As i continue to look for ways in which i can create work that may exist outside of the gallery environment as well as within it, i cannot help but write a few words on the work of Marcus Coates. Coates is a modern shaman, interested in the relationship between nature and man-made processes, social structures and psychic dimensions. Although i am less interested in his concerns of nature and shamanism, Coates is an influence to look toward in terms of the way he brings contemporary art to every day life - for example his experience with the residents of a housing estate in London (Vision Quest - A Ritual for Elephant & Castle, 2009), in which he brings performance art and mysticism together with a genuine concern for social change and wellbeing. Although performances such as Journey to the Lower World (2004, in which the artist performed a shamanic ritual in the front room of a Liverpool towerblock that was scheduled for demolition) can seem absurd, the artist aknowledges this yet insists that the work is far from irony and that "Eventually something serious comes through". There is a real sense that behind the eccentric costumes and bizarre rituals, there is humanity - an art practice that wants to communicate with people, to celebrate beauty and to provoke discussion on the things that we are passionate about (in Coates' case this tends to lean towards nature). Through developing a visual language that utilizes ordinary items of clothing and ordinary people in a way that they become extraordinary, Coates delivers his idosyncratic brand of anthropocentric performance and installation art. Coates' use of costume has influenced my own work - ideas of identity, the artist's role and the engagement of the audience all come into play when considering the reasoning behind how i am dressed in a performance or video work.