Figures:
Austerity and activism in a ‘post-truth’ era

Liz [very croaky voice]: It’s lovely to be here. The only disappointment is that most of my voice seems to have been left at home. Because of this, what I’ve done is prepare a script for Jess here to present, so she’ll be speaking my words for me today.

When it comes to any questions at the end, I’ll work with as much voice as I’ve got and, if it disappears completely, we’ll improvise at that point. So I’ll pass you over to Jess now, with deep thanks to her.

Jess: Hello. So I’m going to be reading Liz’s script that she’s prepared in the first person, because it’s her words, so obviously when I’m saying ‘I’, that’s Liz speaking.

So in this presentation, I’m talking about a performance work that I undertook in 2015.

The Figures project was a mass sculptural durational performance that set out to make visible the human cost of austerity and crucially to urge action against it. I’m sure you’ll all be aware of Robert’s new book Crip Times, and it’s been a real honour to have Figures included in there and to know that its inclusion means it can keep on doing work. Today is a chance for me to describe the project in greater detail, the events of the work, the thinking that went into it, what I set out to achieve with it, but also to set it in its larger political context…