John Court (UK): Kahdeksan tunnin kirjoitus / Eight hours writing
John Court left school at 16 unable to read or write. Over the following years an interest in visual art gave him the impetus to develop these fundamental skills. Literally returning to school for this performance, the artist will embark on creating a ‘written’ drawing, generated through the performative act of live writing, deployed here as a demanding physical task. Working on an elevated platform, with his writing-hand immobilized behind his back, he moves from left to right and right to left, creating layer upon layer of textual information in response to the site of his development as an artist and the physical site of the school. Importantly for John, the school will receive the work as a gift following the performance.
John Court (UK)
Born in the UK, John Court moved to Finland in 1997. He creates large-scale drawings,performances and video works. In 1999 he began a series of eight-hour performances based on the eight-hour working day. His work has been shown across Scandinavia and Europe, notably exhibiting at the Liverpool and Venice Biennales.