Dove’s Piss was a collaboratively created, improvisational installation, which included spoken word, music and instruments created from materials found around the area and aerial work. Five artists were brought together by curator Andrea Cusumano, for this mini-festival, a bridge building effort between Cantieri and Goldsmith’s College. The group worked in one of 40 abandoned warehouses on the site of the former Ducrot furniture factory, which was also, during WWII, a seaplane manufacturing plant. The site had been left empty for 50 years, with, recently an occupation by local artists bringing the issue of its use to a head.

For Dove’s Piss, the group explored the site, creating short etudes with the materials at hand; wire mesh, tree branches, an long dead pigeon and a costume from the 1966 Teatro Massimo production of Rigoletto. Lesley created a chronological structure for the sequence of events developed by the ensemble, which was loosely adhered to during performance. The performance took place within a warehouse, with the audience situated outside, viewing the action through a broken window. 

Photography: Mela Dell'Erba and Ivor Houlker http://houlker.co.uk