5 Years 2012-2017 of John Court
SpaceX Gallery, Exeter, UK. Beijing Live - At the Danish Cultural Center and Institut Goethe in Beijing, China. Interakcje 2016 - XVIII International Art Festival Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland. New Performance Festival in Turku, Finland. Uprooted Festival, Helsinki. Oui Performance York, UK. Mope16 Vaasa, Finland. Rum för performance at Bildmuséet in Umeå, Sweden. Infr’Action Venezia in Venice Italy. Scores in Month of performance art in Berlin Germany. Live Action 9 at Gothenburg Art Centre Sweden. New Performance Festival Turku Finland. Veno gård KUNST Venoy Selje Norway. UP-ON Live Art festival Chengdu China. Arctic Action - International Action Art Festival in Svalbard, Norway. SIGNAL Festival in Brussels Belgium. Veno gård KUNST Venoy Selje Norway. Viva Art Action festival Montreal Canada. DigitaLive Guangzhou China. 7a*11d in Toronto, Canada. Infr’Action Venezia in Venice Italy.10th Infr’Action Sète, France. 2012 to 2017 Supported by Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Frame Contemporary art Finland, Arts Promotion Centre Lapland, Alfred Kordelin Foundation and The Finnish Cultural Foundation.
3 hours Performance Untitled at 5th UPON Live Art Festival Chengdu China 2017
He walks into a large hallway in School of Architecture and Design at Southwest Jiaotong University. He starts by picking up a pot of black paint, rubs the paint under his top and around his neck. This action is not seen by the viewers and is a political action. This political action is related only to the location and to the country that he is in. He uses black hockey tape (same as on the wood) to tape his right wrist on the top of this right upper arm. On the floor there are 3 pieces of wood 50mm x 50mm and their lengths are 1000mm, 1500mm and 2000mm, each one covered by black hockey tape. He puts his left hand in his pocket and pulls out some small pieces of chalk from a chalk block in his pocket and places them on one end of the piece of wood he is going to work with. Starting with the 1000mm long piece of wood he picks it up and swings it around his head for as long as possible until the wood falls out of his hand. Then he walks up to the 1500mm piece of wood swings it around his head for as long as possible until the wood falls out of his hand and then the same actions with the 2000mm piece of wood. He repeats these actions for the 3 hours duration of the performance.
3 hour performance ABOaut in New Performance Festival in Turku, Finland 2017
ABOut is based on the words a boat and about. During New Performance festival 2017 John Court was able to work in the same school he performed at the year before, Topelius School at Hansakatu 2 in Turku.
Day 1 He brings a 6 meter by 4 meter paper with duck tape on both sides into the main hall and asks some of the art students to fill up the paper from both sides with random numbers. These students explain to the next group of students what they are suppose to do and so on. Day 2 He drags the large piece of paper covered with tape and numbers in the middle of the school hall then starts to fold the large piece of paper into an origami boat while the students are having their lunch break in the same space. Day 3 During the performance he pulls the origami boat out of a gallery and starts walking down the street using only his right hand to pull. With his left hand he writes around his mouth words using a black marker pen. He walks around the sides of the river Aura creating a shape of eight crossing over three bridges. He does this for the 3 hours duration of the performance.
4 hour performance Common Ground in SIGNAL Molenbeek Brussels 2017
During SIGNAL John Court was working with the students from the Athénée Serge Creuz in Molenbeek in Brussels. He discussed, drew, conceived and constructed an object together with young newcomer students and the carpentry class who made both of the objects being used in the performances. One of the objects was designed by the artist and the other one (at the courtyard of the school) was designed from the drawings made by the students, both objects were made by the students. The students had answered through drawings to the question what does language look like as an object in what you hear and what you speak.
The first performance is in the courtyard of the school Athénée Serge Creuz in Molenbeek. He brings a 3-part object out of the wood workshop to the courtyard and tapes two parts together, then he places the third one on top of them and lifts one side of the three-part object up and starts to turn around. Sometimes the end drops down so he moves the object to find the space to lift it up again and carries on like this for the whole 4 hours duration of the performance.
4 hours and 30 minutes Performance Untitled at St Leonards Hospital, York, England UK 2016
He walks to an outdoor space which used to be an old mediaeval hospital. He has 2 wooden sticks 48mm x 48mm 2400mm long with black tape, 1 has the word art written on it and the other has numbers of dates and times on how many people had died and were born at a Time,Day,Month,Year . He picks up both of the wooden sticks and tries to walk around 1 of the pillars in the space as soon as he does this 1 of the wooden stick fall to the ground. He carries on going in a clockwise direction, when the other of the wooden stick falls to the ground. He picks up the 1 that is already on the ground and start again all the time he is measuring and counting every turn and writing numbers on the side of his head. After an hour when 1 of the wooden stick fall to the ground he pick up the other stick and changes the direction to a anti clockwise direction. He does this falling picking up clockwise direction and anti clockwise direction for the rest of the 4 hour performance.
5 hours Performance Untitled in Beijing Live Beijing China 2016
He walks on to a hand build wooden structure built by the artist which is based on the shape of infinity. He writes on his forehead 3 letters which represent three words god-gob-dog which stay on his forehead for the whole duration of the performance.
He starts by running in anti-clockwise direction up to one side of the ramp and then running down the other side. He tries to do this for the whole duration of the performance but sometimes he has to just walk and sometimes it is very slow walking, but he keeps always moving. Each time he passes one side of the structure he tries to write one number from 1 to 9 trying to keep them in the same order. He does this for the whole 5 hours performance.
4 hours Performance Untitled at Topeliuksen high school in New Performance Festival in Turku, Finland 2016
2 prebuilt object made by John Court is in a school playground in Turku. 1 of the objects which is based on the children playground climbing frame is in the shape of the funnel the other 1 is based on a climbing frame which is in the shape of a spaceship. This spaceship he starts to push in 1 direction round and around in the school playground yard. All the time writing around his neck sometimes students have a break so the playground yard becomes active with students actions. He moves this object continuously for the whole 4 hour performance while the other funnel climbing frame object is just present in the yard.
Photograph by Joakim Stampe
Duration unknown Performance Untitled in Arctic Action Art Live Performance Art Festival in Longyearbyen Norway 2016.
He walks into a muddy beach and starts to spin in anticlockwise direction with a made wooden long heavy panel in his hands. He uses this long structure for the whole duration of the performance. He spins until he loses his footing from the mud or until he gets out of breath. He stops until the nausea subsides or he catches his breath and then he spins again. He stops and starts for the whole duration of the performance then he walks out of the space (beach) and the performance is finished.
Duration unknown Performance Untitled in Arctic Action Art Live Performance Art Festival in Longyearbyen Norway 2016.
He walks into a muddy beach and starts to spin in anticlockwise direction with a made wooden long heavy panel in his hands. He uses this long structure for the whole duration of the performance. He spins until he loses his footing from the mud or until he gets out of breath. He stops until the nausea subsides or he catches his breath and then he spins again. He stops and starts for the whole duration of the performance then he walks out of the space (beach) and the performance is finished.
7 hours Performance Untitled in Room for Performance at Bildmuseet Umeå Sweden 2016
On the floor there is 500g of white chalk blocks partly crushed and a table with three of the original legs on it and five pieces of wood 48mm by 48mm of 240cm long. All these woods are added onto the table.He picks up the table and starts to walk in a clockwise direction the table resting between his neck and shoulder (without using his hands). Each time he makes one full circle where he doesn’t touch the object with his hands he makes a circle on his hands or lower arms. After two hours the whole structure breaks, he walks off then after one minute he walks back in and starts to reconstruct the structure. After some time the structure and him find the space again all the time walking in the clockwise direction (and without using his hands). He does this for the whole 7 hours.
Duration unknown performance Untitled at Venø Gård KUNST International performance art festival Selje Norway 2015
He walks down an incline in a wooden forest and picks up a sawn tree, the then picks it up and drags it down to a flat surface. He starts to try bouncing the tree, it takes a short time for him to find the right movement. He bounces the tree for the whole duration. Only stopping when he loses the movement and the bounce in the tree then the performance is over and ends.
Photograph by Ilya Noe
Duration unknown performance Untitled SHIFTS/ INVESTIGATING SCORES IN PERFORMANCE ART Berlin Germany 2015
On the wall is a piece of paper with numbers on it they start at the top with 01 then 0123 then 012345 01234567 0123456789 and so on until the bottom of the paper. In the middle of the space is 1 chair he walk into the space and step onto the chair waits then he step off of the chair and walks over to the paper on the wall where the numbers are. And with a black marker pen he starts at the bottom and make a mark through 4 of the numbers. Then he walks over to the chair and step onto the chair waits then he step off of the chair and walks over to the paper on the wall where the numbers are. And with a black marker pen he starts at the bottom and make a mark through 4 of the numbers he does this until all the numbers on the paper are marked and then walk out the space.
Duration unknown performance Untitled SHIFTS/ INVESTIGATING SCORES IN PERFORMANCE ART Berlin Germany 2015
On the wall is a piece of paper with numbers on it they start at the top with 01 then 0123 then 012345 01234567 0123456789 and so on until the bottom of the paper. In the middle of the space is 1 chair he walk into the space and step onto the chair waits then he step off of the chair and walks over to the paper on the wall where the numbers are. And with a black marker pen he starts at the bottom and make a mark through 4 of the numbers. Then he walks over to the chair and step onto the chair waits then he step off of the chair and walks over to the paper on the wall where the numbers are. And with a black marker pen he starts at the bottom and make a mark through 4 of the numbers he does this until all the numbers on the paper are marked and then walk out the space.
Duration unknown performance Untitled at Infr’Action Venice 3 Italy 2015
He places eight buckets filled with sea water in a line, in a narrow walkway on Calle Nuova in Venice. The amount of water he uses is his body weight of water. He places a black top on to the floor and then he attempts to pull his top off without using his hands then catching the top with his right hand before it comes off. He writes some numbers that are documentation of the amount of people who died on that day at 12.30 starting at his lower right arm and going up onto his chest. Then he dips the top that he just took off into the buckets of water and begins to slap the top onto the ground. He does this until all the water comes out of the top, then he repeats this action again and again until all the 75 liters sea water in the buckets are empty. After the sea water is empty from the buckets the performance is finished.
6 hours performance Untitled in 7a*11d festival Toronto Canada. 2014
He walked into a repurposed elementary school room Pick up a made school table which was made by john court it has different size legs connected to the school table 1 of the legs which has been modified and to fit into his mouth and a other 1 which he can hold with his right hand On the floor is 200g of Magnesium He starts to walk round in a clockwise direction sometime he try to write one letter from the alphabet each time he pass 1 of the black boards on the wall he does this for the 6 hours performance.
7 hours performance Untitled in INFR'ACTION 10, curator Jonas Stampe at Espace Paul Boye, Séte, France 2014
In a large gallery space in the middle of the floor is a 4 meters long wooden burnt stick 50 mm x 50 mm broken into three pieces and taped together with black cotton tape. On the floor are 3 rolls of black cotton tape. By the side of one of the walls are 4 pieces of charcoal placed in a line. He walks into the space holding a 50cm piece of burnt wood in his right hand and holds it for the whole duration of the performance. He bends down and picks up the 4 meters piece of burnt wood holding it at different heights for some time and then at some point he drops it onto the floor. Then he walks up to the wall bends down and chews a piece of charcoal in his mouth mixing it with his saliva and makes a mark on the bottom of the wall. Then he walks around to the wood and picks it up again and repeats the same action for six hours. After six hours he walks around the long piece of wood and chews a piece of charcoal and makes a mark on the wall doing this until he finishes marking the length of the wall.
Photograph by Li Qijian
4 hours performance Untitled in Live Action 9, curator Jonas Stampe at Gothenburg Konsthall, Sweden 2014
He walks in to the space and on the floor there is two long pieces of burnt wood 50mm x 50mm. The length of the woods are determined by the space. He picks them up then places one in his mouth and one in his left hand and starts to walk around in clockwise direction for the whole 4 hours.
4 hours performance Untitled in Live Action 9, curator Jonas Stampe at Gothenburg Konsthall, Sweden 2014
He walks in to the space and on the floor there is two long pieces of burnt wood 50mm x 50mm. The length of the woods are determined by the space. He picks them up then places one in his mouth and one in his left hand and starts to walk around in clockwise direction for the whole 4 hours.
8 hours performance 8 in DigitaLive at YouYou Contemporary Art Centre, Guangzhou, China 2014
The second part of John Court art work for DigitaLive is an 8 hours durational performance. In the Centre of the space in YouYou Contemporary Art Centre in Guangzhou China there are two loads of building waste (building rubble) total of 1 cubic meter taken from the local building waste ground. This material is in shape of the figure 8. At the start of the 8 hours durational performance he walks into the middle of the material and starts to walk in one direction the figure 8. He does this for the whole 8 hours durational performance. At the same time as walking the figure 8 he makes a mark of 8 or 0 on his lower left arm trying to do this every time he finishes one lap of walking the 8. After the 8 hours the performance is finished.
Photograph by Joakim Stampe and Roland von der Emden
8 hours performance Untitled at Guangzhou Live 4, Guangzhou, China 2013
In the square out side YouYou Contemporary Art Centre in Guangzhou is a 6 meters long wooden construction made by the artist. On one end is a pile of used house bricks which weigh the same weight as the artist. At the start he opens the can of black paint and takes his trousers off and puts them into the black paint, then he puts them on again and the paint can is taken away. He then slowly climbs up onto the wooden construction, opposite end from the bricks and picks up a single brick and holds it in the left hand and stands there for the whole duration of the 8 hours performance. On the end on the floor where the artist is, is five 10 liters buckets of water (the amount of water the artist's body weights). He uses his weight and his movements to move the wooden construction up and down. He does this for the whole 8 hours durational performance and from time to time he pours one of the five buckets of water over himself.
8 hours performance Untitled at Guangzhou Live 4, Guangzhou, China 2013
In the square out side YouYou Contemporary Art Centre in Guangzhou is a 6 meters long wooden construction made by the artist. On one end is a pile of used house bricks which weigh the same weight as the artist. At the start he opens the can of black paint and takes his trousers off and puts them into the black paint, then he puts them on again and the paint can is taken away. He then slowly climbs up onto the wooden construction, opposite end from the bricks and picks up a single brick and holds it in the left hand and stands there for the whole duration of the 8 hours performance. On the end on the floor where the artist is, is five 10 liters buckets of water (the amount of water the artist's body weights). He uses his weight and his movements to move the wooden construction up and down. He does this for the whole 8 hours durational performance and from time to time he pours one of the five buckets of water over himself.
3 hours performance Untitled at Uprooted Fake Nations Festival, Helsinki 2013
In one end of an empty gallery space on the floor is a wooden frame and plastic covering it, to collect the water. In the middle of the plastic is 80kg of used red bricks, which were found at the location (and is the weight of the artist). Around the bricks, which are stacked and taped together, are 50 liters of salt water (the amount of water the artist' body weights). He collected this water beforehand from the sea outside the gallery on the island of Suomenlinna. On top of the bricks is one can of 9 liters black paint and one used brick. He opens the 9 liters can of black paint and then takes his trousers off and puts them into the black paint. Then he puts them on again and the paint can is taken away. He slowly rises on top of the stack of bricks and picks up the single brick and holds it in the left hand for the whole duration of the performance. He stands for around one hour. Then he bends down to pick up one of the buckets of seawater and lifts it as high as he can, then slowly starts to pour the contents of the bucket out over himself. He does this for the rest of the three hours performance and after he finishes the last of the five buckets the performance finishes.
3 hours performance Untitled at Infr’Action Venice 2, Italy 2013
He walks up to the start of the walk way in Viale Garibaldi in Venice and pulls out from this pocket three hand made clay letters A, R and T which can spell the word ART. He places them onto the road and starts pushing them along the pathway with his nose in one direction for 3 hours.