some feedback I received about the work at performance space was that, rather than being separated from the audience by playing a character, i was inaccessible by “being elsewhere”.
even though i was very much present in the space, the act of being blindfolded and with headphones on not only isolated me – pushing me into my own world of intense audio overload and survival, but also isolated me to visitors and the audience. my presence was called into question.
this presence/liveness is a topic of interest for the artist laura hindmarsh and she has been focusing her mentorship with lucas ihlein on it – what is the role of presence in performance and/or live art? how does site connect with it? how can process be performed and exhibited? what is documentation? what is ‘live’? etc, etc.*
she has included me in an exhibition about presence, absence, performance and process that will be opening this week at sawtooth gallery in launceston: appearing-as process
if you’re in the ‘hood, do go. i’ve sent through an instructional piece and i’d love to hear about people’s experience of it.
*laura, boni cairncross and i also have an ongoing collaborative research lab about it, that is currently split across a stack of media, but will be collated and presented at some point.