X Performances utilises public space as a place of dialogue and negotiation. The public road is a space circumscribed by a social compact that determines interaction. But the rules of the road are thought to be inviolable, X Performances humanises that space with a vulnerability that delays the enforcement of pure will or the law.

Entering from four axes as oncoming cars, buses and trucks are stopped by traffic lights, performers in colourful costumes specific to each location and community meet in the middle of the intersection. They stand looking at each other and then lie on the ground like falling dominoes, forming an X that crosses the road’s full width. The same performers return to the intersection between light cycles, making freestyle Xs, standing or lying. The performance plays out across multiple traffic movements, the road alternately claimed and reclaimed by the performers.

Redfern · Sydney · 2007

Ho Chi Minh City · 2007

X Performances is an international project performed by local residents across four cities and six locations. The work has been staged in Sydney’s central business district and in Redfern, a traditionally Aboriginal neighbourhood undergoing gentrification; in Ho Chi Minh City in front of the Opera House amid the unpredictable flow of motorcycle traffic; in Cologne on a plaza behind the Dom marking Roman ruins and on the main road in front of it; and in Dunedin as part of a downtown festival.

Cologne · 2008

Dunedin · 2009

Proposed commission

X Performances was submitted to Situate, a public art competition for Forrest Place, Perth. The proposed work would pair an ephemeral X performance with a permanent installation of sculpted figures lying on the ground with spaces left vacant for passers-by to complete the X with their own bodies. A tall stainless steel viewing tower would refle