Andrew Gannon: March 2011

Tuesday 15 March 2011

I am certain that what follows happened at the same time, over small tracts of time, almost simultaneously. The work is top heavy. A head and torso self contained and constrained. His breath shortened with a sigh just before, or after, some madness afflicted him.

Who can laugh? Eyes, throat, mouth - we are all caught off balance. Caught between an awkward moment and your soft flesh pressed in tin, no lid, all rim, people stand watching, faith brimming over in our mutual dark.

This man at this time is stuck fast, a silently remote corridor stooge. All the things at our disposal get slowly inverted until you and I can begin to dispose of faces and bodies and voices. Reluctantly but finally, control is trounced. He becomes an idiom in space.

A text note

This documentation should take about same length of time to read as I estimate I might expend questioning my authority to write about a performance that I did not experience. My lack of presence becomes your presence.

I could spend just as much time writing the words as I imagine the artist spent thinking of how and why he might make the work.

The artist will consider whether to use this documentation for almost as long as you can stand watching the performance.

If we add all of this time together we will understand the sum total and labour of the art work and we will achieve balance.

Friday 11 March 2011

Recent works have included...

Standing on a dustbin.
Standing with a dustbin wedged over my head and upper body.
Walking around with a dustbin wedged over my head and upper body.
Balancing on a stack of paint cans
Balancing on a stack of paint cans with a dustbin wedged over my head and upper body.
An unrehearsed rope escape.
Balancing on small stilt-like wooden blocks.
Groups of participants balancing on small stilt-like wooden blocks.