some images from our time together in the gallery, way back when

I am reflecting on when we met for that 12 hour stint where we played in the studio and then in the gallery and finally at the Stanford HOtel.  This was before Julia Gillard was elected prime minister. we saw her in the bar and left her along.

This was the image that Brian loved, at Bondi Beach, and the artist removed the swimmers so you could only witness the water currents moving.  then Nikki took an image of the real bondi beach and sent it to us.  Nicki also wrote this:

ps... whilst i have your attention
i keep thinking about that video image you led us to at GOMA Brian
the invisible bodies moving through water.  and then i read this:
 in an introduction to George Bataille's   Cradle of Humanity - Prehistoric Art and Culture :

'Bataille's ruminations on the passage from animal to man proceed by denials and negations, rejections in turn of animal, self, and world, only to return him to his point of departure,
his brute, contingent, material animality. an experience of existence as oblivion, of life lived like water in water. This new world of animality is animate, sacred, a world of holy things.'
(Stuart Kendall)

i loved finding that - life lived like water in water ....

and then Dan wrote this:


Hi Everyone!

Apologies for the delayed silence. I had this email sent to you last week but it was screened for profanity. Yikes! I am being censored! So after nearly a month-and-a-bit after our meeting in June, I thought I’d distill what I heard/ observed into a bit of a plan with some clear actions for you to respond to me with. After speaking with Liz, I am taking on the role of Project Coordinator. So I’ll be your go-to person on all things Afternoon.

Proviso
So just to revisit what we’re actually doing. We’re looking at an:
* Exploration of hybrid performance …
* with Windows into the process along the way
* And an involvement beyond the 3 of you (cue young practitioners – not necessarily artistic)

Why you were chosen?
* Because you are career-long independents!
* Because you champion partnerships and collaborations with people younger than yourselves!
* Because you have remained contemporary!

Outlay of Project (based on your meeting):
* 3 more face-to-face meetings comprised of all of you where you will each “experience” another skill or form that is not widely considered “artistic”.

Like Nikki’s archaeology/ archival story – if you remember that. And you will all have this experience TOGETHER (as requested). So as opposed to partnering with  a young person, you’ll all encounter a younger person working in a field that is not your own for a day of creative and artistic stimulation! Perhaps drawing links between their process and yours or something about their practice and yours. It may horseriding. It may be diving. It may be engineering. It may be stamp collecting. You guys get to choose!

* 1 final intensive weekend
Similar to the first, we’ll have a final show and tell of what you’ve learnt about yourself, your process and each other at the end of the journey. It doesn’t need to be performative (but it certainly can be) but something quite informal and lovely. The exact shape of this will become known – I am confident!

* Windows
The windows then can be a Tumblr or a Blog that we set up for you. The only obligation you have to this electronic space is to post something every month – of course, you can certainly exceed this! This online portal will then be taken “public” half way through the project so people can see what you’ve been up to!

If we’re all in agreeance about the above, I can provide the next step which will be about choosing fields and locking down dates!

What do we think?

And so we journey, all of us totally involved in our own research and performance, yet at the same time still in some weird and wondrous way connected...or is that just me?

some more images from the library that may remind us of what we loved:

here is Brian and Nikki having a look at some of the very strong images at GOMA. June, 2010.
So we will get together again soon, and meanwhile will continue to record the unfolding.