Neo Sakkharic: A New Sugar Age 2006

Performed at Tract Live Art Festival, Penlee House, Penzance, September  2006.

Sugar-plate, tea, icing sugar, sugar cubes, paper, stools, gazebo.

Live performance: 25 minutes.

Photography: Steve Tanner.

She is dressed in a crisp white paper dress, her face and exposed skin is ‘made up’ with a dusting of white powdered sugar. She is sat on a small white stool with a small white tea table in front of her. The table holds a white teapot, sugar bowl, a cup and saucer. The tea set is made of white sugar icing.

She begins her ritual of taking tea. Pouring the tea in to the cup and adding her desired number of sugars to taste. She begins to sip the tea, slowly at first, then, as the performance continues, with a little less etiquette.

We will watch her elegantly balance the sticky cup between thumb and second finger, then spill it as she sips, following the streaks and dribbles down her powdery chin and breasts. Rapidly, refinement and control is licked away along with the cup’s sticky glaze. Eventually, she savagely bites into the fragile teacup, crunching the brittle sugar with her teeth.

The bitten, broken bits of cup and saucer are carelessly left to fall on to her lap. The stiff apron becomes a canvas for a collage. Here, she creates an image formed from pieces that resemble sharp animal teeth or pre-historic tools.