Performance art
In the 1970s Simon’s lifelong subject — human movement and relationships — stepped off the page and into live performance. Working with the theatre group Forkbeard Fantasy, he made work in which figures could move only by moving together. It toured Britain and Holland, from the Edinburgh Festival to the Melkweg in Amsterdam.
1975–78
Figures bound to shared timber “skis”, able to move only by moving together — relationship made literal, and balance held between bodies. Built from linkable units, the piece could be re-formed for each performance.
Performed solo and with Forkbeard Fantasy across Britain and Holland — the Edinburgh Festival, the Roundhouse and Oval House in London, and the Shaffy Theatre and Melkweg in Amsterdam.
In Simon’s words — how it was made
“Walkwork consists of a collection of linkable units. Each unit consists of two footpieces; when set up, each footpiece is linked to the units in front and behind, so that the result is two parallel successions of footpieces, equal in length.”
“Each footpiece is a platform with a strapping arrangement for the foot, and a section of mild steel pipe that runs through the centre and projects a foot from the toe end. Alternatively, the supports may be connected by resilient springs, or rope — a succession of equal lengths, or two lengths knotted at either end, along which the units can slide.”
— from Simon’s notes, “Working the Frame” (1998); first performed at the Leamington Spa Health Festival, 1976.
1980
A second Forkbeard Fantasy piece: bowler-hatted figures moving a woven timber frame through the formal patterns of a square dance — structure, space and movement worked out as choreography.
Documented here in performance, on the troupe’s own printed postcard, and in Simon’s ink studies for the work.
See it in the catalogue →Built for performance
The large timber frames and constructions made for the performances — the same balance of elements that runs through the sculpture, built to a human scale and set in motion.
Archive & enquiries
Press cuttings, programmes and photographs from the Forkbeard Fantasy years are gathered on the Press page.