Look! She has her eyes wide open.
An excerpt of the script from the performance by Shona Macnaughton of the same name, accompanied by ‘post-scores’ – annotated drawings made to map the performance.
Shona Macnaughton (she/her) is an artist based in Glasgow, mainly working in performance.
Instagram: @shona_service
Website: www.shonamacnaughton.com
[fast breathing, whispers]
Hi there,
go ahead [nervous] [slowly] begin, go ahead
there it is progressing, it’s happening, it’s happening
there there again, [pause] there again [pause] hi how are you?
[moves to the other side]
a. If we can, we can get back on that side, because that was better,
how’s it going?
Push that position, that’s it the non position, push a bit more
you have to lift yourself up, we have to lift ourselves up
b. once again wait… yes yes push,
well it's drunk, it opens a little
no not all at once… because …otherwise
yes okay I can’t see you
even louder, even louder, yes yes if you can still, be still yes because
a. if you can yes, yes, yes, yes
still as much as you can, as much as you can, because things are
progressing well here go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead
again
mmm it shouldn't come out too quickly
b. a little, hold it all, wait
slowly slowly stronger, yes yes it opens like that
go there a little more yes,
yes oh yes yes it's starting to happen
take a breath and if you can, start again, again, again, again,
block it there, block it
c. that's it …
it is changing
okay, there we are, perfect!
Look! I can see you now. You have your eyes wide open, wide open [fingers on eyes]1
Hi How are you? Hi, how are you? Hi, how are you? hi, hi, hey, great to see you.
So happy to be here with all of you on my birthday.
Well it’s not actually my birthday, I’m just the mother, well the non-mother, I would have
all grown up isn’t it, aren’t you… this, this would have been all grown up, I would have been, I wouldn’t have been here.
I would have been a [looks out to audience nodding] care worker?… arts administrator?…a teacher? or something else unimaginable…
It’s been eighteen years since I made the decision, about the thing made on the grey concrete floor, [paws foot at floor]
I sometimes go into that record store which was once a gallery which was once a factory which was once a brewery which was once a priory which was once a well which was once a marsh2 [sips from bottle looking out intently] and I’m watching someone listen unironically to [play music from phone ] and I think...
‘Thursday night and everything’s fine because you’ve got that look in your eye,
I’m telling a story and you think it’s boring, you’re thinking of something to say.
You go along with it, then drop it and humiliate me, in front of our friends
And then I'll use that voice that you find annoying
And say something like
Yeah, intelligent input darling,
Why don't you just have another beer then?
Then you'll call me a bitch,
And everyone we're with will be embarrassed,
And I won't give a shit’3
Does anyone remember summer 2007? When jobs and sexual assault were plentiful?
And I look at that spot right there, I think we did it on that spot where you’re standing all that time ago.
We mounted… our sculpture, our paintings, our installations.
Eighteen years of the practice. And things are progressing well. It’s a big legal adult. I had to make a decision back then oh yes!
Does everyone here like making decisions? No? [music stops]
Well! We’ve only got twenty-four minutes here today.
We need a Minute Taker, you know I took them before, I’ve taken them before and my breasts grew tender, those minutes left me with stretch marks, in those minutes my mouth developed a lump of metal and an aversion to the smell of oil.
Last time a man took them, a MAN holding a baby, oooh a very impressive man, holding a baby!
The time before that a young person, very keen, very diligent, wanted to give me the minutes before I was ready to have them and that had to be dealt with, unfortunately.
[looking at people with eye contact]
You don’t need to worry I’m safe,4 I’ve been to [venue] before
[moving towards different people]
I’m connective5
[mouth open tongue out]
I‘ve been known to hold a kind conversation6
Okay perfect! [gives piece of clothing to role-taker]
And a Chairperson who keeps things moving and seen, assessing the atmospheres of the room. Someone that can take care of all the viewpoints of the room. Making sure all the viewpoints of the room are seen.
There was another view back then, way over there, far, the viewpoint was kind but it was young, foreign and only accessible by payphone.
That Chair was coins, stamps, Ryanair.
Not everyone is a good chairperson, whose looking really into their chair?, up for managing agendas?, for mediating the views? I don’t have time for multiple agendas7 - How many minutes? - So you will have to.
At the decision last time it took a while to get the chair off their seat. Because. Our chairperson has to be unseated, in charge of their seat, but not on it, in control, in control of their chair, really enjoying their chair, knows its surface, someone who can mediate with their Chair position, showing us the objects upon it.
[turning over]
curious and inclusive,8
[leg up wink]
Im very supportive, address your unmet needs.9 Lift yourself up go on,
A curious and inclusive plinthing - there we are!, perfect! Things are progressing well. [gives piece of clothing to role-taker]
Treasurer for when we get serious and transparent later on, we’re looking for someone who like to collect and hold when we get serious, who can really take the moral high ground, [pulls hair to the ground]
Eighteen years ago there was nothing, less than nothing, but there was so much work to be had there was no need to be transparent,10 account for nothing, earn nothing, move on, the personal was nostalgic.
Last time I took the money box from the front desk, to make sure everybody knew what had been taken,
what they had given. But I forgot to ask for the final figure, to look at those numbers, magic numbers, magical thinking.11
This time we’re going to push that position, reveal and conceal at the same time! Who likes to hold big bottles religiously, value of the room, collect the value of the room, be accountable, hold the account and bring it back to me, really reveal, really conceal.
Advocate and sustain, sustain and advocate...12
Create extraordinary encounters.13
A proper understanding of the work if it can support our unmet needs.
Support me!, push that position, support me support me support me...[falls to the floor]
[banging water bottle] Connecting art, people and ideas.14
[Team picture]
Endnotes
1. As seen in Regarde. Elle a les yeux grandes ouverts (1980) Directed by Yann Le Masson and Collectif de femmes MLAC [Documentary film] France: Les Films Grain de Sable
2. In reference to Rough Trade Records, on Dray’s Walk Spitalfields, London whose building was once the site of the Truman Brewery. Read more.
3. Lyrics to first verse of Kate Nash (2007) ‘Foundations’ Made of Bricks London: Fiction Records
4. Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (2026) Front Room. Available at: https://baltic.art/experience-your-baltic/front-room/ (Accessed: 26 February 2026)
5. Arts Council England, ‘Social Prescribing,’ n.d. https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/developing-creativity-and-culture/health-and-wellbeing/social-prescribing (Accessed: 26 February 2026)
6. Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (2026) Front Room Available at: https://baltic.art/experience-your-baltic/front-room/ (Accessed: 26 February 2026)
7. Chair (6th January 2026) comment made during CCA potential board member meeting.
8. John Hansard Gallery (2026) About. Available at: https://jhg.art/about/ (Accessed: 26 February 2026)
9. Arts Council England, ‘Social Prescribing,’ n.d. https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/developing-creativity-and-culture/health-and-wellbeing/social-prescribing
10. Paraphrased from ideas in Boyer, A. (2015) ‘The Open Book’ in Garments Against Women, Penguin, pp. 42-44
11. Paraphrased from ideas in Rose, J. (2023) The Plague Living Death in our times, London: Fitzcarraldo, pp 65 “We might also be deluding ourselves, counting is at once a scientific endeavour and a form of magical thinking. It can be a means of confronting and bracing the onslaught and, at the same time, a doomed gesture of omnipotence, a system for classifying and bundling the horror away.”
12. CCA Recruitment (2026) Email to Shona Macnaughton and undisclosed recipients 5th January
13. John Hansard Gallery (2026) About. Available at: https://jhg.art/about/ (Accessed: 26 February 2026)
14. MIMA (2024) Visiting Us .Available at: https://mima.art/visiting-us/ (Accessed: 26 February 2024)