Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
Southampton Solent University
Making up - tearing down:
Two interactive and sculptural performances utilizing ephemeral materials which left virtually no residue which introduced a sustainable strategy of “treading lightly on the earth” as a visual artist.
“Eco-intelligence in contemporary Performance art”, was the main focus of the 2011 Prague Contemporary Art Festival, for which I created two interactive and sculptural performances utilizing ephemeral materials that left virtually no residue. In this way, I introduced a sustainable strategy of “treading lightly on the earth” as a visual artist.
Salt was poured onto the top surface of a solid block of ice, creating a small white mound. Leaving the salt to slowly dissolve the ice, I moved through the crowd holding up a written instruction for each person to see. ’Think of a moment when the ground vanished from beneath your feet.’ When everyone has read the text, I folded the instruction sheet into an origami boat. I set the boat upon the sinking white island, and let the salt do its work.
Doug Hall (2004) described the process of poignant joining of mundane things (or materials) in a “poetics of images” in his essay “Speaking the Thing Itself”: “Everyday elements are set up to rub against each other with just enough friction to produce new and unsuspected consonances”. (p. 2). In this way, salt and ice rub against each other to produce a visual poem.
This festival brought together one hundred international artists and drew thousands of Czech and foreign visitors. Co-exhibitors included Marina Abramovic, Thomas Hirshhorn, and Yuan Gong. A catalogue was produced and the event extensively covered by the local and regional media. TINA B.’s funders included the Czech Ministry of Culture and the Baltic Sea Cultural Centre. An exhibition catalogue was produced.
Earlier versions of this work were performed at Giswil International Performance Art Festival in Switzerland (2008), and The Air Conditioned Recession exhibition at Valentine Willie Fine Art in Singapore (2009).
