Gestalt, ‘…. how is it towards the East?’ Calvert 22

Gestalt

‘… How Is It Towards The East?’

Calvert 22, London

1st May-2nd June 2013

Opens 1st May, 6-8:30pm

‘Gestalt’, video performance was commissioned by Calvert 22 as part of ‘Subversion to Red’ in the group exhibition ‘… How Is It Towards The East?’

It responds to an invitation to consider the ideology of Marxist Socialism and involved four volunteers that entered the live performance, taking place at the gallery in a closed environment. The performance is a durational piece that unravels my struggles with set presets and proposals by an artist to paint gallery walls red, to paint participants red- and my own personal history related to such political ideas and its relevance today and consideration of the unravelling confines of the making framework. For me it was critical to reach beyond the expected act of painting red, into the sensibilities and responsibilities both in the framework and the approach and with those whom I would be spending time inside the performative space.

My subsequent actions and interactions with participants manifest struggle in my attempt to transgress blockage through manipulating our language system – to thwart and reconvene a possible alternative both in terms of wider applicable ideology – a grafting towards a resolution, but also a desire to urge the shift the prescribed expectations towards the more potent unknown space of live performance. Issues of power and justice become central to my gestures and engagements and the three part movements of this work. Reconsidering uniformity in behaviour and personal freedom play out in my use of materials and technique of exchanges with participants. Opening and confronting notions of freedom, control and hypocrisy thus became central to my actions – that considered not only the notion across individual identity and wider nation states but also in consideration of the making process itself and my own position within the work and intimate interactions with the individuals in the space.

A large part of the performance revolves around both the conceptual and physical interplay with the words and text from Milena Dravic’s speech in Dusan Makavejev’s film ‘Mysteries of the Organism’.

The performance totalled almost five hours and has been edited into an 18 minute piece and will be also be edited into an alternative version.

‘Subversion to Red’ was also accompanied by a roundtable event with speakers including: Dave Beech, Hannah Black, Gail Day, Mark Fisher and Nina Power, chaired by Vlad Morariu.