Reading the legends recounted in various ‘Lives of the Saints’ can be reminiscent of reading art history books about performance art. Both traditions present a legacy predicated on (often dubious) witness accounts, on anecdotes and on those forces of desire that sustain narratives of individuality. One can glean in the image/caption constructs by which the works of Beuys, Abramovic, Acconci et al are disseminated, a sense of the artists themselves stepping forward to replace the art object, just as the Saints insisted on replacing idol-worship with exceptional acts. In recent years, as with the ‘Acts’ of the Saints, classic Performance ‘Actions’ have become an iconic tradition as the subject of culture histories and value systems.

In a bare studio and using minimal props I made twelve one-minute video works, each named after an individual Saint and informed by a classic performance work:

A): St Perpetua dreamt of ascending a spiked ladder to heaven. B): Gina Pane’s documentation of her performance Non-anesthetized Climb (1971) shows her barefoot and bleeding, climbing such a ladder. C): I covered a steeply positioned step ladder with ketchup and attempted to climb it, slipping barefoot from the ladder into a pile of drawing pins.

A): St Monica is known for being unable to cease weeping. B): In I’m Too Sad to Tell You (1970) Bas Jan Ader depicted himself crying uncontrollably. C): I took a pile of onions that, surprisingly, could not induce me to tears until I tied them right onto my eyes and face.

A): St Vitus’s dance is named after the frenzied movements of pilgrims on the way to the Saint’s shrine. B): A photograph of Vito Acconci’s Trademarks performance (1970) show him biting his thigh above the knee. C): I discover that the easiest dance to perform whilst biting my thigh is a doubled-up version of ‘the Twist’.

For these and nine other video pieces I worked in isolation, direct to a remote-controlled camera, building up the performances in relation to the props I had assembled and recording and watching back footage as the piece evolved. These performance films became - not a direct addition to that collection of work that has been generically labeled performance art - but a reflection on, homage to and critique of it.

In keeping with both performance art and the legends of the Saints, these video pieces are bizarre, miraculous, body-centred, blackly humorous and crudely staged.