Beautiful World Reading and Discussion Group Three: Defamiliarise
posted 17 Sep 2018
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Bed-In at the Bluecoat: Nina Edge - In Bed with the Developers
- Nov 19, 2010
- in Performance
- 0 Comments
During the course of Nina Edge’s Bed-In she is presented with the fact that 37,000 houses in Liverpool lay empty.
What is the relevance of this fact to the Bed-In? Currently Nina Edge lives in an area of Liverpool which has seen many liveable houses become earmarked for demolition and redevelopment. This is a decision which many people including Nina have rightfully decided to question.
Nina had opted to bring here issues to bed and its rise a series of performative actions to highlight these concerns, as she takes on the role of resident and developer.
The object which become the focus of her performance is a simple one; the key. The key, whose ubiquity belies its importance and the meaning inherent in those small lumps of brass. When Nina begins to throw these keys carelessly over her shoulder to chime in the glass receptacles, it is. apparent that this action echoes the somewhat callous attitudes of the property developers who buy up land and buildings.
For each key once belonged to a building, was the way into the comfort of home which now have no purpose. The keys come to be represent the not only the houses currently standing empty or under threat but also the lives of the people, the families which reside or could reside within. When Nina decides to undertake the task of counting the keys to seems to physicalize this plight, to make that figure quoted at the beginning even greater.
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