the task of containing

This performance installation investigates Martin Heidegger's essay 'The Thing', in which he describes in all great detail the functions and thing-ness of a jug. During the live element of the piece, Lakmaier sits at a table with a ceramic jug on it, which she slowly pushes off, until it falls to the floor and brakes. She then proceeds to pick up all the pieces, puts them back on the table and glues them back together with tiny tubes of superglue. She then pushes it back off the table. Lakmaier repeats this Sisyphean task until the jug loses all its integrity.


The live performance sits alongside a video, showing the artist read Heidegger's 'The Thing', dubbed by a male voice. Watch here

The Task of Containing was commissioned by Shape Arts for Tate Exchange 2018 and was originally shown at Tate Modern in London and performed at ArtVaults, Southampton.

2018, durational performance and video;

photography by Joy Stanley

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