SATIN BOOTS, FIREY HORSES

Commissioned by Rose Lejeune for Wirksworth Festival, 2014

Florence Peake’s Satin Boots, Fiery Horses takes the modern day urban phenomenon of the high street Nail Bar as a way of translating the characters of George Elliot's realist rural classic Adam Bede, a story of seduction issuing in 'the inward suffering which is the worst form of Nemesis’ and a pioneering record of a rural world that we have lost. Set in a darkened room, a small table and an angle poise lamp are the set for a live table-top performance. A block of clay is moulded into folk art characters roughly created by means of an acrylic set of nails - Peake’s performance attempts to connect eighteenth century crafts and social realities with those of today. 

Photo: Rebecca Birch