TOTART: Natalia Abalakova & Anatoly Zhigalov
The Project “Exploration into the Essence of Art as applied to Life and to Art”
FLOWER WAKE
Performance/Installation
1980, February 16
Location: Artists' studio
Material: a cypress from Mount Olive, Jerusalem, A.Zhigalov’s painting "XYZ" on the easel, a large parcel box with glass cover lit from inside, ceramic tube wrapped around with medical bandage coated with plaster, a hammer, nails, scissors, plaster, knives, ropes, other small objects.
Duration: over 2 hours.
Illumination: a bright lamp in the parcel, some lights in the room, lights disappear later on.
Sequence of action: 1. Performers cut off the ropes, which attach the cypress branches to the pipes under the ceiling. 2.They pull the cypress out of the planting-pot and place it in a ceramic tube, then fill it with plaster. 3. All the participants tear the wallpaper off the room walls. 4. The performers tear the plastered bandage off the tube. 5. The tube with the cypress is placed into the parcel. A piece of plywood is hammered over it. Complete darkness falls in. 6. N.A. and A.Z. get out of the room, leaving others alone in the darkness.