cake & eat it, too – John Sturgeon
2002 - video/performance & television simulcast NDR
(Nord Deutsch Rundfunk) Performance at Kulturetage, Oldenburg, Germany
The title, Cake & Eat It, Too, derives from the famous proverb describing an essential contradiction – “you can’t have your cake and eat it, too.” As metaphor, the performance depicts that fateful illusion or delusion by investigating some of the contradictions inherent in expanding consumption, unrestrained desire for possession and a short-sided view of the consequence to actions.
Performed with a bit of irony and satire, this serious gamble for power spawns a deepening spiral of abuse between those who have and those who have not. The setting is a formal dinner scene between prominent world power brokers – Bush & Hussein, Arafat & Sharon, etc. with Sturgeon as the waiter as well as context voice, through a series of theatrical asides and poetic texts spoken through the “Bush-Horn” megaphone.
Cake & Eat It, Too
Performance by – John Sturgeon © 2002
Site: halle der Kulturetage, Oldenburg, Germany
October 9, 2002
Set: live video projection, spoken text, cake, toy soldiers and tank, formal table setting, motor oil, masks and figures
documentation photography – thanks to:
Boudewijn Payens and Jan Mattenheimer
curator: Edda Akkermann, Blauschimmel Atelier
