I honor the life of Poly Styrene, who passed away from breast cancer complications [
http://www.spinner.com/2011/04/26/poly-styrene-dead/]. The performance piece of falling from a skateboard [see Jan. 7 entry] was preceded by my playing "Identity" by Poly's band X-Ray Spex while I changed into grey tights. I wore the tights under my jeans; I would later shred the tights from my body after the piece went south, interrupted by an audience member who didn't want to watch me throw myself from a skateboard agaisnt the concrete floor of Marie's studio.
In an entry of November 6, 1978, I write: "I ignore my role. I fall, consciously, into the Poly Styrene syndrome - basic paranoia...I need to look out for self. No, I need to be more conscious." Wrestling with whom I should be, much as Marianne Elliot-Said
would more seriously be, as it turned out.
