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[Alex Eisenberg and Rachel Lois Clapham have spent the weekendseeing performances and asking the audience for their questionsabout the work. These questions are due to be used in a response.]

A: Go on…RL: Well, thinking about questions about the work. There’syour list of questions – I thought it might be nice to talkabout that.A: The why, how, when, where, which. Is, are, can, have, did,does, if, was, were…who…?RL: Yeah and the ideas of questions in general…thinkingabout the notion of questions in relation to performance, theidea that live work itself is a form of critique or questioning,it’s a dialogue, a process. You’re not ending up with a blockof marble – like a final answer - at the end of it.A: …maybe questions are always looking for some…Idunno…there’s a sense of an inherent want for an answer, ifyou ask a question. Do you know what I mean? But there is awhole other category of questions, which I am interested in,things like - what shape is yellow? or when was there nogreen? Questions formulated by words being put togetherbut to which there is no clearly apparent answer. It's thenotion of the impossible question. This is my thing, I thinkthat with these questions they are almost easier to answerthan – how did the piece make you feel? because in theirimpossibility they maybe transcend their meaning – and thenthe options are more open.RL: A question does solicit, pre-empt or demand a certain

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interaction. I mean it's collaborative, it's pointing you intoaction. And as a proposition, your refusal, or inability toanswer is still figured into the question. It's quite pervasive.A: Yeah

– it can be challenging… and we’ve not beendemanding answers from people, we been demandingquestions.RL: It is quite direct isn’t it – have you got a question? It’s notlike, what do you think about X? It puts you under adifferent kind of pressure.A: It places you in a much more vulnerable state – having togenerate a question. You lay yourself exposed for a shortmoment. You put yourself on the line a little bit, whereas insome ways when you are doing an answer it's always inrelation to a question. So it's like you are completing. Maybeyou’re automatically asking questions whilst you arewatching a performance but in some way for me that’s notthe best place to be asking questions. Like why are theydoing that? Or you know… for me it's better to try and sitthere and just sort of soak it up.RL: Do you think it's the same with the plastic arts, withstatic work? I’m thinking about the absorptive elements ofperformance, the embodied or live aspect of it hinders youfrom actually asking questions in the moment.A: Maybe it's something to do with that in a performance theethics are raised, you are complicit in making thatperformance happen. I happen to really like work that doesmakes you feel your role as an audience and therefore youfeel a responsibility. Whereas with object-based work theencounter doesn’t always operate in that way.RL: Which isn’t to say that objects don’t ask questions, butyou’re not looking into a face.A: And you can’t change that object in the same way as youcan affect a performance.RL: Thinking about the punctuation of a question, thequestion mark is an intriguing punctuation grapheme orgraphic. And exclamation marks are a little bit shallowmaybe? It indicates something entirely different...A: [DRAWING] The shape of a question mark – it’s half anexclamation mark but it has this area of holding space.Whereas the exclamation mark is a stop.RL: That bit, it’s almost like a hook to hook you in, whereasthe exclamation mark. If that was thrown at you, youcouldn’t hold on... it’s slippery somehow.A: Yes, it’s very much an ending. Whereas that has a little bitof room about it. That’s kind of the nice thing aboutquestions is this roominess.

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A: There’s also something crude about the exclamation mark.Question marks are very genteel. It’s a

question

, you know?And it’s putting something out there. But that there, that’s abit like ‘nerr nerr nerr nerr’ [LAUGHS]. I mean that.RL: They’re characters, for sure - graphic but also charactersin a little play.A: Yeah, they are kinda’ cuteRL: Do you think they’re male and female?A: There’s something like that...RL: I’m definitely thinking that now I’ve said it. Look here.A: So he’s male?RL: Yes, look at him, he’s totally phallicA: ...there’s something assertive, masculine about it, andhere, this has the womb.RL: Yes, there’s an openingA: In other languages they draw them upside down.[ALEX DRAWING] That’s Spanish. You do a question inSpanish it’s ¿una pregunta? I always thought it sounded likepregnant...RL: When you put the two of them together like that top totoe....A: It’s kind of nice. And fascinating that they make thatshape.RL: Yes, two female characters together, woman on woman.There’s something really nice about that. A perfect fit.A: It’s hard to be able to ask a really good question. It's a realskill.RL: Isn’t the difficulty in asking is that it involves thinkingforward to the answer? You speculate; you don’t have accessto the answer, because otherwise you would have answeredyourself. But in a way you have thought beyond the questionto the answer – before you have even asked the question.A: There are plenty of people who just ask questions to makea point. That’s a tricky territory. We have all done that, it’sdifficult not to do that. But a genuine question doesn’t comefrom that place.RL: Is there such a thing as a genuine question? If you arepresupposing or looking forward to the sort of thing you areasking, it becomes a grey area as to what extent your