Lecture Notes:
Reading about life after Art College:
- Graduated from Reading (Fine Art)
- Video Piece, people walking along herringbone patterned wood flooring.
- Narrates personal story in third person.
- Begins to deconstruct flooring, 'once one leaves the rest will follow.'
- Begins to build structure from the removed structures, creates imagery of a developing city. Film ends with the destruction of this city of blocks.
Becoming Other (acting) - Visiting Cambridge as Bailey Savage.
- Extreme acting/ performance art
- Fully embodies and becomes the character at the time.
- Visited the area for a week and began to become know and recognised as this character (Bailey Savage) by the local public. Testament to his skills, begins to get a real life reaction to his work and the characters he embodies.
Max Hombre - Colchester
Tania Koswycz - Imaginary conceptual artist.
Exhibition about art does to people. Developed four imaginary artists to take part in an exhibition. Was originally going to use real artists work but had issues with ownership of the work. Then had to develop and create the artwork for each artist himself. Found this easier then developing the characters. Found he had more of a connection with Tania more then any of the other artists and work he developed, Tania's work was particularly easy for him to generate and make.
Felt so strongly connected to this character that he began to develop work off of the original show. Found himself having regular dialogues with Tania and used to write to her. Produced a large show in London based on his communication with Tania, posted his conversations with Tania in a script format online.
"RL Maybe I should open an e-mail account just for conversations with you, Tania?
TK All I’m interested in is what this project is about. For you to dedicate time. No half-measures with this. It’s becoming so complex that there’s no escape. It’s all piled on, piled in.
RL How do you mean?
TK Like your dream about a woman with a name like mine, Vesna Falkirk. Do we run along with this person as well? Are we talking to her too?
Like your speculating with me about what you should or shouldn’t do, how you should act.
Whether you should talk to me via e-mail or text. Whether this dialogue is more dynamic when it ‘goes live’ by e-mail to Andrew, then to web. If so, how to set it up, and when to start.
What these dialogues are about. Are they about you and me? Or are they about you telling me what’s going on artistically? Your musing about whether to ‘act’ [make actions] here, or not.
And who’s listening in? Is it Caroline or Chris? [did you just zone out?] Is it Rosie? Is it Lois? Or Kate? Or Andrew?
And when to work? You had two days off, now you’re back into it. You could take the sunrise shift at 06.15 for the early swim, then work till 13.30, siesta and take it from there. You could do this for 5 days. You could try all sorts of stuff. Treat it like a laboratory, including repeat performances of Catching the Breeze and International Cleaning. And those 5 days could be Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sun.
What do you think? And what’s been happening since our e-mail chat this morning, like animal conversations?
RL Sounds good. And like the Australian Log [2003] it’s ok if some days are quieter than others. But does it become Proustian musings about doing or not doing, acting or not acting, performing or not performing, and tracing the process in all of this?
TK Remember Caroline’s view of the self-conscious reference to process?
RL So you think leave this out, or see what happens when it’s pure dialogue?
TK You said it.
RL You think it might reveal more?
TK I think it would make better reading. I mean, let’s face it, we’ve started now, so let it roll on. Global dialogues. Number one, Skyros, Greece. I mean, the context is so meaty, so fleshy: you’ve been facilitating your workshops on the senses, the place is thick with resonance and memories. Even this taverna you’re in now, where you sat silently with eight people three weeks ago. And there was enough going on at Time Place Space to justify a web journal.
RL I’d like to bring the video camera into it, for images, and more technology.
TK The animal conversations?
RL Was looking at the tethered donkey, then the mule, then the horse, on the way down here, with Ari. He wanted to start some kind of friendship with the donkey. Then I thought how Tai Chi and Walking in Circles has related to animals. How they accept it and move with it. And I wondered if this could become one of my actions?
TK What?
RL Standing still with them or moving very slowly with them.
TK Why?
RL Haven’t thought it through enough.
TK Are you gonna wear grey and grey?
RL Think so. It’s the only semblance of a considered outfit I have here.
TK Clothes didn’t matter when you cleaned the Rupert Brooke statue [International Cleaning 2002].
RL True. Anyway, what do you think?
TK You need to work on it, but why not try it alongside everything else. It’s a lab situation. Kind of sad that I want to snigger when you talk about ‘working with animals’. Innocence as a currency. So would this be aimed at video documentation?
RL I guess so. But more of a creative conversation to see what happens. Like swimming with the ducks in the sea this morning. Like thinking of animals as potential audience and collaborators.
TK It’s happening. Call Andrew about setting up the daily web journal.
RL Ok. But hang on. Last time I had the 4 categories: Practicals/Methods, Intuitions/Insights, Freeflow and Your View. So this time it’s just dialogue with you, right?
TK I hadn’t forgotten the structure of the Australian Log. How could I? Let’s see how it goes.
Inhabited his characters, particularly Bailey Savage - Satirical take on right wing politics.
