Q1. I was interested in the connection of your previous show at Techno Park and this show at No no gallery. The cellophane from the ceilings and cables where also at Techno Park, are you continuing a theme?
This year I have been looking at the party, or the event as an aesthetic space. Thinking of the dancing, the music and all that preparations that take place before the party.
Having been involved in organising music events and many a party in some ways I am indirectly drawing a parallel to the setting up of an art show.
Q2. Tell me about the video work showing the people dancing. It looked to me to be a recording from the 1980's showing the spontaneity of street dancing in a disco environment.
That video is from the 90's actually. Its been filmed using 80's equipment which gives it that look. Oh and the hair do's are very 80's.
The video is of a party in Jocoro El Salvador which is a small town in El Salvador. One thing about the video is that the dancing is first class, cumbia meets break dancing.
I spent a great part of my childhood in Jocoro with my grandmother. I have a pretty strong connection to Latin American music and now and then I find myself searching for it on youtube which is how I found this video. I automatically recognised the whole aesthetic of the place the decoration and even the colour of the walls the whole thing was familiar to me.
Q3. The music that was playing sounded like it was being heard outside a venue and the bass thumped through ,was this reflecting the past present of a discoteca?
It is somehow comforting to me to hear runaway bass coming out of a distant party. There are a lot of theories about the appeal of the bass frequency for example that it echoes the Big Bang that created our planet. That it reflects of our own heartbeat. I love to dance to bass heavy music and when I DJ it is the music that get the dance floor going. So perhaps in some ways to me adding it to the installation as a sound element makes complete sense somehow. I think that my personal identification with it comes from trying to get to sleep during family gatherings when after a few warm up drinks somebody would turn on the music in the lounge room to get the party started!
Q4. Your green foam that you added to the existing brickwork between the two spaces, was this to connect the two..Were the gouache and collage on paper peices remanents of the event or are they conceptual dance moves on paper ?
I am glad you read the collages that way because I was trying to make the process of constructing them as improvisational as possible. Which is how one dances really. I wanted to give them the least thought in terms of composition as possible.
As for the brick foam, yes I was thinking of how to bring that crumbling brick wall into participation so I decided to fill some of the gaps with the florist foam bricks which are a perfect brick size. They are green which aesthetically fitted the collages and the installation work. It was great how people felt compelled to poke their fingers into the squishy foam. And it was not just children who could not help themselves, there were plenty of adult sized finger marks in there as well!
Q5. Will your next exhibition be site specific and continue with this theme?
I am trying to work away from the static party...But I think that responding to the space in which I work is always going to be important to me.
http://nonogallery.org/
http://nonogallery.org/
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