Serpentine Gallery 24-hour Experiment Marathon

We don't know enough about Olivia. What are the kinds of things we want to know about Olivia. What kinds of things does Olivia want to know. Olivia never asks questions with question marks at the end of a sentence. This makes her sound more certain than she is. She wears a black tee shirt that says NO I WON'T FIX YR COMPUTER. James is sleeping and weeping as usual. Olivia decides to barter her brother's fake Rolex for a packet of real cigarettes. She knows a man from Shanghai she met at the hostel is selling old brands outside the florist that was bombed three days ago.

She gently unbuckles the watch from her brothers tiny wrists and runs into the night towards a lamp post, the only lamp post that is lit in the street. A street that is familiar to her and makes her ache under her tee shirt. She leans against it, the watch ticking in her hands and she can smell dead flowers somewhere close.

Here are the things Olivia wants to know.

1. When she grows up how will life be different from now
2. Will she and her brother make it home
3. Does she love any one and does any one love her
4. If she does love someone has it changed her in any way
5. Is there any point in feeling things
6. Where is the man from Shanghai she met at the hostel
7. He's over there. Selling cigarettes
8. She knows she is going to walk towards him and she's happy and she wants to make a call but her mobile belongs to another time. The person she wants to call and the happiness she feels belongs to another time too. It's got nothing to do with this time.
9. She has breasts under her tee shirt.
10. Does that matter
11. Yes, probably
12. Should she change her name when she barters her brothers Rolex for a packet of cigarettes
13. Yes, of course
14. She will name herself Lisa.
15. What's Lisa like


Lisa runs across the dead flowers and shards of glass and the stinking lilies and tangle of roses that cut into her ankles and she waves at the man from Shanghai who is selling cigarettes from a wheelbarrow lined with red nylon. He waves back and his hands are tiny like her brother James who she knows is sleeping and weeping as usual.

She holds up the watch and he gestures for her to come closer.

His gesture makes her think of traffic wardens, of wizards and witches, of lovers and predators, of scared white princesses, of celebrities from another time imitating every other celebrity from another time, of Italian film directors and every president, of trying to chase a thought, of stirring something, of an ant secretly being crushed between finger and thumb.

16. What's the point of gestures if they can mean anything. If everyone is imitating everyone else.

Lisa obeys his gesture and when she gets close enough to be standing opposite him, her ankles are bleeding and she can't see his eyes because he's wearing fake shades.

17. What's the point of eyes. He tells her his name is Mick and she must not be frightened (which frightens her because she wasn't frightened until he said that)
She smiles and she can feel her breasts under her tee shirt. He studies the watch in the palm of her hand with his eyes which she cannot see. His hand when he picks up the ROLEX is so tiny it makes her want to cry. She can feel something cold flutter against her neck. Ice is falling from the sky. It has begun to sleet but Lisa is not cold.

Yes, Mick says. I will keep your watch with its globe and its ghost chasing each other around the world. And in exchange I will give you a packet of old brand cigarettes. He lifts up the red nylon lining on his wheelbarrow and places the Rolex underneath it.
She waits while he performs this ritual with his baby hands. They can both hear the watch ticking under the nylon. The dead flowers are covered in ice. The lamp post across the street flickers and crackles, the only lit lamp post in the street. She maps it in her head because that's where she changed her name to Lisa and tried to figure out the things she wants to know.

Mick from Shanghai gives her the old brand ( a sweet picture of a cowboy on the packet) and she slips it into the pocket of her jeans.

18. What makes something worth more than something else.