Licked

Licked, 2001

Thomas J Price’s practice encompasses sculpture‭, ‬film and‭ ‬photography‭, ‬engaging with issues of representation and perception‭, ‬whilst also inviting the viewer to attend to the non-representational dimension of his practice‭. ‬He compels‭ ‬them to consider how and why things are made‭, ‬the reasoning‭ ‬behind the choice of materials‭, ‬as well as how they sit within‭ ‬their environment‭. ‬This is clearly seen in one of Price’s earliest‭ ‬exhibited works‭, ‬‘Licked’‭, ‬2001‭. ‬In this performance piece‭, ‬Price‭ ‬licks the walls of an exhibition space over a period of three‭ ‬days‭. Initially intended as an invisible installation, the repetitive act of licking caused Price’s tongue to bleed, leaving him quite literally painting the walls with his own blood and saliva. ‬The performance succinctly crystallises ongoing tensions that can‭ ‬still can be found in Price’s more recent work‭; ‬tensions between‭ ‬ideas of the internal and external and of communication and‭ ‬misinterpretation‭. ‬His blood and saliva‭, ‬both essential to keeping‭ ‬the internal systems within the body flowing are laid bare for‭ ‬all to see‭. ‬His tongue‭, ‬instead of being used to articulate words‭ ‬has been put to task to create an external visual language that is‭ ‬ambiguous enough to be open to interpretation‭.‬

"When I started licking the walls as part of the performance, I held my hands up like a frame, using them and the rest of my body to measure how far and where I'd gone. The moment I made contact with the wall, it sucked all the moisture off my tongue—so I got a bit panicked and had to re-think my strategy. I got a bowl, a flannel, a large bottle of water, and chewing gum. I chewed the gum to get my saliva going while lubricating the wall with the wet flannel and that seemed to work. Then I got about a metre in and I could see the walls getting dirtier and rougher. Not long after, I could taste iron in my mouth—it was my tongue bleeding. And I thought I could just wash it off since it was only a small amount at that stage but I must have covered another two feet or so before the marks I was making with my tongue started to look like they had been painted on with a brush dipped in red paint."
-Thomas J Price, OCULA