Illness and the One-to-One Encounter

In this chapter we argue that there are useful parallels to be found between one-to-one performance and the medical encounter and that, by bringing this often avant-garde performance form to the hospital space, there is much to be gained for audiences/patients, institutions, and artists. Ultimately, we argue for a care-filled and compassionate ethical encounter that opens up new possibilities for one-to-one performance as part of the arts and health exchange. We consider the benefits of one-to-one arts encounters within the hospital space with particular reference to our Kicking Up Our Heels project - performed for parents/carers in 2018 and 2019 at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London (GOSH) - alongside Footwashing for the Sole (2009), a one-to-one performance by Adrian Howells. We have used the term parent/carer throughout to indicate the many routes by which we might come to be in a parental role for a child.