A PERFORMANCE / INSTALLATION OF LATEX, BREATH AND BODY
Multiple performers are encased in an airtight latex column; Adam creates a vacuum with his own breathing, forming a three-dimensional frieze. The latex is sucked tightly around them turning them into living sculptures.
Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts council England. Part of the SPILL Showcase supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation
Adam Electric, TOMB, SPILL Festival of Performance, produced by Pacitti Company. Photo by Guido Mencari
"I love how latex transforms the human body into a living sculpture. It smoothes and shines over the details, when you wear it you become a simplified form, like a character in a comic strip. It’s empowering to wear, you feel both constricted by its tightness while having complete freedom of movement because of its flexibility. When I saw latex vacuum equipment that’s freely available on the market it struck me how similar the aesthetic was to the stone friezes in at the V&A and British Museum. While wandering around these museums, passing through many different civilizations separated by hundred and thousands of years I was struck by the universal need to represent the human form in one way or another. I wanted to join in and do my own version but instead of trying to make something that’s permanent I wanted to make a living sculpture. The form of Trajan’s Column in the V&A’s cast courts particularly inspired me to make something that could be walked around and even inside.
When I found out I could make an airtight latex piece and create the vacuum with my own breathing this added another element to the work. A lifetime of having asthma had prepared me, struggling and having to work hard to get enough air meant I was used to this endurance. To make an airless environment with my own lungs feels empowering.
When you are vacuumed in latex it's like entering into another world, perception of time and space changes. We (the performers) are separated from the audience by only a thin layer of latex but I aim to create the feeling of two alternate dimensions revealing themselves to one another."
Adam Electric, TOMB, SPILL Festival of Performance, produced by Pacitti Company. Photo by Guido Mencari