Throughout the creative process. we have been fascinated by the idea of stimulating the senses. as actors we are strive to constantly stimulate the senses of sight and sound, but through the world of performance art we have been introduced to performance that tackles the more complex senses such as smell, touch and even taste. from day one these senses have been at the core of our performance. during rehearsals we have constantly tried to focus on what our performance would do to the senses. as time progressed we noticed that Wine is a substance that can connect all the senses together within a performance; its distinct smell and taste. along with the feel of cold glass and the vibrant colours are very distinct. at this point are performance began to shape itself around wine and the associations society has with the liquid. in setting out to collect the large amount of wine bottles needed for our installation we began to notice that even the collection of these bottles stimulated all of our senses. the bags and boxes we used became infused with the smell of wine. the sound of bottles tapping against each other and the uniformed patterns of they created became almost therapeutic. as our bottle collection slowly turned into a routine it seemed like the room in which we stored our bottles became almost a shrine to our performance.
not only was the sheer volume of glass impressive. we began to wonder how much wine had been consumed in order to amass our collection. this went on to us questioning our own drinking habits as well as that of our peers and eventually the people of Lincoln. the wine bottles in “Communion” not only engage with the audience on a sensory level. but also paint a wider picture in there minds of there connection with drinking and recreation. we want an audience to question why people drink through the variety and scale of the bottles. under what circumstances was that bottle finished? a party, toast, family dinner or anniversary meal? the ambiguity of the wine will hopefully allow the audience to create there own stories connected to their own experiences of celebrating or perhaps even commemoration