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Wellington NZ
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| David Cross: Hold
16 - 20 May 2007
Would you trust a total stranger? Would you help a stranger in return?
Oscillating between performance, sculpture, spectacle and ordeal, Hold was a major performance/installation event by Wellington-based artist and Massey Associate Professor, David Cross. Occupying the Great Hall of the Old Museum Building, Hold examined the fluid divide between experiences of pleasure and fear by juxtaposing the visual and sensory languages of minimalism, pop and the body with that of children's recreational structures. Consisting of a 25 metre by 8 metre purpose built structure, the work demanded of its audience unusual levels of physical and psychological interaction.
Inviting participants to consider the nature of trust in the context of current participatory art forms, the work limited their knowledge of the 'performer' to the act of touching or 'holding'. In this way, the work questions whether trust can be established without a clear understanding of identity and seeks to explore the relationship between current participatory art practice - with its focus on exchange and the individual agency of the audience member - and the more assertive and often agitational methods of performance art.
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| Gwyn Porter: Overcoming Loathing
September - October 2007
'Walk a mile in my slippers: soap opera's appreciation for the unenthused' is one of the many titles suggested in the context of Overcoming Loathing, an ancillary pamphlet project attached to the sixth issue of Natural Selection and presented in conjunction with Gwyn Porter's stay in Wellington as the Massey University School of Fine Arts/Rita Angus inaugural Writer-in-Residence. Dedicated to 'problems' (yours, dear reader, the ones you perpetually stare down, surmount, or otherwise negotiate) these expedient publications offer solutions to a multitude of contemporary issues. Overcoming Loathing offers pamphlets of unsolicited advice ranging from personal health care to tips on surviving in the workplace to folklore guides to drug taking in New Zealand.
Originally conceived of for the Living Newspaper event as part of Natural Selection's participation in the documenta 12 Magazines Project, Overcoming Loathing might be seen as a contemporary interpretation of Lenin's 'collective organiser', offering forth a generative series of writings for distribution and addition. In true cooperative spirit, some titles in the Overcoming Loathing series have been collectively authored and will continue to grow in an evolving cycle of production. Pamphlets available for download at www.naturalselection.org.nz
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