I participated again in the annual Platform ensemble event at Articulate project space with two works – attention action 01, and, a spatial pleximetry (performed).
For attention action 01 – yalgan / Anthochaera phrygia, I commissioned artist Nina Radonja to create a photorealistic drawing of a pair of regent honeyeaters, a critically endangered Australian endemic bird species. At the beginning of the event, this drawing hung in the main gallery space. Later, unseen by the audience, I relocated the drawing to a dark basement garage space where the audience eventually arrived after seeing a series of other performances.
With the audience assembled, the lights were cut and in the stygian darkness, a dual speaker soundtrack commenced playing a pre-mixed pair of atmospheric tracks. I switched on a small spotlight to illuminate the drawing and proceeded to forcefully erase it – all except the eyes of the birds. The damaged/altered drawing was then returned to the upstairs gallery space.
a spatial pleximetry (performed) involved some of the afternoon’s performers striking discarded tins, boxes and containers with drumsticks I’d made from fallen branches of bush trees and cotton. The perambulatory composition drew the audience through the long gallery space and culminated in the performers clustering into a tight circular group to strike their objects one after another building an anxious rhythmic cascade of unusual sounds.
