Your Second Hand
Concept
Second hand garments are installed. Each item of clothing has a written omen “by wearing this garment you will unconsciously inherit certain thoughts and behaviours from the previous owner" above full real name and portrait of the pervious owner sewn into tags in the clothing. The audience are able to donate and/or keep an item of clothing.
More Suitable For
Festivals, spectacle heavy and media heavy events for wider community.
Development
PREVIOUS
This work has been exhibited once before in 2019 as a set of garments the audience can take.
NEW
Learning from the the previous exhibition of this work, next time I would not only collect items of clothing beforehand and display those limited items over the show because far too many people in the audience wanted the items for the amount we could offer. Instead I could have a number of garments with sewn tags ready for display, I would sit at a desk and the audience could receive an item of clothing by donating clothing, so there is enough for others. People could come to the desk, fill out a form, donate an item/s and then they could pick up an item from the rack in return. People can donate even donate on-hand items like sunglasses or socks in the moment to swap for an item in the collection. Tokens could be given to those who donate, if they have additional tokens, they can choose to leave a number of tokens there for others or choose to keep some to give to their friends. The number of tokens they receive depends on the number of garments donated. This is a potential idea for new system to keep a flow of donated items and items on display and available for audiences. Open to other possibilities, other methods to make this flow of donated and collected garments workable in the space.
LIMITED EDITIONS
I want to make limited editions of these garments where I will (with private embroidery machine) embroider scenes from the life of the previous owner of the garment, in golden thread, into selected items of clothing. These items of clothing with embroidered images (as well as the sewn in omen tags) will be highlight items, kept to the end of the show on display and form a special collection within the wider collection. These limited items within the collection may be for sale, the others are not.
Benefits
- Possibility for this to happen both online (Covid friendly version). People could order these items online and/or attend in person.
- Relevance, may highlight WA border closure, and Perth community becoming closer (literally wearing portraits of each-other and cursed/blessed to become each-other).
- Unexpected, novel, media-enticing spectacle of turning AGWA into a giant OPSHOP while still a serious work, with omens and different kind of community connection.
- Opshopping is a part Australian arts culture. Artists tend to be big opshopper here, not just because of the cheapness of the clothes, but also because these clothes are worn and carry some kind of unknown prior life, buying them is often charity donation, recycling, and finding unique items in the local community.
- Looking closely into the clothing of Perth people is also looking closely into a collective personal identity.
- Highly engaged work, direct interaction with the community.
- Audiences can get free art and clothes from a place that represent high art, a place that collects artwork most people could not afford to buy, taking something home for free from such a place as AGWA is reaching out to the local community, giving them take home gifts. When audiences can take and wear something from such a place, this gives AGWA a chance to reconnect with the community in an intimate way. These clothes can kept and worn for years and whenever worn, can serve as a reminder not only of the previous owner of the clothing but also reconnection with the AGWA.
- It's a work that the "general public" can connect with physically and psychologically without an elaborate knowledge of art history.
- It encourages recycling.
- Install style and size of work (how many items on display and where) is highly flexible.
Challenges
- System for donating and collecting clothes to be negotiated.
Hear the Call
Concept
The audience can take a phone. Before taking one, they must first sign a phone contract. The phone also comes with an instruction guide which further outlays phone functions, as seen in images above. These phones are recycled display phones, thrown away from phone shops, or phones from recycling places, where the electronic insides are removed. These former display phones or recycled phones look like normal phones from the outside but have no inner electronics but are filled and weighted as a normal phone, so feel normal (not hollow) to hold. The audience is asked to extend their imagination in hearing a private conversation between them and a range of others.
More Suitable For
A quiet private work for a more open thinking, experimental audience, with lower number of people around. Will work best over a longer time frame, where people ability to consider engaging, challenge themselves imaginatively and aren't in a huge rush.
Development
In 2003 in Artschool Danielle made a gravestone (layer of cement on surface and inside lasercut foam) with a corded phone coming out the centre of the granvestone. This gravestone was adhoc put in a graveyard and removed within a day. This work could be seen as a new iteration of the old gravestone piece in 2003.
NEW
This new work has never been exhibited although the 2003 different version was installed in a public graveyard.
An attendant will be nearby to speak to the audience about the work and a desk where the audience can sign a contract and receive the phone from the attendant.
OPTIONS
Display Option 1:
One phone is on display with a text next to it instructing the visitor about the functions of the phone and availability to borrow or keep one to use it for intended purposes.
The one phone is for intended for communication with the deceased, a better version of yourself, a spiritual entity, a better version of someone you know or a fictional character.
Display Option 2:
Five phones are on display each with text next to them. The text next to each phone states a different function for each phone.
- Phone 1 is intended for phonecalls with the deceased.
- Phone 2 is intended for phonecalls with a spiritual entity.
- Phone 3 is intended for phonecalls with a better version of someone you know.
- Phone 4 is intended for phonecalls with a fictional character.
- Phone 5 is intended for phonecalls with better version of yourself.
Currently figuring out if phones can be loaned, or kept by the audience. Depends on scarcity of the phones, willingness of audience to participate and covid restrictions.
CONTRACTS
A contract is needed for the audience to sign to obtain the phone.
The contract must include clause that makes the audience responsible for handling the conversations on these phones and the gallery and artist bear no responsibility for any content or issues that may arise from interacting with the non-electronic phone.
COLLECTION
Uncertain if people will borrow the phones for the day and return them or keep them at this stage.
A box of "dummy display phones" were sent from recycling place easily. They were happy to offload them.
TESTING
Several artists have tested this work out and provided feedback in developing the piece. Every person has a completely different experience so far, have not yet found a unified perspective on this work.
RESEARCH
Looking into other phone pieces from Fluxus artists, Blast Theory... most impact is the (non artwork) 2010 "Phone of the Wind" installed in Japan for people to talk to dead loved ones. Thousands have used it in the last decade: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1OVPaGRszU
(first minute can be viewed to see how it works)
Imaginary friend research involves also talking to deceased, to versions of self, to versions of others... for further research on imaginary friends:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyVAPY9c72M&list=PL97lkKzvX_sAeYwADtMEXTJXGgz7YHqUP&index=8
Benefits
- Challenging the audience to open themselves to their imagination, to animate an inanimate object through anthromophication.
- Interactive, introspective, intimate pieces for the audience to explore.
Challenges
- Getting enough free or very cheap phone stock for the audience from recycling centres and other places.
- Mentally asking a lot of audiences as participatory work.
- Will Perth audiences engage with a work like this? Are Perth audiences too conservative to engage with this work?
If Perth audiences are generally too conservative to engage with this work, is there a time when less conservative audiences will be visiting who may be more likely to engage? or are there better ways to encourage engagement with this work? Perhaps the attendant talking to the audience about this work needs to be more inviting in a particular way and can speak to, listen with and lightly encourage the audiences on their level.
This Is Your Life (For Five Bucks)
Concept
A mini army of artist-cartographers are chosen to roam around AGWA, and cultural centre gardens nearby. These cartographers offer the public one-to-one “drawings of their life for five bucks”. Cartographic drawers interview audiences one-on-one about their life, take notes and draw a map of their life while interviewing them. The weird hand drawn map of the participant’s life is interpreted by the artist - cartographer. Each drawing will be different and could be seen as "mapped life portraiture”.
More Suitable For
Roaming within other live events, festivals, times where there are higher amounts of people in and around the cultural centre.
Development
NEW
This is a new work, no prior exhibitions of this work.
TESTS
Test maps and methods are tried out by Danielle to establish methods of interaction with public, troubleshooting and drawing styles which could be implemented.
CALL OUT
Call out for a handful of artists to be the "cartographers" of this roaming life mapping piece. Cartographer artists chosen should involve different ethnic backgrounds and ages, with at least one child/teen and one elderly person.
WORKSHOPS
Workshops run by Danielle to practice life map drawing with the other artists. This involves not only developing adhoc cartography drawing, ability, but also practice with interviewing the public about their life, performitivity, ethics, risk assessment and safety measures in delivering the work.
PRODUCTION SCHEDULING
Once artists are ready to be out there as cartographers roaming in the public, artists will be scheduled in depending on expected amounts of audiences for the time.
One or two artists might be scheduled in on different days on rotation.
Benefits
- High Perth community one-to-one interpersonal live engagement.
- High private engagement with Perth Artists through cartography.
- Price gap filled, general public can buy an artwork for 5 bucks, affordable. Bridges class divide in art purchasing.
- AdHoc surprising works produced continually while work is on.
- Great for high traffic events, work moves among people well.
- Public space wildcard spontaneous work.
- Flexible, roaming drawing people, no installation in the space required necessarily.
- Easy and quick to produce.
- Archive of “This is Your Life” mapped drawings of the lives of Perth public can be displayed later.
- Arcs back to hand drawn map making and portraiture in public.
Challenges
- Copyright on drawings (shared ownerships) must be clearly established with contract. Negotiations on copyright need to be established well before call out. Who gets a copy and who keeps the original? does AGWA, the participant, the cartographer or Danielle keep either originals or cony receive copies of these drawings?
- May be challenging selecting the right drawers (people to draw maps, not drawers in a desk) who have both the personality, engagability, performativity and drawing abilities.
- Will AGWA's public liability insurance cover this? if not, public liability insurance must be arranged.
- Payment. Some maps may take longer than others to construct. A payment plan should be organised to assure cartographers payment is at award wage or above regardless of "five buck" payment from audience. There should be a base rate to cover windfall.
- Risk assessment and risk measures in dealing with the public live in the cultural centre one on one.
Equal Opportunity to be a Dictator
Concept
People are offered the chance to try both being dictated and dictating the dialogue of each-other in conversation. This can be online and/or offline.
Most Suited For
Live - 3 hour interactive audience social event. Can be piggybacked within other installed shows or event nights.
A minimum of 30 active participants to work well. Potential afterwards for selected live video footage to be shown in gallery.
Development
2020 ONLINE TESTS
Every 5 minutes or so, people are positioned online in different arrangements with different people. As a participant, on your screen you may be faced with a complete stranger and the two of you can offer each-other things to say, then after five minutes you are faced with another random participant (may be a stranger or perhaps it turns out it is someone you know) and then after five minutes, the participant is faced with a few people or several people and can try group conversation speaking in dictator mode, then will be switched again after several minutes to another random other participant one-on-one. Through tests online so far, in a randomised kind of speed dating chat roulette style of online conversation, this method has worked well through tests so far and people can do it from the comfort of their own homes (covid friendly) internationally. This is looking like the most successful, time efficient, cost efficient, power equilibrium efficient, physical and mental energy efficient version of this work so far.
INSTALLATION
Potentially the online version and offline version could both work in the gallery space.
ONLINE
- A few ipads could be set up in the gallery for an event.
- People can log in from anywhere internationally and speak online to each-other this way at their leisure. They can stay as long as they want within a time window for the event.
- There should be a help button with wirtten and video demo info and if anybody needs further help and I can also be on hand to facilitate anyone online if they are having problems.
- There will be a designated person online to switch participants with different people every five minutes or so.
- This online event needs a minimum amount of people to work, RSVP confirmations and/or tickets would be essential.
- Possibility for this to can happen in tandem with an live in-person event in the gallery or cultural precinct area.
LIVE
- People in the gallery can watch "Equal Dictator" induction video upon entry guiding them on how to speak this way with each-other.
- After watching the induction video, once inside the "Equal Dictator" section they can enter one of the few booths with ipad installed and communicate online (in dictator mode with others)
- or for offline version, they can join an open section, where they can try talk with people in the flesh in dictator mode. If they don't feel comfortable, they can exit the space and talk normally elsewhere. There will need to be several hired plants in the "Equal Dictation Section" who will look and behave like audience members but will be hired specifically to speak in dictator mode for the event, assuring the conversation will continue in this mode in the space, encouraging others and making sure the area is never deadzoned. Conversation does not have to be the only thing happening in this social space. Since the work is just conversation, it could potentially be in a space where the other artworks are already installed and people can move around as normal viewing them but just with the dictator mode of speech in the air, which they can listen in on other conversations or have others talk to them in this way. The event or events can be flexible, they could be a festival event, they could be for a benefactor brunch, they could work in a range of ways to be negotiated.
NECKLACE WITH ROAMING
Or, instead of a dedicated space for dictator speech mode, people could be offered a necklace which will indicate to others nearby they are comfortable to try speaking with others in dictator mode. If a necklace is used, there needs to be a space after the induction video is played and people are tested and given an "Equal Dictator" necklace if they wish to have one and try speak this way with others. In both circumstances plants are a must to make sure this mode is comfortably continued with a buffer, to minimise risk, so there will always be enough people around in this event who are actively speaking and available to speak with, in this mode.
With tests so far, the necklace (worn as an indicator of willingness to speak in dictator mode) worked best in Belgium and people even began dancing with each-other, shouting things in other languages and other strange unexpected things happened with the attending audience. There was a ritualistic ceremony that happened after the live induction. In putting on the necklace in Belguim at the artspace which formerly was a sex-club (and still had the decor from the original old sex club all in place including many real golden starfirsh glued to the walls, showers for 10 people etc). I had a residency in the sex club, lived and worked there and the owner who had recently bought the sex club showed me a bag of keys he was given which supposedly unlocked areas of the sex club but he couldn't find which areas they opened. I asked to use the keys for an event. To get the necklace for the dictator mode of speaking, the audience had to climb down the ladder into the sex-club empty grotto pool and selected a key on a chain (these were original keys from the sex club that opened places hard to find). The keys on a chain were hanging from the rocks of the grotto. Once wearing this key in a kind of weird key party, they could speak in dictator mode with other key wearers throughout the four storey sex club venue in many weird dungeons and spiderweb rope spaces, outside gardens and firepits, with coloured low lighting everywhere, a bar, food and drinks too and pole dancing areas too. The strangeness and exciting spaces gave additional animation,strange settings for the conversations. With a necklace, people are free to roam where they like within the vacinity and discover others. If shown in AGWA, the type of necklace could change to something more specific to suit the space, or there could be the possibility of roaming nearby. It depends on the scale, willingness of audiences, availability and workability of spaces closeby (if branching out). This work does not have to sit alone in an empty space, this is a conversational work that can potentially piggyback onto other things, already installed spaces with other works. It could fit well within a festival crowd, or in tandem in the wider cultural precinct area or it could be more confined within AGWA, where it works as a roaming conversational audience interactive piece is negotiable.
PREVIOUS WORK
2017 - 2020 SOLO INTERVENTIONIST WORK
From September 2017 Danielle has spoken in social public everyday life inviting people to dictate her speech and vice versa. She does not do this in appropriate work situations, organisational situations, speaking privately with certain friends, in the studio or at home. In all other public social situations, she tries to converse this way.
PREVIOUS DICTATOR ITERATIONS LIVE IN INSTITUTIONS (INVITED TO PERFORM/EXHIBIT - NON-INTERVENTIONIST
ZKU (Centre for Kunst and Urbanistics) Berlin
Hectolitre - Former Sex Club and Art Space, Belgium
Seychelles National Gallery - Seychelles Biennial, Syechelles
Swiss State Contemporary Theatre - Zurich
Power Makes Us Sick - Prague
Flux Factory - New York
LJMU in John Lennon Art and Design Building - Liverpool, UK
Kask Performance BA - Belguim
ArOS Museum - Denmark
Performing Arts Forum - France
Bronx Art Space - New York
Benefits
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Challenges
- Sustained engagement (plant audience can help maintain this)
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https://www.freakley.net/bemyfriend