5/7

Everything and Nothing - 2013/14
30 minute performance done over 12 hours: 7pm to 7am, with 4 different couples in 3 hour shifts.
Commisioned by Magda Gonzales-Mora for Scotia Bank Nuit Blanche. Toronto, Ontario 2014
Toronto performers: myself & Anthony Cooper; Alyssa Ginsburg & PrufRock Shadowrunner; Vanessa McGowan & Andre Prefontaine; Andrea Thompson & Eddy Daoriginalone.

A spoken word performance between a man and a woman about everything and nothing. In a more or less alphabetical order, the performance begins with a woman reciting a common everyday phrase beginning with the word everything, a man then replies with a similar phrase beginning with the word nothing.

In this updated version of the work, the piece is performed as before but at the end the man & woman change roles and begin the dialogue again (making each performance about 30 minutes each). It was a last minute adjustment I decided upon a few days before the performance. I was curious to see how the reading of the piece and the audiences perception of it would alter when the gender roles were switched. Not surprisingly, the audience reacted very differently to each version... especially whenever we performed this specific phrase pairing: when I would state "Everything is over between us" and Tony would reply "Nothing is over until I say it is" there was always a feeling of tension from the audience and sometimes disapproving groans from women in the audience. Interestingly when we changed roles and Tony would say "Everything is over between us" and i responded with "Nothing is over until i say it is"... the audience would always laugh.

View edited script

Exhibition History:
2013 Nocturne (Halifax NS); 2013 Nuit Blanche: Winnipeg Art Gallery (Winnipeg MB); 2014 Nuit Blanche (Toronto ON); 2018 The Darling Foundry (Montreal PQ); 2019 Casino Luxembourg: Forum of Contemporary Art (Luxembourg EU);