This ain't no disco
#1 in the unprotected series
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ST Paul St Gallery iteration of the performance. Photography by Alex Schipper
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Part of the group exhibition 'Still Like Air I'll Rise' including : Hannah Bronte, Salote Tawale, Lisa Reihana, Esther Ige and Skawennati curated by Charlotte Huddleston and Abby Cunnane
at ST Paul St Gallery, AUT, Auckland February - March 2017. and at The Physics Room, Otautahi Christchurch, July - August 2017 Articles: The Pantograph Punch: Waking Giants: The Politics of Existing by Lana Lopesi |
This Ain't No Disco - The Physics Room iteration of the performance. Photography courtesy of Charlie Rose and The Physics Room
The Inaugural
Morni Hills Performance Art Biennale
Village Ladog, Badisher, Haryana India 3 - 20 February, 2016
Graphic design by Gulzar Singh, Chandigarh, India. Feature image: Red Bind (Gilivanka Kedzior+Barbara LeBéguec-Friedman
Director Founder of Healing Hill Art Collective and Morni Hills Performance Art Biennale: Harpreet Singh, Curator, Performance Artist (Chandigarh, India / Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand)
Curatorial Assistance by Adriana Disman, International Performance Artist (Canada)
Curatorial Assistance by Adriana Disman, International Performance Artist (Canada)
THANK YOU MOTHER INDIA [for healing me]
a performance work by Olga Krause at Morni Hills, Healing Hill Artist Residency on 4 February 2016
Fa'afetai tele lava to Harry Harpreet Singh and all of the staff and villagers in Badisher who made me feel at home.
a performance work by Olga Krause at Morni Hills, Healing Hill Artist Residency on 4 February 2016
Fa'afetai tele lava to Harry Harpreet Singh and all of the staff and villagers in Badisher who made me feel at home.
Song to the Hills
an impromptu performance art piece by Helena Goldwater and Olga Krause and Leafa Wilson
4 February 2016
photo credits: Amandeep Singh Kalra, at Healing Hill Artists' Residency, Morni Hills, Badisher, India Feb 2016
It was an honour to do a short work with Helena Goldwater, a performance artist and human I have immense respect for.
Koso le Kaliga (Toso le Taliga)
an interactive performance work at Kurukshretra University, Kurukshretra, Haryana, India.
5 February 2016
An ancient Samoan game that children played, and that I played when I was a kid with my brothers and sisters and cousins, was mumu falo, an odd mixture of of pain but mostly pleasure and made even more fun with the element of endurance.
I have used this game as a precursor to other works (collaboration with Faith Wilson) as a kind of preparatory work for the main part which often solemn or involving some form of aggression upon objects and, like the game, simultaneous causing pain for us as the performance artists.
It's performative aspect is the repetitive nature of the actions. Actions that slowly, but rhythmically include others in the pain. The pain comes in the form of taking hold of each others ears and holding on whilst rocking and chanting. The acts within the game itself are of more importance to the performance because it requires a degree of submission and also control. It is fun and light, but requires the participant to engage in what seems like a kind of endurance as well as unnecessary self-ridicule. It is well aligned with my sense of place in the world of art.
While in India, there were numerous ideas I had in mind to flesh out as a work at Kurukshretra University, but there was a certain atmosphere and jubilation bubbling among the students. Their minds were open, and fully engaged. So this interactive work was the one I thought would generate the most inclusiveness. By all accounts, it work really well as performance piece. I began, alone on my little blue tarpaulin attached to my neck by a yellow piece of plastic twine, and the students gradually came as I beckoned with my eyes to join in.
The continued part of my performance was to remain attached in an absurd manner to a pathetic piece of blue plastic, as it forms part or my visual vocabulary as an artist whether in performance works, 2D or 3D works. In this way, students wishing to have selfies together with me, could have fun and join me in my protective space.
I am most heartily grateful for your participation art students of Kurukshretra. You are beautiful! Every one of you xxx
I have used this game as a precursor to other works (collaboration with Faith Wilson) as a kind of preparatory work for the main part which often solemn or involving some form of aggression upon objects and, like the game, simultaneous causing pain for us as the performance artists.
It's performative aspect is the repetitive nature of the actions. Actions that slowly, but rhythmically include others in the pain. The pain comes in the form of taking hold of each others ears and holding on whilst rocking and chanting. The acts within the game itself are of more importance to the performance because it requires a degree of submission and also control. It is fun and light, but requires the participant to engage in what seems like a kind of endurance as well as unnecessary self-ridicule. It is well aligned with my sense of place in the world of art.
While in India, there were numerous ideas I had in mind to flesh out as a work at Kurukshretra University, but there was a certain atmosphere and jubilation bubbling among the students. Their minds were open, and fully engaged. So this interactive work was the one I thought would generate the most inclusiveness. By all accounts, it work really well as performance piece. I began, alone on my little blue tarpaulin attached to my neck by a yellow piece of plastic twine, and the students gradually came as I beckoned with my eyes to join in.
The continued part of my performance was to remain attached in an absurd manner to a pathetic piece of blue plastic, as it forms part or my visual vocabulary as an artist whether in performance works, 2D or 3D works. In this way, students wishing to have selfies together with me, could have fun and join me in my protective space.
I am most heartily grateful for your participation art students of Kurukshretra. You are beautiful! Every one of you xxx
For Frederico (or surrogate parent-child performance)
by Olga Krause and Ellie Bullock-Johnson (England)
10 February 2016, at the Healing Hills Collective in Morni Hills, Badisher, India.
Thank You Mother India (I offer you a small gift)
A performance work at Chandigarh, Government Museum and Art Gallery, Sector 10, 11 February 2016
As a final performance work in the public institutions we were invited to, I made this work which made several references to several situations and contexts that converged in this ta - va (time - space - a theory developed and articulated first by Professor Okusitino Mahina).
I am feeling generous, so I will share as much as I possibly can.
one layer
The work was a response to the pure healing that I sought and received after my self-burial work. It was not so much about death but the death of some unhelpful darknesses, darkness that don't bring comparisons of light, but seep into even deeper darknesses. Vampiric darkness that was not going to return the blood drawn and wasted. By offering oil and touch and massage, I was able to give some form of comfort in return to her. Skin to skin, freely given, no strings or understanding required. Just pure 'alofa'.
another layer
Tying myself to my tarpaulin and wearing glaring reflective gear was a both grounding me and connecting me to India, but also to my own homeland of Samoa where I first realised that the blue tarpaulin had become useful and easy tool to protect from the elements, but also as an inexpensive and portable form of shelter and protection. I could take this tarpaulin anyway, and create shelter for myself. In this instance alone, I offered shelter in my personal space of protection. I offered rest, shade, conversation, touch and a smile. All universal and basic human needs that are among the few things I feel can change the day of someone, if for a few minutes. My reflective shiny covering reflected and refracted as much light was possible that the sun could offer, also additional to the work.
and another layer
not really lastly or least, but the work was site specific and was both paying homage to the architecture and the city planning of Chandigarh that was designed by Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris but better known as Le Corbusier (b. 1887 d.1965 - Swiss/French) as well as to the poor whose homes are largely made from tarpaulin and bamboo.
As India's first planned city, it was was exciting and intriguing to see that the vernacular architecture throughout the whole region had little references and nods to him in their design, whether of the time or under construction. Needless to say, that actually the vernacular materiality and elements that govern the lifestyle and extant architecture was the influence on Le Corbusier, but the marriage of the two was a successful one from an aesthetic and art historic perspective. My response to this particular aspect was to attempt to create a visual dichotomy. I played with the reading of his work with my almost insignficant, easy to by-pass, lean-to structure made out of yellow (or orange if you reversed it) tarpaulin, bamboo from Morni Hills and cable ties from the 5 Dollar Shop in Hamilton East. I angled my roof-line to mirror the angle of the Le Corbusier-esque museum lecture theatre that so impressed me. I relate better to the poor persons' materials than to that of European architects, yet I was in love with the notion that I somehow got to speak to both Mother India and this guy called Le Corbusier whose work I have loved since the early 1980s... this structure was a confluence of all these ideas in the TA - VA that I created.
FILI
Wilson, Wilson and Krause
are Faith Wilson, Olive Wilson and Olga Krause - performance art collaborators
curated by Jess Hubbard for Enjoy Gallery, Cuba Street, Whanganui-a-tara Wellington, Aotearoa. The exhibition was entitled Enjoy Feminisms. Our performance work was performed on Saturday, 14 November 2015. Ngaa mihi nui | Many thanks to Jess Hubbard, Louise Rutledge, Emma Ng and the Enjoy Trust. Also to photographer Harry Culy for the tumeke documentary images he captured of the performance.
KIPI LALO
Wilson and Krause
are Faith Wilson and Olga Krause - performance art collaborators
This performance was in February 2015 as part of COMMON GROUND Festival. We were part of a series of art events entitled 'A'OGA HUTT' curated by Lana Lopesi (artist, designer, writer and editor of #500words). Our performance, KIPI LALO was performed in an empty shop in Upper Hutt, Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa.
MALEPE (KALEPE)
Wilson and Krause
are Faith Wilson and Olga Krause - performance art collaborators
This performance was entitled MALEPE (KALEPE), Avondale, Auckland 2014 - OFFSTAGE, curated by Ioana Gordon-Smith for Tautai Contemporary Arts Trust,
at WHAU FESTIVAL.
photography by Janet Lilo
Hedwig and George
are Olga Krause and George Watson - performance art collaborators
This performance conceived by Hedwig and George and organised by Ayesha Green
Catalogue was designed and published by Ayesha Green/ essay by Karl Chitham
Implicated Failure
It is an interesting concept to write about a performance before it takes place. The sense of anticipation is unnerving. On the one hand you have the responsibility to signal some framework of understanding for the viewer without knowing exactly what that structure will be, and on the other hand you begin to question the validity of your own role in the project. I wonder if the act of writing this essay is part of the performance. Have I unwittingly entered into this task without realising I am actually a participant rather than a commentator? As my brain clumsily tries to get to grips with this unusual set-up, my slight paranoia turns to suspicion of the performer’s sense of inclusivity. As I try to put this all into perspective I review Hedwig & George’s previous works in an effort to define my part in this collaborative performance.
Hedwig and George have come together based on a shared interest in the use of performance to accentuate the human condition. Their performance style is about the essential experience, a pared back investigation of actions that, combined with sound and moving image suggest there is something missing. This indefinable other is explored through sensory associations – the act of braiding hair, spinning in space, playing a horn, a certain song or repeated image all collude to implicate the viewer. It is this larger sense of interconnectedness in the performer’s individual practices that allows for this partnership to take place.
In a recent work by Georgina (George) Watson, simply called Untitled Performance (2010), the audience was led into a dark car park. A ring of cars turn their lights on spotlighting a lone figure quietly standing at its centre. A country music track begins to play and the figure slowly turns on the spot, getting faster and faster until near the end of the song the figure stumbles off between the cars, into the darkness. This work is in many ways a deception. Its limited palette of light, music and movement suggests an undemanding experience. It is a scenario reminiscent of many American movie classics with cars full of teenagers acting out their maudlin lives while a well chosen soundtrack plays in the background. Watson has cleverly incorporated these elements to increase the sense of futility, what she describes as the ‘poetics of failure’. Her performance is a rendering down of facets that are open enough to allow for the unexpected and specific enough to lose yourself if you choose to.
Olga (Hedwig) Krause is interested in the relationships between culture and identity. Her personas explore the notion of the individual through expanding and contracting viewpoints often described through a set of repetitive actions. In Mediated Performance (2005) Krause stands before a projection showing multiple versions of herself. As she paces before the screen wearing a nondescript white t-shirt there is the suggestion that Krause is reviewing the various facades that she presents to the outside world. Every so often her birth certificate appears on the screen, a unifying element in the confusion of everyday life. There is the impression that if you were to distil all of these outward facing layers you would still find the same person at its core – a refinement of the self.
Another performance by Krause called ULU SIGA/ Untitled (2009) also plays with this idea of distillation. She lies upon a blue tarpaulin, placing her head on the lap of another performer, her daughter who delicately locates and plucks the grey hairs from her head. This action could be seen to reflect a removal of fundamental social constructs that change the way we see ourselves. In this case the undeniable act of growing older is now seen as a lack, a type of redundancy in a society driven by youth culture. Alternately it is just as easy to view this performance as a simplification of relationships. The daughter interacts with her mother, they talk, they fight and they share their lives - this connection undoubtedly defines in part who they are as individuals. As with her other performances, Krause suggests that this feat is as much about how we maintain poise at our core as how we appear to be balanced on the outside. It is more than a question of appearance it is about what makes us who we are and how we choose to negotiate this within and without.
Interestingly this is the first collaboration for Hedwig & George. These earlier individual performances go some way to suggesting what an audience might expect from the duo, but give little in the way of guaranteed outcomes. They have proposed that this is ‘a test of alignment. Seeing where their ideas converge and where they veer away from each other’. There is also the mention of failure, something that is unavoidable as a possibility in the world of performance and is purposefully accentuated by both Watson and Krause.
This all brings me back to my initial concerns regarding my own part in this collision of perspectives. I am again haunted by the impression that I am merely a player in this performative experience. As both performers have demonstrated, their combined praxis is about getting down to the core substance of an idea and being open to the possibility for the unexpected to occur and the potential for failure. If this is the case then I have inevitably allowed myself to be drawn into the same parameters. It is an unavoidable element of Hedwig & George’s positioning that no matter how small or insignificant your role you automatically become a participant in the work. There is however a light on the horizon for those of us that are not so used to the investigation of failure - at the very least we are all in this together.
Karl Chitham
2011
Curator of Art and Collections
University of Waikato
Hamilton
Aotearoa New Zealand
