The bookwork included an excised section of Tennessee Williams’ short story “Two on a Party” which centres on outsider figures Billy and Cora, who join forces to pick up strangers as they travel through small town America. The publication was initially produced to accompany a solo exhibition at Artlab, Imperial College, London (2003).

The small print run edition was Sarah Dobai’s the first artist book. The text reproduced selected passages from Williams story (published in the collection Hard Candy 1954) in which its two leading protagonists are described but all narrative elements are removed.

The portraits picture two actors that have featured in Dobai’s previous works and play both themselves and parts of Cora and Billy respectively. The installation displayed the two photographic portraits on either side of a purpose built partition wall, so that they could not be seen together, like either side of a coin. A pile of the publications were presented to one side of the wall, and extended the life of the project after the end of the show.

The exhibition at Imperial College initially approached the installation and publication as a means to reflect on the relationships between attraction and repulsion and between the viewer and artwork.

Two on a Party was the first in a grouping of works made between 2003 and 2006 that were made in relation to the heightened realism of mid-twentieth century short stories of the celebrated author and playwright, Tennessee Williams. The photographs work with and against conventions of portraiture to picture some of the characters that feature both in his short stories and plays.

Exhibitions of the bookwork and associated photographs have taken place at:
Innocence & Experience, Gimpel Fils 2010 What we talk about when we talk about love. Zurcher Galerie, Paris 2006 Sarah Dobai, Films & Photographs Kettles Yard, Cambridge 2006 Art Lab, Imperial College 2003