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# Project Description take the sixth exit Abbie Coombs Summary Final work Abbie Coombs combines writing, performance, sculpture, and installation in treading the hazy line where life ends, and performance begins. Closely following her therapeutic journey through the lens of womanhood, her practice is a manifestation of the responsibility she assumes to lay bare her deepest vulnerabilities in a simultaneous retaking of power. Her performances strive to transcend the purely subjective as fictionalised narratives, while coinciding with autobiographical fact and a live audience to give rise to an affect- based mis en scene , a kind of dialogical theatre. At a psychological level, her work attempts to challenge ‘inter-passivity’ and the viewer’s emotional responsiveness in a public situation, creating a reflective space that fosters a discursive environment around the difficult but urgent topics of abortion and violence against women. Coombs implicates her audience in the construction and articulation of the violence inherent in our hierarchy of power relations. This exposes both the ‘performer’ and the ‘participant’, and ‘patriarchy’ vs ‘subject’, positioned in the force field of empathy and trust within a wider world of indifference and disbelief towards artists and women. Coombs is completing an MA in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts (University of the Arts London) (at a predicted Distinction level), for which she was awarded The Sir Frank Bowling Scholarship (2024). She received her Graduate Diploma in Fine Art from the same University in 2023, for which she was awarded the UAL Home Postgraduate Scholarship. Since 2021 her work has been exhibited in a number of exhibitions internationally, including at Tate Britain in London (2021), Contrapposto Gallery in Athens (2024), and AVA Gallery in Ljubljana (2024), during which she swapped lives with the Slovenian artist, Iva Suhadolnik-Gregorin (who later became her partner in the artist duo, ‘ The Queen of Pentacles’ ), for 5 days (‘ being you being me being me being you’ ). Her other recent performances include ‘ take the sixth exit ’ (2024), performed for 6 days outside Tate Britain in London, and ‘ Senses of Self I ’ (2023), also performed outside Tate Britain. She was also selected by the award-winning poet, Claudia Rankine, to participate in the exhibition ‘ PLOT: CLAUDIA RANKINE ’ at Chelsea Space in London (2023). Coombs established and runs the London-based Writer’s Collective, ‘ The Circle ’, and has been published on a number of occasions in Force Majeure (2023, 2024), by the UAL Writer’s Collective. She is currently working on her first novel, which she hopes to publish by the end of 2024. Coombs’ creative practice is informed by knowledge and political influences from a previous career in the legal sector, where she practiced as an antitrust and complex litigation lawyer in the English High Court, Court of Appeal, and Supreme Court, as well as other European jurisdictions. While she found that legal language was too restrictive to articulate creative solutions to complex problems she faced, her legal career taught her the power of the speech act in the chamber, and the reverence of the goat skin of the parchment of legal acts, where the performance of words in a particular costume could determine the future of the basic reproductive rights of women across an entire nation. For example, Coombs was part of the legal team that submitted the complaint to the European Commission (on a pro bono basis) in relation to the restriction of women’s abortion rights in Poland. Coombs received her MA in Law (Distinction, 2021) and BA in Law (First Class, 2017) from Queens’ College, the University of Cambridge, for which she was awarded the Foundation Scholarship for academic excellence. In addition to her art practice, Coombs is a Visiting Lecturer in creative writing at Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts, London. She is also part of the Chelsea and Wimbledon Colleges of Arts Subjectivity and Feminisms Research Group, in which she participated in a panel discussion on International Women's Day (London, 2023). She is also the Creative Director for the award-winning singer-songwriter, Victoria Canal. Abbie Coombs combines writing, performance, sculpture, and installation in treading the hazy line... College Chelsea College of Arts Course MA Fine Art Graduation year 2024 ‘ take the sixth exit ’ is a conceptual and immersive durational performance that explores the cyclical and paradoxical nature of trauma, misplaced loyalties, and the struggle for liberation from abusive relationships, the nature of which is left intentionally ambiguous. The performance is structured around a repetitive autobiographical dialogue between the artist and the disembodied voice of her inner-child, who remains hidden in a skip filled with water throughout the performance. The artist kneels in front of the skip on a lawn encased by Armco crash barriers, some of which have been damaged beyond the point of reclamation in various car accidents. The artist, while covering her entire body in stoneware casting slip, tries to convince her six-year-old self to leave the psychological refuge of the self-imposed prison of the skip, in an attempt to shatter the psychological phenomenon of finding an overwhelming sense of safety in the familiar, even if it is harmful. The dialogue straddles the tension between safety and confinement, exposing the internal conflict of wanting to escape an abusive situation while being paralyzed by fear. Throughout the performance, the artist breaks the fourth wall and directly addresses the audience. With this interaction, the artist creates a social contract between herself and the audience, in an attempt to blur the lines between performance and reality, drawing the audience into the emotional core of the narrative and heightening their sense of responsibility toward the artist. ‘He’, the pervasive and omnipresent threat often felt by victims of abuse, looms over the dialogue like a shadow. When his voice is heard for the only time in the dialogue, the artist’s inner child convinces the artist to join her in the freezing-cold water of the skip, on the empty promise that she will leave the skip with the artist when she deems it safe to do so. While in the skip, the artist washes off the stoneware casting slip, before returning to kneel in the same place where the performance began. As the dialogue restarts, the cyclical nature of the script reveals itself. As the performance progresses through its cycles for 8 hours a day over six days, the repetitive dialogue gradually evolves, reflecting the arduous journey towards realization and empowerment. These ritualistic aspects of the performance; repeating dialogue until it becomes a chant, applying and then washing off the stoneware casting slip in rehearsed movements, underscore the cyclical nature of trauma, where the process of healing is continuous and fraught with setbacks, despite the inherent desire for purification and healing. On the 6th July 2024, on the sixth day of the performance, after the artist performed for six hours, the artist manages to convince her six-year-old self to leave the skip and take the sixth exit in an act of symbolic cleansing and acceptance that accentuates the necessity of the collective support crucial for healing and recovery. The artist, who had intended to perform naked for the duration of the performance but was prevented from doing so for reasons of health and safety beyond her control, leaves the skip naked, holding the hand of a six-year-old actor. For the first time in the performance, she crosses the Armco crash barriers and is met by the welcome embrace of her partner in the artist duo, ‘ The Queen of Pentacles ’, whom she had previously swapped lives with in the durational performance ‘ Being You Being Me Being Me Being You ’. Final work take the sixth exit Research and process Share this project ‘take the sixth exit’ is a conceptual and immersive durational performance that explores the cyclical and paradoxical nature of trauma, misplaced loyalties, and the struggle for liberation from abusive relationships, the nature of which is left intentionally ambiguous... A link to this page has been added to your clipboard Browse related work Activism Being Human Body Identity Mental Health Sexuality Autobiographical Childhood Conceptual Domesticity Installation MentalHealth Performance PerformanceArt Script Trauma Water
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