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a draft work looking at watching, intimacies and the act of voyeurism....
this draft work was created while at cite des arts in paris. I have wanted to create a work that identifies the role of the audience as a voyeur and to play with that power. and so i made a draft work that I would like to expand once I"m back in australia. below is a short description of this initial showing:
the voyeur :: studio showing on sunday 10.8.08 1100-1130 + 1600-1630
I left signs around cité inviting people to come to a 'open studio performance' at 11am & 4pm on sunday. I told them it would last half an hour, that it was a 'durational' work so they could stay or go when they wanted, and that they should use the binoculars & headphones provided.
then, outside in the carpark that is opposite my studio, I set up four chairs : one had 'arun's text' + a set of headphones, one had 'clare's text' + a set of headphones, one said 'perhaps you want to see closer?' + binoculars, and the last one was a comfy lounge chair.
and then we started. We opened the doors and the music started and we sat, we rolled cigarettes, we danced, we wrote on our selves and each other, I washed arun’s hair, he cut my hair, I swept the floor, we drank water, and then we danced again – together and separately.
there were three pieces of philip glass music. emotional, calm, beautiful. and in between them were long silences where I had recorded the ambient sounds outside my studio: talking, people walking past, aeroplanes, the odd car, workmen, other artists working. so the structure began with arun and I working around this music and these silences.
but the headphones were different. We had recorded personal things, revealing things, private things on a track that lasted the duration of the work (31 minutes). we had also chosen two pieces of music each that reflected us that played during the ‘silences’. so when you put on the headphones you had another entire soundtrack that blended with what you were hearing from the speakers. you heard us talking about ourselves while you were watching us revealing ourselves.
the text we wrote on our bodies sometimes reflected what was said in the soundtrack, sometimes not. if you used the binoculars you could read that text. If you didn’t it was too small.
the audience sat outside, in the carpark, listing to us, watching us in our studio.
not everyone got to hear or see everything but they could choose how they wanted to experience it and had to negotiate with the other audience for the headphones or the binoculars. so there was talking and explaining in the audience too.
and then it ended.
after we had revealed ourselves. and they had watched us.
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