Playpen
A recording of eleven women in order of their age from a child of six months to a woman of 82. Each child/woman was asked to sit in the playpen for two minutes and, without direction, left to their own devices to use the restricted space. The tape was originally made for a performance where I sat in the playpen with a mirror and a static camera; through manipulating the mirror the reflection of the audience was relayed onto the monitor. At the same time the prerecorded video was shown on another monitor.
The eleven verses of the ‘Suzy’ song are interspersed throughout the tape, overlaid on the original soundtrack from the domestic situation, afternoon TV, the women’s and children’s voices and one voice giving camera directions.
The high camera angle gives an “adult” point of view and the specific use of the camera, the extent/limitation of the zoom and aperture, echoes the restrictions of the occupants of the playpen.
– Tina Keane
Description source: Circles Catalogue (circa 1983). Compiled by Helen MacKintosh and Margaret Gillan. Edited by Felicity Sparrow.
