Ian Giles
Heat Feet

Saturday 3 April 2010

Ian Giles reprised his performance Heat Feet for Whitstable. This visceral and forceful work saw the artist standing barefoot on a metal platform, which was rapidly heated by two gas stoves lit beneath it. As an opera singer intoned the movements of the artist upon this surface, a distressed and frantic duet ensued, which was terminated only at the last point of Giles’ endurance. There was a peculiar mix of aggression and grace within this erratic choreography. As the focus moved from the central body, to the singer, and eventually towards a physical empathy with the sensations of the artist-performer, the effect was simultaneously absorbing, repulsive and disorientating.