PILOT REGIONAL YOUTH ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM

Kaldor Public Art Projects, Project 30 - Marina Abramović: In Residence, Dubbo & Sydney, NSW

2015

Project participants in conversation with artist Marina Abramović during a masterclass workshop on performance art at Pier 2/3 in Sydney, July 2015.

In 2014 I was approached to help Kaldor Public Art Projects devise, fundraise for and deliver a pilot regional engagement education project in concert with their 30th Project with internationally acclaimed performance artist Marina Abramović.

Having successfully attracted $25,000 of federal arts funding, the pilot project was rolled out between February and July 2015. Working in partnership with Dubbo Regional Gallery, I developed a program of informal learning for nine local young people with theatre director Imara Savage and artist Lottie Consalvo, that explored performance and public art.

The program included workshops, discussions, professional development opportunities and a public program offer in Sydney and Dubbo. It culminated with a one-day exhibition of performance works at the Western Plains Cultural Centre on 26 July 2015 that were developed over the course of the 10 weeks.

A full summary of the Project can be read on the Kaldor Public Art Project blog here and the images and information from the workshop weekends can be found on the Project’s Tumblr site:

http://kaldorpublicartprojects.tumblr.com/  

On-site workshops at Western Plains Cultural Centre, May - June 2015.

Photos: Paige Williams, Orana Arts.

Site visit to Project 30: Marina Abramović: In Residence

Pier 2/3 Sydney, 2-3 July, 2015

The two-day visit to Sydney included an informal masterclass with Marina Abramović on-site at Pier 2/3 where participants shared their in-development own works of performance art. The group also presented a public program performance to accompany a talk from Western Plains Cultural Centre Curator Kent Buchanan on the increasing role of performance art within art programs and institutions across Australia, with particular reference to the regional context.

Participants also visited other museums and galleries in Sydney including the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

EXHIBITION ‘WHAT IT MEANS TO BE ME’

Dubbo Regional Gallery, 26 July 2015

There’s an immediacy and honesty to performance art that lends itself, perhaps more than any other art form, to an exploration of what it means to exist in any one particular moment in time.

Over the last 10 weeks, seven rather extraordinary local young teenagers have pioneered their own understanding of performance art as part of Kaldor Public Art Projects’ Pilot Regional Youth Engagement Program. This pilot, which has played a special role in the wider education and public program for the recent Project 30: Marina Abramović: In Residence at Sydney’s Pier 2/3, culminates today in this very special one-day exhibition, What It Means To Be Me.

Throughout the Program, the participants have explored and tested ideas of presence, movement, the role of the body in art and how we interrogate and construct ideas about ourselves and about the world around us.

The seven works presented here express their very personal experiences and enquiries about love, perception, understanding, imagination, disconnection, social expectation, empathy and something of the magic of Marina Abramović.

In presenting these thoughtful, heartfelt explorations of what it means to be them at this moment in time, they hope to also ask, what does it mean to be you?

- Jo Higgins, Regional Youth Engagement Manager, Kaldor Public Art Projects

  • What does it mean to show grace? It means to have goodwill.

    Grace is a way to challenge what you think you know about mental illness and teenagers. It is not about pity. It is an invitation to try and understand.

    As a young person I have a lot of interests - philosophy, feminism, politics, love, culture, nature, beliefs, why and how humans live, the mysteries of the human brain, the stigma of mental illness and continuously questioning how my mind differs from a “normal” human mind.

    Don’t tell me to “get over” my depression. Get over your own misunderstandings.

  • Rarely do we take the time to pause and reflect on things occurring in our lives. Despite living in a society where we are almost too connected, as a young person I often feel very isolated. 

    My work reflects on what it means to me to take time to re-connect with myself in a world that feels increasingly disconnected.

    In my photographic self-portraits I place myself into surreal worlds that I create, in which I feel connected. Using performance to explore these ideas invites the viewer to come on this journey and experience it with me. 

  • I have taken a journey with several other students from schools in Dubbo. On this journey we have learnt about performance art and what it is to be a performance artist.

    On this journey we also made our way to Sydney where we met the world’s greatest performance artist, Marina Abramović. This was an extremely moving experience and Marina, Saturday 4 July 2015 is the jumper I wore when Marina taught me how to hug. It is now more than just a jumper.

    It is the symbol of Marina still watching over me while I use her Abramović Method to not only be more like her but to be able to meditate and learn who I am myself.

  • As humans we ritualise a lot of futile tasks – from mowing lawns to shaving our bodies. We align societal expectations with irrational and unnecessary attempts to control our bodies, lives and nature.

    Pruning Time – a collection of public and private rituals explores the pointless pain, discomfort and expense we subject ourselves to in order to conform to these absurd expectations that society places on us and that we place upon ourselves.

    We waste so much time doing things that are irrelevant and ultimately pointless. Like plucking fine, fair and barely perceptible body hair that will only grow back. Why?

  • I am a complete and hopeless romantic. Some people say I am in love with love.

    In I loved love for as long as I could I am demonstrating my total belief in the fantasy version of love that people tell me doesn’t exist in reality. It’s the kind of love that I believe in and I’m going to prove it to you through my dedication.

    I will love love for as long as I can. 

  • Our imagination is an under-utilised tool that when developed, can help us escape the stress and monotony of daily life.

    I have imagined five performances to encourage members of the audience to move into a different headspace where they can explore bizarre worlds of their own making.

    Each experience will be unique to the participant and will hopefully give them a fresh perspective on their realities.

    To begin your performance, step into one of the five squares, and simply follow the instructions. This act of moving into the square will physically and mentally separate you from your immediate surroundings, empowering you to ignite your imagination without restraint.

  • Worrying is something we do everyday, whether it’s about something massive or something so small that it’s actually pointless.

    How we worry about other people, and how we show our care for them, is something that interests me a lot. Especially because I am the sort of person who worries more about other people than I do about myself - and people find this strange.

    Public Empathy is my offer to care for your worries.

    Take a bead, share your fear and give it to me. I promise to look after it.

I acknowledge the Gadigal and Bidjigal peoples of the Eora nation, the traditional owners of the unceded land on which I live and work and I pay my respects to their Elders, past and present.