A Tooth for an Eye: A performance in three parts
7 October 2010
Nottingham Contemporary, UK
Duration: 10 minutes
A Tooth for an Eye is about a medical procedure used to reverse blindness, in which a tooth is taken from the patient and used to reconstruct a section of the eye. Part one of the performance is a description of the surgery, part two is a poem that draws on the metaphor of the eye as a site of consumption and part three is an action using a glass eye, a magnifying glass and a toothbrush and toothpaste.
The Eyetooth
When vision’s workings are shuttered off
By the blinds of marked scarring
And an appetite for sight grows
Despite the lack of light
A tooth
That once dissected the world into digestible pieces
Now converges mouth and eye
Aiding consumption of a different kind
Biting colour
Chewing form
The contact lenses produced by dentists
Sharpen these first views
While the dribbled mouthwash tears
Dress the content
In fresh and minty hues