performance – Rachel Baylis

Alternative Disco: Oh My Gosh! Pallant House Gallery October 2019 (sound only)

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Three performances debuted in November 2018, with changes to each consecutive performance according to feedback received. The impetus for this piece came when Baylis walked past her radio without fully taking in the tragic news every day. How does the brain compartmentalise these global issues, and how can we find compassion for ourselves when we don’t help, or even stop long enough to take it in? Awareness alone may be enough to start a ripple effect.

A View

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Three performances debuted in November 2018, with changes to each consecutive performance according to feedback received. The impetus for this piece came when Baylis walked past her radio without fully taking in the tragic news every day. How does the brain compartmentalise these global issues, and how can we find compassion for ourselves when we don’t help, or even stop long enough to take it in? Awareness alone may be enough to start a ripple effect.

Free

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Wash your hands here – free! This time-base piece took place on March 13th 2019, 9am – 5pm in Art One Foyer, University of Chichester. Impetus: to bring to mind a friend’s story of tragedy and human fragility, using water as a symbol: passers by were encouraged to be filmed washing their hands, while Baylis gradually drew a storyboard and large cartoon strip depicting the events the friend (Jane) endured, and how she washed her hands, barely touching the water and shaking every last drop of water back into the bucket. Feedback from participants demonstrated some success in terms of the piece lasting beyond the gallery space and into people’s lives. For example, the scarcity of water in Africa and how we waste water in the UK stayed with people, and the news that Jane’s request for asylum was refused, even though she and her two daughters would almost certainly be killed on arrival in her home country of Kenya, introduced a personal, close-up account of what it is like to live with daily fear, and inability to keep oneself safe.

Keeping Her Head

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Keeping Her Head – a humanist/feminist piece, reflecting the pressure, monotony and responsibility of life as a housewife and worker and mother, at the same time as reminding us of the fragility of all our psyches. Baylis walks into the sea fully-dressed, carrying two Tesco carrier bags full of stones; her child ego wants to swim but her adult ego and the speed of life suppress play and take priority. In ageing, the female body changes, energy decreases, and, like the waves and tides, there is nothing she can do to hold it back.

“PROMISE” (formerly titled The Promise of an Ending) – in rehearsal

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The Promise of an ending is currently in rehearsal; based on articles found in newspapers just before the outbreak of the First World War, Baylis and two other actors are working collaboratively to produce a 1 hour performance highlighting the humanity and fragility of every individual. It may be a fine line between jumping and not jumping; awareness of one’s feelings, and learning about the psychology, philosophy and statistics are seen as positive steps towards helping people to stay in the here and now.

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