Recently I saw a brave performance which missed it’s mark: a woman performed a naked ritual with a mask and chanting, making a sacred circle of salt on the stage. In spite of the artist’s sincerity it was impossible to believe that anything transformative or even meaningful had happened. In the modern world now we no longer believe in anything, it’s interesting to think what creates ritual beyond the artist’s actions and intentions. Quite a few BME artists like myself will have an awareness or familiarity with ritual performed in its original context of effectiveness and belief. Such experiences demonstrate that shared conviction between performer and audience create a lot of the meaning of ritual. Those experiences can also make modernist reconstructions of ritual seem anaemic and meaningless. Or bloody and still meaningless. In making Live work I am fortified by the idea that at least I know what authentic ritual is. Am I deluded though? Aren’t our lives all meaningless now?