8 hours performance Untitled at Spacex Gallery, Exeter, England on Saturday 24 November 2012 10am–6pm
In the space on the floor is what looks like a school table but it has three long legs and one little one. The table is much higher than a normal school table. An English dictionary and black top I also in the space. He walks into the space and picks up the table and balances the smaller leg into his right ear and then he starts walking around in a clockwise direction keeping the forth leg into his ear and at the same time writing on his left arm and hand the words (open, opens, opened, opening, openness). After covering the whole lower arm and hand he starts again going over the first layer of words. All the time walking around in a clockwise direction for the whole 8 hours.
Photograph by John Melville
Installation views, of exhibition The Work Between The Lines by John Court 29 September–24 November 2012 Spacex Gallery Exeter, UK.
Installation views, of exhibition The Work Between The Lines by John Court 29 September–24 November 2012 Spacex Gallery Exeter, UK.
Photograph by Boris Nieslony and Linn Heimlich Pedersen
4 Untitled 3 hours performances Be Captivated! at Live Art Festival, Bergen, Norway, in former Bergen County Jail 27 - 28 May and 3 - 4 June, 2011, 9pm to 12am.
He walks into an abandoned prison cell and standing on a 3 legged chair made by the artist. Then he looks at the light bulb and then he starts counting until losing count and then start at the beginning. he does this for the whole 3 hours performance.
He walks into an abandoned prison cell and sit on a 3 legged chair made by the artist and holding a blank piece of paper above shoulder height for the whole 3 hours performance.
4 Untitled 3 hours performances Be Captivated! at Live Art Festival, Bergen, Norway, in former Bergen County Jail 27 - 28 May and 3 - 4 June, 2011, 9pm to 12am.
He walks into an abandoned prison cell and standing on a 3 legged chair made by the artist. Then he looks at the light bulb and then he starts counting until losing count and then start at the beginning. he does this for the whole 3 hours performance.
He walks into an abandoned prison cell and sit on a 3 legged chair made by the artist and holding a blank piece of paper above shoulder height for the whole 3 hours performance.
Perspicuous / Helppotajuinen 2009 duration 5 minutes.
Before undertaking this piece, I was unable to read the word Perspicuous in English or the word Helppotajuinen in Finnish, or make sense of the sounds the spoken words were formed from. I could nonetheless understand the meaning of the words very clearly.
Perspicuous: (of spoken or written language) transparently clear; easily understood.
Helppotajuinen: easy to understand. www.thefreedictionary.com 2012,Farlex, Inc.
Chair (Interrogative) 2010 duration 3 minutes.
The chair used in this video has been with me in my studio for over 10 years now. I sit in it and think about what it is and what art can be. This motivational idea allows me to use the object (the chair) as a primal concept – in a physical action to question the basic idea of what a chair does. It works like this: Idea of Falling > Desire to Fall > Physical act of Falling.
Interrogative 1. Asking a question or being of the nature of a question. 2. Of, relating to, or being an element or construction used to
ask a question. 3. A sentence or an expression that asks a question. www.thefreedictionary.com 2012,Farlex, Inc.
Impossibility of the Word part 1 2009 25 minutes.
Impossibility of the word part 1, 2 and 3. Writing is a cognitive process conducted according to prescriptive rules of grammar, punctuation and syntax, usually applied without conscious effort through automatic hand–eye coordination.
But in Impossibility of the word it becomes a slow-motion wrestling match of overlapping images of a contorted author writing
increasingly incomprehensible words on increasingly illegible text in an attempt to pin down an obdurate adversary.
These videos are part of a series expressing the struggle that a sufferer from severe dyslexia experiences in the use of written
language.
Blank Page 2009-2010 aluminium sheet, PVA glue and white epoxy paint.
Drawing from my experience of being confronted by the blank white page whilst attempting to write the all- important artist statement.
ART IS ART 5 x 120cm by 80cm, 4 x 80cm by 120cm aluminium sheets with black board paint.
ART IS ART tests the validity of the question ‘What is art?’ When we invest so much time and value into the process of thinking and making the artwork and the only result seen is the art work. I have no answers as to what art is - I only have questions because art is everything and nothing - and everyone has their own interpretation.
8 hours performance ART TRA at TRACE: Artspace, Cardiff, Wales on Saturday 3rd of May 2008 11am to 7pm.
ART TRA A Performance by John Court The performance takes place within the confines of a 240 cm x 500 cm raised platform. I spend the whole 8 hours performance writing on the platform on my knees. I write with my left hand - the opposite hand than I normally use to write. My every day writing hand is immobilized behind my back. I write from right to left, and then left to right, and therefore I am always writing as I am moving. When I finish one layer of writing, I do another layer. Over the time, I cover the platform with linear layers of writing, It all started when I made a statement about my art work, and then proceeded to dissect the statement so I had a number of individual words. The words are separated out and placed at random. I consider each word as an individual concept in art. I visualize the word then I write it down with my opposite writing hand. I do this because I feel we are so judged by what we say in art - and by dissecting my own art statement, and using the words at random, I am making my own philosophical statement about the validity and weight of those ideas.
Untitled 2008 Size A0 77cm by 112cm Materials : Paper, Pencil, PVA glue, white spray paint, black marker pen.
Untitled 2007 - 2008 Size A0 77cm by 112cm Materials : paper, PVA glue, grey spray paint and graphite pencil.
Untitled 2006 - 2007 Size A0 77cm by 112cm Materials : paper, pencil, PVA glue and aluminium leaf.