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Michael Mayhew at Midnight Special FILM
  • Michael Mayhew at Midnight Special FILM
  • Michael Mayhew at Midnight Special FILM

Michael Mayhew at Midnight Special FILM

24/05/11 Live
by Nathan Jones

We're releasing this video now, in the run-up to the fantastic Beyond Necessity performance programme at ]performance space[, where Michael will be creating new work involving blood, oil and straw.

Hopefully the video, a 10 minute edit of a 3 hour performance, will encourage you to see Michael in the flesh.

Good luck to ] performance space [ for hosting this fantastic artist, along with another Mercy honcho, Mark Greenwood,   and several other important performance artists in June.

We will also be working with Michael Mayhew and Mark Greenwood for our Autumn 2011 programme, so keep your eyes pealed!

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In 2010, we invited Michael Mayhew to create a new piece of work to open our Midnight Special performance programme. Midnight Special was a big step for Mercy, into territory where we could produce more ambitious, experimental and striking performance work, while continuing with our exploration of spoken word. The programme was part of the official Liverpool Biennial 2010, The Cooperative strand, and took place at The Cooperative space in a disused shop on Renshaw Street.

Michael responded with a proposal to develop a new piece of work based on 333 a project he made when invited to explore the Swiss identity on Swiss soil.

In the process of making this new work for Mercy, Michael immersed himself in the considerations, not only of our brief to explore language in performance, but also the socio-political landscape of the time. The final performance was therefore not only emotionally, viscerally and visually striking - as you would expect from Michael, but also allowed the artist to fully elucidate on his process and the discourse and narratives that surrounded him at this time.

Michael also made some work for canvass using his blood-soaked clothes from this performance, and we'll put those up here soon also.

Thanks to our sponsors, Arts Council England and Diesel for supporting this new work.

Thanks also to Sam Meech for his work filming the performance, and to Carl Brown for the soundtrack.