Stress Ball (2007)

Performance, 20 minutes

'Relieve day-to-day stress and tension with these super-soft and squidgy stress balls. Just the right size to fit in the palm of your hand.'

The stress ball represents to me an insulting offering of catharsis from over enthusiastic promotions companies. It is meant to be squeezed in times of high tension, every time you squeeze it, it bounces back to round perfection. The stress ball stresses me out I don't want to gently momentarily change the surface of something, if I am given something that is sold as a stress reliever, then It either does its job or I will relieve my stress by destroying the thing.

Working in my studio squeezing the free sample balls given to me by promotions companies I fantasize about the murderous machines I could invent that could dissemble the ball piece by piece. Smouldering in acid, stabbed repeatedly by a knife attached to a model train, sliced by a guillotine, fired at by a gun, shot into space attached to a firework, dropped onto a bed of nails.

Don't make offerings that don't come up to scratch, don't hard sell whilst lacking conviction. This satirical performance is about actively combating disappointment, about inventing, and completing tasks.