"It's a High Street, Not a Playground"

Samantha Green

Video

2014

 

Appropriating an essay called “Civil Disobedience”, written by a man called Henry David Thoreau in 1849, I began a social intervention project. The projects intent was to comment on the unspoken rules in our society which we follow and do not question. These interventions consisted of performances in public which would force people to think about why we follow the norms which construct our society. These performances conflict with these “rules” our society follows- forcing people to take notice that we are disobeying them.

 

 

Although, the aim of the piece was to not only comment on the ritual of social norms, but the completed work combined with audio of quotes from Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience was also a statement on the way people in our society are afraid to stand out and speak out against unjust behaviour. The final completed video artwork however was not the main aim of the project. The performances were the real art. The camera could not capture all the reactions we witnessed that day, but was an interesting way to document the performances.