story of a wardrobe in which a companion was lost to an eiderdown of quilted love poems (with the pins left in). A celebration and a wake. A party and a monologue.