2018
Performance, 18 min., textile, hanging system, spotlight
See Something Suspicious explores how public fear and surveillance actively shape the way we move. The performance takes place on an empty, dark stage lit only by a single spotlight. Standing within this bright beam, the performer enacts the tense, hyper-alert body language born from a culture of suspicion. Mapping a journey from the busy center of a city to its darker margins, the performance traces a shift from an individual cautiously observing public space to someone who realizes that their own body is being tracked as the threat.
The script assembles a vocabulary of modern anxiety by combining public safety campaigns (such as the UK’s “See It. Say It. Sorted.”), neighborhood watch manuals, and media headlines targeting Eastern European migrants. As the performer speaks, they enact a series of instructions, from walking confidently to avoid looking like prey to hiding in the shadows, while inviting the audience to turn their heads and monitor one another. On the stage, a printed textile maps and illustrates the vocabulary of gestures.
Documentation: Tor Jonsson (photo) and Nick Thomas (video).
Presented as part of Tripping Autonomy at De Kroon, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2019.