The Culture Acid Test writes about 'For Future Reference...'

Kathryn Ashill is a Cardiff based performance artist who has been showing work in the public realm since 2006. Her work often makes interventions into the landscape drawing in spectators who frequently become participants. She then work’s with filmmakers and photographers to document the frequently site specific, personal action making, in an attempt to reinterpret and re-present the performance. Her current work focuses on the narrative of her personal history and future.

Next month she will be bringing a performance to Bristol for the exhibition ‘There’s No Time. We Made it Up’. This is part of her ongoing project ‘For Future Reference…’ which started in October 2007 when Kathryn visited a psychic in New York. The reading was unforgiving, the psychic told her she would never have children, and the experience intrigued and affected her so much that it was a catalyst for a body of work that is still in progress. On returning from NYC she began to visit psychics more regularly, a practice which became draining both financially and psychologically. However, she has continued to produce work exploring the complicated relationship between our present and future lives. She is fascinated by all aspects of the Fortune Teller’s trade, which differ widely depending which side of the Atlantic you are on. The American variety often draw in customers with neon lights touting their trade. The seemingly intimate spaces they work in are negated by the presence of small windows, which allow passers by to peer in and observe the readings. Ashill received a range of readings, most of which conflicted, however there were moments when their accuracy seemed uncanny. It was these moments and the Fortune Tellers easy confidence in predicting awful things, a confidence that draws you in and demands your belief, which forms their allure. Ashill is interested in this confidence and certainty of their intense statements which mingled with the desire of the customers to have insight into their future fates creates a complicated partnership. Recently whilst undertaking a residency at Flux Factory in Queens, NYC, she returned to the original psychic. “I don’t know if she recognised me but she opened the door to me when the place was shut. I cut my hair short, back to the length it was when I visited in 2007” said Ashill. The performance which will take place on the 10^th May at the Looking Glass is the most recent part of this ongoing project. Her current work ‘Palm Project’ invites the audience to become a fortune teller for the day. They are invited in to her Fortune Teller’s booth to read her palm and predict her future. The event is open to the public and a short film will be made of the work and projected into the booth for the remainder of the exhibition.

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