riposte dinner party rave, 2024
The Riposte Dinner Party rave was a turning point in Harriets artistic journey.
“I laid the table cloth and “served” my clay food onto the table, before dusting soil over it. This felt like some sort of performance, especially after the previous happenings of The Phlambards. There was fake foliage, candles cups and silvers plates that the organisers had as props so I worked with these too. The lighting in this space was interesting and I thought it looked good with my work, especially with the movement of the lights.
All of a sudden, my work is being interacted with. People picking up the sculptures and taking selfies, people pretending to eat the sculptures and groups of people taking photoshoots with my work. The first scenario that I was there to see was quite interesting. I was next to a (presumed) couple who took it upon themselves to role play as their 50th anniversary dinner, with phrases such as “the meat is too raw” and “I’m not sure about the pig head, Dennis”. This lasted for around half an hour sat as they sat my work. They also had fake money with them as a prop for their intended role play so played along with the scenario of asking for the bill and paying. Someone else (who was not a part of the couples role play) noticed the fake money and took it from one of their hands. They ripped the money in half and the couple let out a gasp as if the money were real. The money thief said “I’ve now turned the £10 into a £20” as a joke about the doubling process. They ripped it in half again… “40 pounds” and again…”£80” and again…”160” and again…”320” as the couple let out gasps every rip. The money thief then blew the paper money all over the table and it scattered all over my work. I thought this was a cool addition to my piece, especially with how it had happened. It also went well with the abandonment theme I developed with the soil.
After someone dropped one of my cockroach sculptures and it smashing on the floor, I decided to add a label saying “fragile do not touch” which ended up 6 labels all across the table due to the fact people would not comply. Even though it was quite stressful with the handling of my work that took a long time, I thoroughly enjoyed people taking photos with it and how they just HAD to interact, not noticing or completely ignoring the labels.
It now also had a purpose of holding people’s drinks, bags, phones and elbows (as well as a piece of chewed up chewing gum)
One of my favourite comments from someone who didn’t know the work was mine:
“Have you seen this crazy performative and interactive art? It’s amazing! There’s a rat and a health inspector and all of this fake food!!”
For context, I had been seeing a person wearing a rat mask on their head, scurrying about and pretending to nibble, around the loud techno dance floors, smoking area and stairwells for the past hour.
Naturally, the rat person ended up scurrying about my food sculptures. I then had a visit from the health inspector who presented me with a clipboard of around 10 questions such as “do you think this food was created in a sanitary environment” and “have you had any rat sightings”. This health inspector and rat performance was premeditated but it seemed to fit so well with my work. The health inspector was going up to people sat at the table and asking the questions and she probably had around 30-50 sheets of paper by the time she’d gotten to me.
I had no idea this was going to happen but again, I love it so much.
The work felt right in this chaotic, camp, sexual environment.”