A Little Book on a Little Plinth
2008


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Look at the sky, check the weather, see the cloud moving around, see the grey in the sky, decide to wear Wellington boots, decide to take a waterproof jacket. Make some lunch, put it in the bag, put the red and blue in the yellow skull bag, borrow a bicycle helmet, no shiny red wig this time, take the helmet instead.

Cycle to the roundabout, cycle straight ahead, keep cycling, turn the corner after the traffic light, keep cycling. Take a small street on the right, cycle up the hill for a little, cross the street to the site. Find somewhere to lock the bike, take everything off the bike, including the red crate. Walk to wards the gate to the site, see the gate closed, see the padlock on the gate, look around, see people walking ups and downs.

Take a seat on the crate, not really sure when to do it, having not big enough balls to do it yet, look to the right, see a woman walking, look to the left, see a man walking, stay seated. Wait for them to walk past, look to the right, see children running around, look to the left, see a couple walking, stay seated.

Look at the gate, look at the lock, look at the height of the wall next to the gate, see the same height as the gate. Decide to walk around to the sidewall, take everything, including the crate, go around to the side, see the brick wall on the left, see the wall of the house on the right, see the wall in front. Put the crate on the corner of the walls, step on it, look out to the other side of the wall, into the building site, see many things stuck on top of each other, see no way to get down to the other side, decide to go back to the front gate.

Take everything, walk back to the front gate, look at the lock, look at the wall next to the gate, look around, see some people walking ups and downs. Check the time, see almost half an hour passed since locking the bike, wait for them to walk past, take a seat on the crate, wait for them to clear.

Put bags under the gate, see just enough gap to put everything though, not really everything, see not enough gap for the crate, see not enough gap for the head. Tie a ribbon on the crate, put the crate on the corner of the wall and the gate, step on it, lift the body up onto the wall, change the direction of the body, grab the metal tube on the gate, move a little more, lower the body to the ground, not really onto the ground, low enough to step off the gate.

Take everything, look for stairs to go upstairs, walk inside the building from the side entrance, see concrete walls, see concrete floors, see blue grey everywhere, see no stairs to upstairs. Walk to the back of the building, see stepladders hung on the scaffolding, see no stairs to upstairs. Remember the concrete steps on the front of the building, walk around to the front of the building. Hear a voice, see a woman with children, she says, “What are you doing here? Where are you going? How did you get in? Have you got permission?”

Walk upstairs, into square areas, see concrete blocks, see brick walls, see yellow stepladder placed to go upper level, see a hole at the top of the stepladder, see the light coming from the hole. Look for somewhere to leave the crate, no crate needed for climbing up, look around, decide to leave it by the wall near the stepladder. Leave the crate, put the helmet on, take bags, walk towards the stepladder. Climb up the stepladder, see the open area of the upper level, climb out of the stepladder, look around to find another stepladder to the even higher level.

See timbers stuck on top of another, see bricks newly put together, may not be so new but looks newly done, see walkways outside the building, on and along the scaffolding. Walk around a little, see a stepladder going up, walk on the concrete, move to the timber areas, grab the stepladder to climb up.

Take careful steps each time, try not to look down, keep the eyes on the upper level, see the light hitting the timbers at the top of the stepladder, climb up to the top level. Keep holding onto the scaffolding bar, look around, see the sky on the same level, not really the same, just feel a little like that.

Walk to the back of the building, see the view from the top, see the wind pushing the grass grown so wild in the yard, see the birds flying near the roof, decide where to start stitching. See the sun coming out of the cloud, see the light hitting the timbers, walk to the middle of the back area, drop the bags, take out blue, start stitching.

Sit by the fence, see the light getting stronger, see the birds flying very low, see the green grown wild, see the building opposite. Hear someone talking on the phone, hear sewing machine going fast, hear children shouting at each other, keep stitching.

Start getting very weak, start thinking about having some food, take out the lunch box, start eating lunch. See the light hitting everything, feel the heat on the body, feel the heat inside the Wellington boots, hear someone talking on the phone, hear children playing in the back yard.

Go back to stitching, move the area to left by each letter, taking longer to do the reversed letters, keep stitching. See a man on the street opposite, he says, “What does that mean?” keep stitching.

Move to the left, decide to change the colour before hitting the corner of the fence, start stitching with red, see the sun going away a little, see the cloud covering the sun, keep stitching. Move to the side of the building, start stitching more letters, see a woman hanging the washing, see the children running around, keep stitching.

See young girls on the house opposite, the little one says, “What are you doing?” the older one says, “What are you writing?” keep stitching, see them saying hello with their body language, say hello with my body language, keep stitching.

See the birds flying from one side to the other, see them hopping around the roof of the house opposite, keep stitching. Hear them trying to find out what letter it will be, see them looking out of the window, keep stitching.

See a man talking to the girls, see him shouting, he says, “What are you doing? Have you got permission? Come inside, if you don’t I’ll call police.” Explain what’s for, keep stitching, see his grand children looking out of the window, see him calling police, try stitching quickly, try to finish at least one sentence before they arrive. Keep stitching, hear children reading the text already stitched, hear them reading the letter which hasn’t yet finished, keep stitching.

The man says, “Are you hungry? Do you want some food? How long do you want to do it? Whole day?” Explain having eaten packed lunch earlier, keep stitching, hear a police car arriving. A police officer says, “What are you doing? You have to come down to talk to us now.”

Walk along the scaffolding to where the hole is, walk down the stepladders to the lower level, step down the stepladder to even lower level, walk down the concrete steps to the ground level, out to the front entrance.

See another police officer waiting outside the fence, he says, “Where’s all your stuff? You’ll have to leave here. You know that?” I say, “You told me to come down to have a chat. You didn’t tell me that I’d have to leave, so I left all my stuff up there.”

I represent Everything You Fear… Series @ Campbell Works
© NaoKo TakaHashi 2008