On performing Above Me The Wide Blue Sky
As more people come to join us for the night it is beginning to feel like the doing it is what it's about. There's a definite element of spreading the word, to a group of witnesses who have gathered together to spend the time observing, simply listening and thinking; creating the space to do that, committing to that time spent with yourself.The act of telling and listening, of a group coming together for that short time has the flip side that I deliver it alone.I have been reading a book about ultra marathons as the project has been evolving and have taken to going for long runs, originally to counter act sitting on a stool every day, but the more I have run the more I have realized I have begun to thrive on the time it allows me to spend with nature, an hour of the day by a canal, on a muddy marsh, in a wood, feeling the ground reverberate up my shin bones. And to appreciate the commitment, the meditative act of performing one task. Doing it fully and completely.They have come to exist hand in hand the running and the telling; the primal nature of both. Sitting on the stool at the beginning of the piece, I look up at the ceiling, the starter pistol goes off, the first image comes out and from that moment we are all running together.Laura Cubitt, performer, Above Me The Wide Blue Sky.