Artist Kathryn Ashill recently performed a work in New York inviting visitors to throw lumps of polished amethyst at her.
Most people were trying to miss or were being polite about it. I was surprised, I thought a New York audience would be quite bolshy and well-versed in participating in performance art.
The work is part of her series For Future Reference, a response to what a psychic said to her in 2007: “you’ll never be a mother, you’re too selfish.” Though the series is personal, Ashill seeks audience participation in all her works:
It needs to have that tactility. It just breaks people out of their comfort zone. I think people zone out when they’re watching performance, you need to bring them back in.
