Gregg Whelan

Body Space & Technology

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Grace Surman’s ………….White. 
 
(Preview/Review by Gregg Whelan) 
 
Various whites inhabit Grace Surman’s solo work; the white sheet of a cartoon 
ghost disallowed an apple due to the serve lack of a mouth hole, the snow white 
of flour blown into shallow drifts, the white ears of a magician’s rabbit pulled from 
what here is not so much a hat but a system of restraining logics akin to those an 
escapologist must master and break, the minimalist and ubiquitous white of an 
IPod, the white of white bread on the turn to browned toast and the white of white 
tape used to bind Surman’s body in a more visceral evocation of the 
escapologist’s act.  
 
The piece, at turns as unsettling as it is comic, works to essay the function of the 
magician’s assistant, a role traditionally filled by partly dressed young women 
variously employed to offer props to their employer as glamorously as they can, 
stand as still as they can, hide as best they can, or simply appear as lovely as 
they can in a bid to distract us from whatever’s being palmed, swapped or 
vanished in front of our very eyes. Alone before us Surman gamely performs the 
role of a magician’s assistant but to the aide of no magician and no tricks. 
Instead we witness a series of fragile attempts at creating near-tricks, or part-
ticks, that falter, fail and disintegrate. What appears to have disappeared here is 
the act itself.  
 
The piece is littered with a defiant series of presentations, where Surman 
desperately trying to maintain the traditional false smile of the magician’s 
assistant, offers to us by why of an out stretched arm a number of objects and 
actions that must now pass for tonight’s entertainment. These offerings, at times 
creating the intended unease of us not knowing how to except such gifts also 
work to shift us into the position of Surman’s absent magician. Surman’s out 
stretched arm offers us an apple as if we might be apple to turn green fruit into 
something more precious, less mundane, something that might give purpose to 
its presentation. Here the pretence of magic, its allusions and constructions, are 
given over to threateningly real enquiries around self display and self 
presentation; a presentation which shifts between a knowingly ‘cute’ bunny-eared 
girl and an equally self-aware performance maker working firmly in a tradition 
that for Surman exists to be plundered, revered, and ridiculed in equal measure. 
As another half-trick or near-escape fails and Surman desperately chases a 
runaway rubber ball as it rebounds chaotically through the room, throwing 
Surman into an equally chaotic choreography - one which miracously includes 
catching an air-born slice of ejecting toast - the earlier conjured presence of Pina 
Bausch is replaced and reframed by the other dexterous toast-catcher, Eric 
Morecombe.  
 
As the piece unfolds we realise a series of physical and conceptual restrictions 
shape and constrict Surman’s movement through the work. These restrictions set 
by the performer herself seem to be in place to trap the performer herself and 
work to push Surman into the constant act of trying to escape her own decisions, 
perhaps even her own presence as the work’s performer. Physical restrictions 
are created only to be evaded, or side-stepped in an a series of near or potential 
escapes that begin to resonate with Surman’s own sense of performance; 
Surman has previously spoken regarding her previous performance and video 
works, about a practice which creates a strenuous environment needed to be 
overcome by great physical and mental stamina and although fascinated and 
pulled towards this practice she feel’s ill at ease with the potential violence and 
seriousness of its proposal. So what we witness here in Surman’s beguiling, 
beautiful and at times moving new work is evidence of a need to escape, to slip 
in and out of logics, of traditions and of modes of selfhood, modes which move 
between the seemingly honest and the playfully constructed. And between the 
two, the suggestion appears to be, we might glimpse Surman’s own vanishing 
act.  
 
 
 
Gregg Whelan 
 
Gregg Whelan, director, performer, co-founder of the internationally celebrated 
performance company, Lone Twin. 
 
 
 
Grace Surman 
 
Grace Surman's practice follows a delicate but systematic exploration of how one 
might live, think and act in the world, through an attempt to understand presence 
in the live theatrical event. Since 1994, Surman has shown nationally and 
internationally, solo and collaborative work in performance, installation and video. 
Past work has been commissioned by and seen at ICA, CCA Glasgow, National 
Review of Live Art, British Dance Edition, Tramway, Chisenhale Dance, Hull 
Time Based Arts and Bluecoat Arts Gallery. Based in Glasgow for the past six 
years, she teaches performance on the Contemporary Theatre Practice 
programme at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Her new body 
of work, Slow Thinking is supported byTramway, SAC and a Breathing Space 
Commision from Arnolfini. 
 
The image is of ‘Liverpool White' at Bluecoat Arts Centre, photographer 
Alexandra Wolkewicz. 


Grace Surman’s ………….White

http://www.bstjournal.com/articles/10.16995/bst.182/galley/140/download/

Grace Surman’s ………….White

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