At the beginning of winter I was riding my bike to uni, through the diamond-tipped grasslands and silvery snowgums, in the early morning before the temperature crept above zero. And I loved it, truly. But then I succumbed to a succession of colds and coursework, and went into hibernation. I emerged only for meetings and seminars (except for the occasional ukulele jam, but that is another story). That, my friends, is not a life.
In the middle of winter I was given a reprieve, and travelled to Sydney to warm up, present a paper at the Arts Association of Australia and New Zealand, and take the family to the Sydney Biennale.
E inside Philip Beesley's amazing kinetic light installation, Sibyl (2012)
The paper I presented at the AAANZ conference addressed the In Memory of a Name project that Nee (born as) emerged from and Nee itself. I posted the paper here, papers and publications, and if you're up for a read I promise it is not too long, nor excessively academic. The rest of the conference was stimulating and otherwise, as these things tend to be, but overall well worth the trip. I really do prefer to listen to artists talk abou thteir own work than art historians talk about other people's work, but it does seem possible to reach a middle ground. In my session I was really impressed by my fellow presenters; Rigel Sorzano discussed the other 'c' word, Craft, Edward Hanling addressing the gap (or otherwise) between NZ feminist art and minimalist abstract painting, and Martin Patrick investigating past and present performance art practice. They infused their subject matter with such humour and passion that I felt totally immersed and inspires, and although we were placed in an 'open session' we all agreed that there were persistent resonances between our papers. Rigel in particular broke down open the 'craft' paradigm in ways that I found delightful and thought-provoking.
And the Biennale? Well, I am not one of the many who deride a spectacle in art, and I have to say it was the spectacular which most impressed. The Inkwili, Nicholas Hlobo's giant sea monster on Cockatoo Island, and his beautiful watercolour and stitching pieces in the MCA were a definite highlight for me. To tell you more I will have to find my notebook, which seems not to be to hand, or spend hours looking up names on the inter-meh-webs....
The sun is back, the days are warmer and we haven't had the heater for at least three days of the past week in this house. So, after an encouraging meeting with my PhD supervisors, I am preparing for more sessions of Nee (born as) and an on-line rejuvenation. I'll be getting in touch with as many past participant as I can and asking them to contribute to the bog. Also on my to-do list is preparing a new body of work for an exhibition at 4a Contemporary Asian Arts Space. This was supposed to be next month, but it has been postponed and this has prompted a re-think for my work. More on that later, perhaps.
I notice too, that I have neglected to write about the slow-burning but amazing experience of the residency I undertook at Casula Powerhouse in February this year. There I spent a week in the main foyer space inviting people to come and stitch with me; mostly with very few takers, but when they came they came with amazing stories. I promise to return to this!
For a few weeks in winter and this fortnight again, I have had the great privilege of taking a course in ethnographic film-making with esteemed and talented film-maker Gary Kildea. It's been a really steep learning curve for me, and it remains to see how much sticks, but I feel much more confident about taking a video camera with me into my field research in Indonesia next year. Perhaps sometime soon I will post a (very) short film here to test my skills.
This post is beginning to look like a diary entry, and yet I'm sure I came here with specific intentions. Ah well, something is better than nothing, (sometimes). I notice that today just turned into tomorrow; the school run is looming, so its time to sign off in favour of sleep. Standby for more activity, as I try to return to the land of the lively.
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