christmas cheer, part 6

this year has been astoundingly busy. which you probably figured, thanks to the dearth of posts.

as a result, i'm extremely glad that it is drawing to a close and am looking forward to the three weeks' holidays i've taken the risk of indulging in.

and when i say holidays, i really  mean it. i'm not getting on a plane. i'm going to really stay off the computer, i'm going to steer clear of galleries, i'm going to watch TV series all in one go, go to the movies, the beach and the cafe (not always in that order) and i'm going to read a stack of books.

you know, like regular people do.

save a few days in dubai earlier this year, and two days in albany in august, i've not properly stopped for ages.

i look forward to having a slightly different approach to posting about art next year - more consistency and less frenetic squeeze-in-between-stuff attitude.

thanks to those peeps who continued to read and i hope you all have a wonderful holiday period.

see you in the new year!

and then what happened?

i may continue to write about things i learned at reckless for a while. probably because some of the works will take a while to sink in*

one that came to mind early on, perhaps even before the workshop started, was my new slogan for 2012: and then what happens? i don't recall making a specific one for 2011, but it was tied up with not having a day job. 

anyway, i realised that i'm not so great at thinking through an idea to its true end. like, i have a good idea and can imagine the final 'image' of it, but the reality of my ideas and their execution is that the 'image' is really only the first part of the experience and sometimes i forget to think about the rest of it.

say i decided it'd be awesome to set up an installation in which people DO stuff. well i imagine all the details of the room - lighting, costume, action, person shuts the door, ta-da! but after that, someone has to open the door, reset the room and make sure that the instructions for the audience actually work. and i often forget about that stuff until the last minute. having gaffed it up in small ways during the workshop, i've vowed to take some time in a project to think like a production manager and make sure that the actual end of the work gets seen to. like when the last piece is taken out of the building and the work is safely stored in a warehouse, or something.

i don't know if i'm quite explaining it, but i just wanted to share it all with you anyway. perhaps as a confessional. perhaps to get a witness. and make it 'real'. 

and something along with that resolve is also a reminder that i can make meaningful work about things that matter when i start with what matters to me. musicians i like often talk about the personal being political and i have been able to see how it works with them, but it wasn't until i saw my own interests and experience being extended and expanded that i could see how it pertained to me too.

as i write, i'm currently waiting for some funding apples to fall from trees (could those with connections to christopher hitchens please ask him to orchestrate a little luck for me, please?), and quite a lot of that funding is to develop new works, or extend works currently in the early stages of development. i'm hoping to bring into those new works a deeper consideration and perhaps a more serious or formal process for developing my own works. this year it was quite haphazard - dependant on residency projects and a bit reactionary - coming back from europe and the early stages of figuring out how to actually manage my practice.

in that time i feel like i learned from my peers and elders how to put some space around my work a bit. interestingly a lot of them are from performance backgrounds and seem to have a good sense of time-planning that i have pinched from. not that i won't give myself time to respond to works immediately, but next year i'm hoping to bring more measure into my time. 

and then what happened?

*guffaw! in-joke!  i made a work in which i got people to stick their heads in a sink full of  water) 

fremantle arts centre shows

for the first time in ages, i went to see other people's art. it feels so strange to write that, considering how much time i spent doing just that prior to this year. i guess the recent article was right in a guide to buying art when the author said 'don't listen to artists, they're too busy making art to see anything'. damn.

i digress.

on saturday i went to fremantle arts centre to see what was on offer. i've seen some good shows there during the last year, but i was a bit disappointed this time - the paintings and prints from the mark howlett collection really left me cold and the women in fremantle public art design competition made me angry. 

the paintings i did enjoy were a series with geometric consideration. not hard-line math-art, they were nonetheless drawing from isometry, representations of dimension and had a quasi-sculptural element to them. the framing/structure of the paintings themselves contributed to their form.

upstairs was an exhibition of public art proposals about the women of fremantle and within 3 minutes of being there, i was pretty damned angry. in fact, if i was a woman from fremantle, I'd be pretty damned depressed that the only way of representing me was as someone concerned with facile symbols of out-dated ideas of 'femininity': 

chocolate moulds of flowers and hearts, guadalupe on a ship with safety pins and an iron; a bracelet and a pearl necklace. 

i mean, for fucks' sake! are the women of the area so uninspiring that the artists can produce nothing less insipid? the only image that didn't make me want to go on a rampage was a twisted, ribbon-like form that was reminiscent of the pink ribbon of breast cancer research, twisted with a double helix. the video produced was an investigation in form, but it was more interesting (or perhaps less embarrassingly out-dated) than the rest.

i don't think these plans or ideas reflect the true depth of the history of women in the area. in fact lily hibberd's play and exhibition showed more research into the women in the area and she's from melbourne.

this exhibition also dangerously paints female artists as limited, not concerned with the depth of another woman's experience. 

perhaps there has been no funding attached to this call-out for a new public art work, which results in no time for research or thinking. 

it may be that the artists involved felt that they couldn't investigate 'difficult' subjects like education, imprisonment, racial discrimination, madness, triumph, glory or revolution. 

it may be a case of jumping to conclusions about the lack of depth of fremantle/western australian audiences (which i can understand). either way, the work suffers, art as a whole suffers and the depth of women's experience in public has been reduced to a cariacature, which is unacceptable.

so, looks like i've been a bit grinchy with my writing about others' work for my first one back - sorry about that. over summer i'm going to try and check out some more shows, so i promise to make it up to you.

sleeping recklessly

with a title like that, i should make a sordid tell-all of my dirty weekends. but frankly, that's none of your business, and would be more self-indulgent than my art practice is already and i don't think you could take it.

thankfully, it's about the workshop i've been doing with mole wetherell from reckless sleepers.

i still don't quite know how to describe what reckless sleepers are, but i guess you might call them a contemporary theatre company. but when i say contemporary, i mean that they really don't give a fuck about traditional theatre and are interested in time and process.

mole was invited to CIA to run a creative lab - passing on some of his processes and getting us to extend, expand and share our process for making work, so that we could learn and possibly create a new work.

it was quite an intense fortnight.
intense in the same way that falling in love is intense.

we really did have a lot of fun, played a lot, but also pushed ourselves and made each other work together. i think it was a pretty good group and i mostly had a great time.

interestingly, the times that i didn't have such a good time were when i found myself reverting to adolescent ways of being: convinced that my difference from others was detrimental (and naturally untrue). i also discovered that a group dynamic that reflects my family environment, i get a bit mental. so passé.

i was really hoping to blog about the process all the way through, but as the weeks rolled on, i had other things to fit in after workshops, or was spending time writing applications, or fixing things, or just resting my addled brain. we had a bit of a blog going all the way through, which was mostly attended to by me, lynda roberts and mole. but that's OK. things happen.



some of my personal highlights:
- i rediscovered the importance of music in my practice
- lying on the floor sideways singing 'these boots are made for walking'
- watching 8 artists shove their head in a sink of water to listen to beak> - the poses, the gasping afterwards and the various types of wet hair.
- seeing my work in a whole different context.
- eating two whole chilis and making a disgusting concoction of stuff in a food processor in front of about 30 people.
- the in-jokes (yawn, is this boring?, wrong!)

other things i learned so far (i'm sure more lessons will reveal themselves):
- i really do use spaces to make people do things
- i over-think things
- i  need to kick my insecurities about my practice to the kerb
- i like performing
- repetition, feedback and testing are important processes i need to formalise from here on in.




to the rest of the sleepers: loves youse all
(jen, mish, ben, lynda, julian, sarah, paea)

back in perth

what you may not have picked up in my absence, is that i'm actually in perth (and have been for two weeks!). i came back to finish the geek-in-residence project, which i worked ridiculous hours for ten days to finish up on sunday. it still needs tweaking, but it's as good as i can make it at the moment.


the last few days have been spent in an amazing creative lab with reckless sleepers' mole wetherall and it has been intense and amazing.

i can't explain too much tonight, but there has been a real focus on deconstruction and reconstruction from language, repetition and mistake (or anomaly, perhaps). there are 8 of us participants and i'm having a really great time.

today i felt a bit behind the 8-ball, thanks to a slight misreading of a task, which then became a complete shift in text. but apart from that, it has been a fruitful time.

i'll fill you in on more details very soon.

until then, here's a picture of my performance map today:

image credit: sarah rowbottam

the listening booth: end of residency at collingwood neighbourhood house

i've been quite the boringly busy blogger this year, haven't i? 

constantly apologising for blogging about things way after they've passed.

so 'tis with the end of the residency at collingwood housing estate.

as the end of the residency loomed,  i really wasn't sure the best way to 'mark' the occasion. my initial idea was to put on a concert, with the local band, some experimental music peeps and some vocal groups from the local area.
whilst i don't think it's a stupid idea, the failure of the movie night helped me realise that my resources (time, money, skllls and patience) were too limited to be able to pull of something like that on the estate. and it just felt like i was going to make a work that kinda failed.

so i cancelled the tentative plans i had made, but that left me with a bit of a hole in my plans and a sense of impending anticlimax. 

thankfully i was able to chat about it with sue kent, the administrator and person who started collingwood neighbourhood house. she suggested, very sensibly, that i join the community safety day which was planned for the weekend after our conversation. it was a super-quick turnaround, but a great idea: the community would be out, it was going to add to a  sense of safety and awareness (listening, that is), and i'd be included in an event that already had community support, promotion and context. perfect.

the only problem was the i wasn't sure the best way to include some of the art community in that end-of-residency rah-rah. it wasn't a sexy event and i also didn't feel like making into a typical art event with a bunch of artists who aren't really into community-engaged practice.

thankfully my friend lucas came to the rescue - he suggested exactly the right thing, which resulted in two quite private tours for invited arty guests as well as members of the estate. perfect.

finishing touches

having brought my finale 10 days forward, i had to work really hard to bring everything to completion, but thankfully i just put my mind to it, and employed an assistant. mark, a local in transitional housing and main guy for the men's shed was my assistant for the week and he was amazing. he helped me put together the listening booth and string up all the wiring for the underground sound listening stations.

i worked my arse off writing up the sound wall, compiling the CD, getting maps printed and sorting out the logistics of inviting people to a one-off tour. all whilst  talking to loads of people from the area about what was happening. it was pretty intense, but amazing week. and it was really satisfying. those posts about each of the artworks will give you an idea of the meta processes of the whole work, but the overall fervent activity about all the works really brought everything together and did make it feel like a finale. the locals got a sense of what i was doing, and i started to see what my work was about and how it fit.

the listening booth and tours of the housing estate

thankfully the listening booth was the perfect device to bring all the works together on the one day.
i gave out CDs, maps to the estate and it was a great site from which to leave the tours.

the tours were great! a really nice mix of locals and arty-visitors and each person took something different away about the residency and the estate itself.

each group started with underground sound listening stations, to the sound wall, through one of the tower foyers and back to harmsworth park. i spoke a little about my experience on the estate, some about the work, about the significance of the places we passed (including the neighbourhood house and the DHS office0  the first group was overflowing, with quite a lot of the local peeps joining in (including a couple of kids) and we were treated to an outstanding tirade about public housing by a resident as we passed through the foyer of 229.

the second tour was slightly smaller, but later in the day. it was still a great little tour and some great questions asked about the nature of sound on the estate. I think most of the visitors really enjoyed all the works, and the chance to have them placed in context with a bit of a story and a chance to compare and contrast.

during the week afterwards, i was able to give people who couldn't make the main tours a consolation tour - with out the booth and vibe of the day, but still a glimpse into the sound works, the wall and a copy of the CD and maps.

i was so flattered at all the people who came and the great feedback i got about the works.

i also feel incredibly honoured that i was able to make the work that i did, and to be able to connect with such a wide variety of residents and locals to the collingwood housing estate.

mad props to 

the wurundjeri elders and their ancestors who allowed me to make work on the country and who were generous with their time and blessings

mark ryder, who was a total rock; 

to sue kent and john bainbridge who ended up totally backing me, even though i was an upstart early on; 

to kaukau who helped me and really befriended me

to my guest listeners: eddy carroll, jed from VACRO and travis marke with his year 8 music class

and to lucas, who helped me reason it out.

captcha

i just stumbled upon this video by australian artist gabrielle de vietri, whose chinese whispers work i loved at PICA screen space a while ago.

how beautiful is this story! it's like princess bride meets finnegans wake.


Captcha from Gabrielle de Vietri on Vimeo.

the sound wall (extended remix)

the sound wall on the yarra men's shed is the culmination of two and a half months of regular listening at the collingwood housing estate. it's a hand-written façade of every sound on the estate, covering the outer two walls of a weatherboard clad shed.

regular readers are probably aware of my ongoing listening practice - and may have popped over to the poorly-kept listening to the city blog to check out the listening i've been doing during the residency.

the locals and residents would see me pop up around the estate, standing for just 30 minutes at a time, usually with a camera in front of me, armed with headphones and a notebook. less ignored on the estate than i am in other areas of public space, i was often approached and asked what i was doing. if not in the moment, then afterwards. most residents were curious, assuming i was taking photos, singing, making a film clip or something creative. the most suspicious were always the powerful ones on the estate: the office of housing, security guards and heads of committees or organisations.

anyway, after the sound wall at electrofringe, i realised that it was a great idea for the project on the estate. there were a few false starts (namely some mis-communication between organisations resulting in the ordering of an embryonic wall to be removed).

anyway, the men's shed were delighted to be able to have the wall on their shed whilst they sorted out other creative opportunities. over a few weeks, i painted the corner walls of the shed black and the first text went up. it coincided withe the stages of organising the final event. 

in the 10 days prior to the listening booth, i spent evenings writing up the wall. the weather was particularly crappy at that stage, so mornings were usually raining, clearing to a fine-ish evening. as i perched on my ladder, or stood and write, it was a good opportunity to talk to residents about what i've been doing over the last two months.

the wonderful thing was that locals, who had observed slow changes to the shed, had no problem asking me what it was all about. i had amazing discussions with cute somalian men, old addicts and alcoholics from the block, an old greek woman who was in the group who sang exe geia kaimene kosme to me early on (and who practiced reading english on the wall). mark from the men's shed spruiked about it with every chance he got. 

everyone was stopping to read the words.

i still do like how i've managed to make a work that has different points of time and access. 

people can walk past it quickly and take in a few quick words as they're walking past.

they can glimpse it from across the street, or right up close.

they can stand and read it whilst they wait to score, or whilst their sister gets the kids out of the car.

i think it's just that bit too big/long to take in during one whole sitting, but someone could if they wanted to.

but that also means that there's enough of it to keep you coming back.

and although it's all about language, it's not the language of power. it's phenomenal. most of the phrases are one, two or three words long. they're not complex, but not simplistic either. and i don't think that it's patronising.

there are parts on the wall that people know are theirs - some names, some phrases they said directly to me when i was on the wall and i think that people like it because they know the sounds.

most assumed there'd be more swearing on there than there was. i only edited out instances where the word 'cunt' flew around, which wasn't actually that often. people also suggested there'd be the sound of gunshots on there. i could honestly say that i never heard gunshots in my time. perhaps i wasn't there late enough, or early enough. nonetheless, it felt right that i was able to remind people that the prevailing sounds of the estate were still birds, traffic and kids playing.

one of the local lads told me he was illiterate and got me to read some of the lists out. i didn't do it very poetically, but he got the drift. he told me he could read a few words and could get by so he had stopped trying to learn to read. he said he knew how to read the word birds, so i showed him were they were on the wall and he could read that. later that evening i busted him reading the wall from the beginning.

i got a lot of comments on my handwriting too. i didn't really expect that, but i guess when people couldn't immediately relate to what was written, they were attracted to how it looked. and the time it took. i didn't even think about doing it another way, and now - having had that feedback - i probably never will.

people called the work beautiful. that rocks my world. i know beauty is a pretty old-fashioned idea, but if i can bring a sense of beauty to a place that is known for its fear, cynicism and ugliness, that's pretty amazing isn't it?

overall, it was a simple work, but something that i'm proud of.

if you're in the hood, it's on perry street, collingwood near the corner of hoddle street and will be in its current form until at least february.

everybody's favourite song

when i first arrived on the estate as the artist-in-resident, i was trying to find other ways to observe sound on the estate (as well as the listening works). in the first week, i went into the neighbourhood house for a meeting - possibly a CHEAC meeting, and i observed deb, a resident, come in, make a beeline for the stereo, put a CD on, go directly to track 17 and listen intently. she didn't have her ears pressed to the speaker, but she was intensely focused on the song, as though she had dived out of the present moment and into whatever meaning that song held for her.

i wrote that down on the whiteboard in the studio, as well as the name of a CD i had found lying around, thinking that i was going to start collecting sounds in an ambient way. sounds that i 'happened upon'.

somewhere along the way i realised that others probably had similar experiences to particular songs - one's that they carried with them. and that was a particular phenomena of listening and sound in public housing. so i started asking people what their favourite song was, and writing it down.

ages ago, niko and i had talked about the device of The Playlist as a means of empowering people - an abstract form of choice that people could move around, customise and personalise. I didn't actually think i would end up making a playlist, but that's what happened.

unsurprisingly, it was a great device for talking to residents about music, listening, what i was doing and who they were. just personal enough to expose a little bit of ourselves, but not so much that i would be intruding or interfering in delicate dynamics or defense mechanisms.

as i wrote here, children and teenagers were the most in touch with their favourite songs. they knew, as though their lives depended on it. perhaps your favourite song is currency in the school yard - like if you like justin bieber, i'll talk to you, but if you like beyoncé, i'll only play with you once. i don't know - i just came up with that then.

A&R peeps for justin bieber, beyoncé, taio cruz, usher, eminem, LMFAO and gym class heroes will all be pleased to know that their biggest fans are 8 - 12 year olds in poor areas. i'm guessing that's exactly who they're pitched at (except beyonce - she rocks my socks too and jackie, 12 and i were friends for an afternoon because of it).

older residents were also quite in touch with their favourite song - like all the likes/dislikes over the years had decanted, leaving that one song that just stuck through. the beatles, simon and garfunkel, lynard skynard.

obviously there were a few "i dunno"s and a lot of "ooh, aah, ummm", but most people could think of something - at least a band or musician that they liked. the vietnamese on the block loved traditional asian melodies and soft, sweet sounds. and the aboriginal crew loved archie roach and bob marley. more than once i got 'took the children away' stuck in my head.

and above all else, people loved love songs.

day after day, i wrote up one song of the day on the blackboards,  i made sure that i chose a love song if i could.  love me do, i love you like a love song, everything i do, i do it for you, greatest love of all, when i fall in love, i want you back.

time and time again. simple and universal, clearly.


here's the final playlist, pretty much in chronological order. i made CDs and handed them out to peeps from the listening booth. i left some at the neighbourhood centre and i will be making a new batch of full sets in the next few weeks.

everything is alright - jesus christ superstar: deb

love is in the air - john paul young: anna

you are so beautiful to me - joe cocker: nga

red & black - les miserables: geraldine

little wings - jimi hendrix - gunther

money for nothing - dire straights

three little birds - bob marley: reg, reggae

gold dust woman - stevie nicks: lola

the power of love - huey lewis and the news: johnny

mua ru'ng: han

when i fall in love - nat king cole: mark

drive-by - the necks: tony

use me up - bill withers: jed

dj got us falling in love - usher: jake

not afraid - eminem: danny

party rock anthem - LMFAO: KK, ikro

freak the freak out - victoria justice: vanahn

set fire to the rain - adéle: maurice

ace hood - lifestyle

all i ever wanted - : sumeyra

i love you like a love song - selena gomez: hillary

venus - bananarama: val

luper - earl sweatshirt: brian

venus in furs - velvet underground: hugh

rain over me - pitbull: sondos

all day - cody simpson: hana

i wish you would - flamingoes: nick

whitney houston - greatest love of all: kaukau

itchycoo park - small faces: susanne

baby got back - sir mix-a-lot: cst pallisier

fight the power - public enemy: snr cst mclaughlin

catch a fire - mojo juju: nikita

memory lane - nas: james

flame trees - cold chisel: shane

took the children away - archie roach: james, tracey

take it easy - the eagles

stereo heart -  gym class heroes: vanahn

run to the hills - iron maiden: wally

fade to black - metallica: rob

under the bridge - RHCP: simon

the end - the doors: simon

sweet home alabama - lynard skynard: deb

superstition - stevie wonder: sue

sole survivor - rolling stones: sue

bad romance - lady gaga: de-anne

dynamite - taio cruz: shey

someone like you - adele: lillian

one time - justin bieber: jessica, natasha, isabella

never say never - justin bieber: vanja, natasha, jessica, izabella, elisha

pray - justin bieber: natasha

love on top: beyoncé - tia

ram jam - spiderbain: kerry

all the single ladies - beyoncé: jackie

california - tupac: DJ

love me too - the beatles: john

traditional greek songs: greek women's group

L-O-V-E - al green

feel so close - calvin harris: emma NYCH

i needed you - chris brown

sounds of silence - simon and garfunkel: peter

everything i do (i do it for you) - bryan adams: tammy

white lotus - poy

i want you back - jackson 5: lauren

khe sanh - sharon boyd

love story - taylor swift: jessica

beat it - michael jackson - taylor b

let me know if you'd like a copy.

the sound wall

last weekend was the culminating event for the residency i've been doing at the collingwood housing estate. i have much to write about - a lot to reflect on and update, but have been quite busy showing people around and attending to other paperwork i neglected in the lead-up.

but i just wanted to post this pic of the sound wall. i think it's my favourite image of all the projects so far.

from two months of daily listening projects, the sound wall is an artifact to all the sounds on the estate.
it has had the most amazing responses from locals and visitors alike.
i have specific stories to tell about people's reactions to it, and more to explain but for now here's just a little pic.