Helena Walsh - Live Art and Video Performance

In the performance the artist relates her experience of working as a pregnant waitress, while tending to twelve of the audience seated around a large dining table, discussing her observations of class divisions in this line of work. The performance, thus, twists the role of the waitress between being servile and dominant. Displayed on menu boards are the placentas sourced from the different ethnic origins listed on a standard equal opportunity form and audience members are invited to choose a placenta from this list. Loaded with twists, tension and action, through combining pain with pleasure, hope with tragedy, fine dining with self-service, this performance questions our capacity to consume the barriers that fence in human fear.


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In the performance the artist relates her experience of working as a pregnant waitress, while tending to twelve of the audience seated around a large dining table, discussing her observations of class divisions in this line of work. The performance, thus, twists the role of the waitress between being servile and dominant. Displayed on menu boards are the placentas sourced from the different ethnic origins listed on a standard equal opportunity form and audience members are invited to choose a placenta from this list. Loaded with twists, tension and action, through combining pain with pleasure, hope with tragedy, fine dining with self-service, this performance questions our capacity to consume the barriers that fence in human fear.