TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

Thursday, April 6, 2006

7:39 PM
Posted by jodi rose

audience before composer workshop at wellington school of music

*acknowledgement to justin clemens for original typography and concept
see ten thousand fcuking monkeys brilliant post-everything dystopian sonnets

wrestling with mixed emotions about my descent into the seedy compromised world of commerce. ah it was so much easier when my soul was pure and my bank account empty... although, come to think of it, somehow down to the last $3.72 yet again - but it's only temporary this time. it's a strange thing, this doing art for money business, (coming soon, in the very near future to a bridge near you) not entirely sure how I can reconcile it with the intention and philosophy of my practice, but guess that's what keeps me in practice these days ;) and it's likely to continue. assessing the offers I receive now in light of new professional status and accompanying daily rate.
if you want to play/hire/propose, talk to my agent....

reading about the marina ambromovic's performance art series for performa 05, in the guggenheim new york. she recreated some of the 'greatest hits' of performance art, but asked permission, paid a fee and credited the original performance artist. apparently tired of having her work ripped off, and seeing other ideas re-performed by a new generation who think they're original. according to Art in America Feb 2006, 'if the original artists were credited and paid, the whole messy medium could be brought into the world of copyright and distribution and licensing fees - in a word, into the marketplace'. yikes, thinks me, that's exactly what I've been kicking and screaming about this week.
It's a hard call, to sustain life operating only a poetic and philosophical or aesthetic realm - at some point you have to do tax, write budgets, make quotes and administrate your creative life as a small business.

'by treating the irremedialy category resistant performance form as if it were, say, popular music, and translating 'instructions' as 'score', a performance could be re-presented by anyone with the necessary stamina and determination (no small qualifications).
yes indeed. I am reminded of my introduction to ambromovic's work at a performance piece which took place in the old melbourne gaol on russell st, circa 1989 or 90. After wandering through installations in various cells (rea had photographs in one, a short film was running in the old courtroom) you were confronted by very stern, tall young women in jumpsuits, who had received special training in security and crowd management in order to perform the artwork. They strapped you down to a slanted wall in the old women's excercise yard - a small enclosed concrete space with greenish skylights - securing ankles, wrists and torso with thick leather straps, and then left you there for half an hour. It had quite an impact, although I may have got the time or other details slightly wrong, that all becomes part of the work. The memory of it, the documentation - which may not be exactly as it was.

Speaking of constraints, I was interested to read two paragraphs in completely different contexts which have sparked a flash of lucidity.

The first was in the same issue of art in america, at kate c's house last night, where I stayed after the highly successful and well-attended composers workshop at wellington university school of music, adam concert hall. Who is adam? he also has an art gallery there! Smart, engaged questions from the audience, and I managed to give a chronological overview of my work from the past 12 years using a ridiculous array of technology, from dvd to cd to minidisk to itunes to live to photoeditor to quicktime video. very smoothly too, it was noted.

Anyway, Michael Duncan writes, in an article about the newly hyped 'self-taught outsider artist' that 'despite its cachet in the heady days of internet access, the notion of globalism seems to have lost its lustre. Now that the world has supposedly shrunk, what seems increasingly interesting are the regional distinctions.' Indeed, and almost everyone, everywhere seems to be getting more fixed and parochial in some ways, unwilling to engage with the scary world 'out there'. Then in the newspaper this morning, an article about the US Government trying to pass laws criminalising illegal immigrants and anyone who assists or employs them (who would do all the work then? asks one) talked about the tightening of border controls all over the world. Such a strange juxtaposition, on one hand the world is expanding, multinational claims that globalisation is the WAY, (and it certainly benefits the multinationals) and on the other, retreating back into our corners, closing the borders to anyone 'undesirable', and becoming more fearful and intolerant of outsiders and anyone unknown.
At least they keep building bridges.

One of the questions asked yesterday was about collecting all the various materials I displayed into one format and publishing it, which I am trying to do from a narrative perspective as memoir/novel. Later, at dinner Kate expanded on her concerns for the archiving of digital material, talking about how her catalogues from 25 years ago are no longer readable, as the software programs don't exist anymore, and hardware long since superseded. It's one of the problems in the digital age that I've seen mentioned only once, but digital data actually doesn't last forever - it's so easily obsolete. Even colour photographs, she said, fade after 2 years and cease to exist in 14. Having been in a thinktank about the future, she had wrestled with these problems many years ago, also the idea that if society does break down completely - through apocalypse, nuclear or environmental - how can you ensure knowledge survives that will enable the next people to rebuild agriculture, housing - all the things you need to maintain life. After that we digressed into fabulously scurrilous art scene gossip, which sadly I can't repeat except to say a million dollar book of helmut newton nudes was involved.