Small Quiet Gestures1 June - 1 July 2007 We possess art least we perish from the truth Within the Western world the transition from the 20th Century to the 21st Century has seen the accompanying rise of consumerism as a pre-eminent economic and social construct. The post-modern notion of multiple, complex identities and histories has been engulfed by a global consumerist condition that evacuates such complexity. The act of negotiating and ascribing individual positions within communal identities and histories has migrated to the expression of the individual via the hermetic lifestyle pursuits of brand shopping, detox, avatars and makeovers. The artists in Small Quiet Gestures have diverse preoccupations and approaches within their individual projects and undertakings yet each of the works within Small Quiet Gestures is distinct in the way they address another's "body". In recent times the collective and communal symbolism of the body has dissipated. Team sports are challenged by extreme individual pursuits, be they physical or virtual. At the outer edge of political action the body politic, once countered by guerrilla tactics from a central command, is now terrorised by independently networked cells with no direct reference to a central command. In a similar way the symbolism of a body being composed of public and private spheres has morphed into the publicly private body as constituted by DIY porn, Big Brother, You Tube and My Space buddies. In its contemporary guise performance as a form undertaken by visual artists has it's antecedents in the 1960's and at that time investigated preoccupations such as the experience of time, the body as a plastic sculptural material and form, and the undermining of the art object and the "hand" of the artist. Since the late 1980's "the body" has emerged as the dominant and archetypal concern of performance in visual arts, in particular the performative nature of gender and sexuality, and the abject, corporeal condition of the body. All the works in Small Quiet Gestures embody a distinct shift from the previous body locus of the 1980's and 1990's and attempt to address and relate with a body other then theirs. Each of the artists work beyond and subtly against the promise of consumerism by delving into the troubles of a life lived. They connect with sadness, bring forward difficulties, renegotiate consumption and blur boundaries. In developing Small Quiet Gestures and posing the question "what might be the observable condition of performance within visual arts practice" the question of intimacy has emerged has emerged in many guises. Rosemary Joy's miniature percussion instruments are designed bearing in mind the particular nuances and playing methods of each individual percussionist they are created for and evidence the percussionist's body. In performance the objects bring together the bodies of the percussionist and listener in a tight focus that falls inwards into the personal space between them. Rosemary Joy as the maker of the objects and David Young as the composer anticipate this intimacy and further connect the bodies via the biological function of sound within the human body. Aleks Danko's Songs of Australia, conceived in the inaugural year of the Howard federal government, was a 16 Volume song cycle with multiple variations that drew on media text and popular catch phrases. Songs by their very nature imply a singer and the collective title "Songs of Australia" implied a communal sing song giving voice to purported national characteristics. Is this the oogabooga boo-boo? brings together appropriated text with gesture and cocks a snoot at the viewer both imagined and actual. By employing a gesture of derision the work particularises the individual within the crowd. To insult and mock another is personal and brings forward the difficulties of the house we all live in. Barbara Campbell's durational performance 1001 nights cast blurs the boundaries between factual and fictional, actual and virtual, telling and listening. The project creates a space where the artist engages with strangers and prompts them for stories. They in turn give stories to the artist for narration through her web cast each evening at sunset. It has been noted that the original 1001 Nights tales had common typical elements such as "If there is a problem there is a solution", "Endurance can enable a crisis to reach resolution", "Fantastic elements help the protagonist to maintain their endurance".1 middleastuk.com In June 2007 this project will have passed 700 nights. Such continuity creates a space that renegotiates consumption and foregrounds the role of reciprocity within art. Danielle Freakley plays with this reciprocity by eliciting the unexpected need and longing of individuals. Within the space of her gallery installation Freakley approaches individuals and offers to autograph items as "anyone they wish". In doing so she uncovers individual desire and creates personalised objects of significance. Being covered in rubbish and autographing random objects, either personal possessions or anonymous junk, does not diminish the opportunity to achieve a memento of significance. The collectable with an authentic signature seemingly doubles the value of an object. Within the context of installed rubbish her act of listening to wishes disrupts the rules of consumption and exposes the aspirational complexities of consumption. Chris Bond openly acknowledges that painting is an antiquated medium in an age of mass reproduction yet has faithfully refined and honed his skill in order to mimic the marks of decay and emphasis the passage of time. This faithfulness to mimicry and the accompanying strategy of constructing false identities and objects has been an ongoing preoccupation for the last ten years. In 3rd June 2006 Bond continues his modus operandi and collapses the distance implied in an act of mimicry. The works appropriated are those of his recently deceased wife. The recreated central object displayed ghosting her repetitious gesture as she worked at her computer. Bond's work connects with sadness and consciously counterpoints the selfish/self obsessed gestures individuals assume in the face of troubles or in order to pass time. 2007 sees the 100th anniversary of Frederick McCubbin's second Lost painting. Linda Sproul references this work and creates a seemingly unfilled space that envelops the viewer and brims with sensory elements and associations. Art as a site to explore loss, both actual and metaphorical, has diminished over time. The promise of consumerism is that it can counter the troubles of life lived, yet a life lived has coded within it death and loss. Sproul reengineers outmoded 19th Century art to create transitory atmospheres that elicit reverie and contemplation and address the body by removing materiality. Manifested stillness engages memory within the viewer and offers a place where the viewer gives in order to get. All the works in Small Quiet Gestures are an embodied response to the forces and influences of the time and indicate a partial, current observable condition of performative practice within the visual arts. Linda Sproul in association with Jan Duffy Artist's StatementsChris Bond 3rd June 2006 3rd June 2006 is dedicated to Michelle Guglielmo, the love of my life and the mother of our son Alessio. We lost her on that date last year after she'd fought a long battle against ovarian cancer. For months after her death I struggled to overcome the trauma of her passing, and by necessity let go of my artistic practice to focus on raising Alessio, while trying to complete Michelle's vision for the house we'd bought for us to live in one day as a family. Home renovation was a good distraction at the time - but initiating some sort of return to art making hasn't been quite so easy. I haven't wanted to continue to develop any of the ideas that were in transit at the time of her passing, yet I don't have any clear vision of what it is I'm trying to do with my work. So, I've made 3rd June 2006 - it's not intended as a grand evocation of personal tragedy or even as a musing on the futility of existence, it's just a collection of small dedications that mark a moment in time. Rosemary Joy Schallmachine 06: The instruments, 2006 Rosemary Joy is intrigued by the relationship between performer and audience and by the transformation that occurs when a percussionist makes sounds on a very small custom-made sculptural instrument before a tiny audience. The work is about intimacy, private experiences and the way that context affects the perception of sound. This exhibition features instruments created for Schallmachine 06, an Aphids collaboration with Speak Percussion, Swiss artists Fritz Hauser and Boa Baumann, first performed as three simultaneous solo concerts in hidden chambers underneath Federation Square for the Melbourne International Arts Festival. These instruments have been created with the assistance of Adam Stewart, a specialist in curved wood design. This project is dedicated to Samuel Uche Nwabachili 1968-2006 Aleks Danko "Is this the oogabooga boo-boo?" 1 Everyone laughs in the future tense, for laughter reverberates with hope: It announces that the world is all right after all, and that it will continue in its wobbly, quirky, unpredictable way. We know, at least, that things are not so serious that we cannot try to laugh them off. ...Laughter echoes with a promise of hope of the highest order. We simply have to rest assured that tomorrow is an actuality. Once we know that, we can then undertake the task of trying to make it turn out better than yesterday. Surely the sound of laughter has always been heard as humankind's Ursprache, the Ur-expression of human beings unabashedly, unashamedly sounding themselves - as persons. Even grunts and groans require some pointing to convey meaning, but without a single word or gesture, laughter assures us that hopeful, playful - at times even mildly aggressive - human activity is taking place. It requires no training and little experience to understand. It is the pre-linguistic tag that we cannot shake, following us into childhood and beyond. In its ability to make contact, it simply has no rivals. It trammels all barriers. Laughter loosens its transcendental meaning in a Medieval Latin hahahae, or in a Modern English ha ha ha, or in a Joycean ha he hi ho hu. 2 1. Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (Australia) 2006. Barbara Campbell Watercolour painting for prompts # 711-713, 715-720, 722-727, 729-734, 736-741 of 1001 nights cast In 1001 nights cast, Barbara Campbell performs a short story each night for 1001 consecutive nights. The performance is relayed as a live webcast to anyone, anywhere, who is logged on to http://1001.net.au at sunset according to the artist's location. Each morning Barbara reads journalists' reports covering events in the Middle East. She selects a prompt word or phrase that leaps from the page with generative potential. She renders the prompt in watercolour and posts it in its new pictorial form on the website. Writers then use that prompt to generate a new story for that night's performance. For Small Quiet Gestures, Linden viewers witness the artist during her quiet morning ritual of prompt painting. As with the sunset performances, the audience must be there to catch the moment. Although the artist and audience are physically separated by oceans, continents and time zones, through the technological gesture, they are united in real time. Danielle Freakley Sign Here 2007 "Sign Here" at Linden is a project that engages with Piero Manzoni's concepts which satirize the value of the artists' signature. The work is driven by the audience and their own personal heroes/heroines. They are also able to keep their autographed object. Unlike Manzoni, the project does not attempt to make sculptures or artworks by use of a signature, and is not about turning the artist into a celebrity. The artist is not present, will not have a face, will not sign their name but acts like a humble priest delivering the messages of god. This priestlike figure speaks to the people not as themselves but as a mere servant channelling a celebrity (god.) Through the value of the famous five second scribble, the project is a fabricated endeavour, a small token offering an explicitly displayed desire for a connection (even a false one) to a human fantasy. Linda Sproul Lost 2007 Misplaced, off course, confounded, forlorn, deep in thought. The word lost has many associations and possible meanings. Frederick McCubbin created two paintings titled Lost - one in 1886, the other in 1907. In a sense these two works bookend his dramatization phase in which his paintings are filled with gestures that allow the viewer to move beyond the representational surface to engage with interior states. The paintings from the dramatization phase suggest a moment in time, a figure with a story, a before and after. Lost 2007 strips away figurative elements to make a space of sound and light. Visitors to the installation become the figures within the work which is offered as a place to consider their own moment in time, our before and after. As part of the performance program the installation is accompanied by the performance gesture of singing a Mahler Ruckert Lieder Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen. Thanks to the following artists for their collaboration on this project: |
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