Fiona Banner at 'Other Critera' in _The Soho Gallery

Relevant to my own current interest in writing-as-art, Banner was performing her 'nude portrait' to celebrate the launch of her new book called ISBN. With the room packed out with well dressed art people in their late twenties and older, I felt somewhat out of place, but clutched onto my compliamentary glass of Laurent Perrier champagne and tried to make conversation with the photographers.
A shortish, naked man in his late twenties gets on stage, followed by Banner who proceeds to her tall (as she), portrait sized canvas and starts to describe him as he poses. He stretches an unnatural amount of times for the twenty mintues he is stood there, and thankfully for him his penis relaxes larger in the first five minutes and maintains its average size throughout.

Banner's text is not largely interesting or witty, its a series of short descriptions, broken up by commas, and the occasional full stop. I think I could be taken by the tempo of her descriptions, and was certainly into the absurdity of the performative action, with the hundred or so audience members chatting and commenting on the spectacle throughout.
People around me were straining to find the 'point', which is always interesting, and usually evasive in these situations. They point is that she has found validation for this seemingly shallow expression, and I find that most fascinating indeed. The art glitterati there stank of the Guardian and other art-centric publications, and I am looking forward to what they write.

I like that Banner has registered herself as a publication in the British Library, as a result of the ISBN tattoo she has on her lower back. I am into the idea of the self as art, as it follows from the philosophy as art thing that I also find myself settling into. I want my art to reflect the way I live my life, and hope not to be a hypocrit.
I avoid statements of opinion and dogma, but I think i'm just scared.

I like Banners 'whatever', attitude to writing, and admire her no nonsense approach to setting up situations to describe. From ongoing massive tomes filled with blow by blow accounts from her observation of war films and porn films, to these portraits, I like the simplicity of the event that embodies many subtle nuances about the translation of looking to writing and the curious role of the audience in this.