ACTUATION

Performance/installation at King David’s Dungeon, Nottingham Castle.

30 May – 7 June 1987

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ACTUATION ran over several days, each day open to the public from 10am to 4.30pm. In the cavernous space MacLennan used found and collected objects – a pram, school desks, confetti, chairs, artificial limbs, linen, masonry blocks, suitcases, a dolls house, newspapers, shoes – to enact a continuous arrangement and rearrangement.

‘In the dungeon passage, formerly used as a chapel under Nottingham Castle and called King David’s Dungeon, MacLennan arranged and rearranged material collected from the locality. The cut and carved masonry blocks came from a pile prepared for restoration work in the castle. At times, objects were arranged to facilitate easy walk-through access, at other times to constitute a barrier. At times MacLennan remained still, becoming an ‘object’.’

Text from ‘Alastair MacLennan: Is No’, ed. Stephen Snoddy, 1988.