Philip Lee

Oxford Slip was a live performance with clay in collaboration with Cally Trench.

Oxford Slip and Exercise Slip are part of a sequence of performances exploring different aspects of sport and games, focusing on the gap between ambition and achievement in bodily control and fitness, and the ambivalence of viewers - who hope for and enjoy both excellence and failure.

Previously, in Cally Trench's time-lapse film Exercise Slip, Philip Lee had prepared for the London Olympics by following the Canadian Marine's 5BX training schedule Chart 1 - Level C-. Designed to gradually bring the body to a peak of fitness without harm, even at its simplest, 5BX was almost impossible for Philip Lee while covered in clay.

In Oxford Slip, he was in training again, but this time he took the sporting theme a step further into classical ballet. He did his earnest best to complete perfectly a set of five basic ballet exercises. With the clay weighing him down and making the ground slippery, and as an unfit middle-aged man, his attempt fell short.

At Play 2012 was supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.