The work is a cloak of invisibility. Using shock blankets as the main material, the heat-reflective thin plastic allows the wearer to see out, but no one to see in. Spectators are aware of a presence, of being watched, but catch only slight reflections of themselves in the folds of the fabric.
“Magic, after all, has always been a question of power”
Tom Jeffreys - The Return of the Witch in Contemporary Culture
Tom Jeffreys circles around Spellbound a show at the Ashmolean Museum displaying a collection of objects showing how magical thinking used to be integral to navigating a precarious world day-to-day. I performed in this exhibition, under a cloak of invisibility made of shock blankets. A material used for immediate shelter and carried in first aid kits, the reflective shape concealing the performer, drifted through the exhibition. Unsettling perception in its fragmented reflection. A child crouched snail-like, trying to peer under as people talked aloud, wondering if it was human spirit or a mechanised object, waving a hand above my head looking for invisible strings.
Invisibility was originally performed as part of a LIVEFRIDAY event in Spellbound, before becoming a series of photographs and film.
