Sharon Whyte

Artist Statement

I take the relationship between the performer and the viewer (and the points where this relationship breaks down) and use this as a mechanism through which to examine various impulses ranging from desire to punishment. I am interested in the performer/audience dynamic as an unspoken contract entered into, within which there is permission to scrutinise the other and make judgements that we then use outside of the performance space in the 'real world'. The spectacle, beyond entertainment, can also be something that functions as a lesson, a warning or a catharsis. The performer, whilst often literally taking on roles, must also take on and embody a certain assigned position within society that utilises the individual artist's creativity or skill but at the same time results in a kind of entropy. Feeding from the idea of being 'trapped within the field of vision' my work becomes a site where performers must forever fulfil their 'function'. In my images I try to depict the idea of work, struggle, labour and futility in a constant mirroring of creativity, the drive to show, obsession, madness and isolation. This investigation carries with it a strong feminist viewpoint, and an underlying commentary on the media/surveillance culture that surrounds us in the form of CCTV, webcams, and the constant presence of images. Since performance is viewed through the lens of the socio-political paradigm within which it is staged, such paradigms cast their own agenda through the repetition of certain tropes and the constant replaying and reproduction of dominant normative or proto-normative images. Using photography, print, video, writing and recorded performance, I make work that explores the spectacle/viewer dynamic, and the still image as a lingering performative 'body'.