The Making of Doubt

Exploring the boundaries between our selves and our personal illusions, Colette Sadler utilized what can only be described as “sublimal torture tactics” in a 43-minute piece of performance installation. With low frequency sounds orchestrated by Newcastle based Zoviet*France and creatively presented fluorescent lighting designed by Florian Bac, audience members soon found themselves twitching with the rhythms of the four onstage performers. Dressed in muted “hoodies” the stage artists were partnered by two life sized dolls that were manipulated according to stylized whim. This partnering, which began in tender embraces soon morphed into carelessness, wherein moments of remembering who was real collided with artificial truth.

The performers maintained a disconnect from their bodies only matched by the perceived “realness” of the dolls. This absurdity continued when the performers, cloaked in specially constructed tunics, appeared to have extra limbs.

All these things matched the success of the piece wherein the witnesses were refused pleasure, and offered isolation from their natural state. It was not to be enjoyed. Conversely what was successful about the piece was also its downfall: the intellectual concept did not explode onto the stage into something truly surprising or vulnerable, but remained contained in its own head.