unit2

female Sisyphus

NB my piece is the action; the balloon artwork is by a friend.

manifesto n. 1

I’m interested in language and its potential to fail as a communication tool. Language is also an artistic medium in itself. It can be endlessly manipulated and it doesn’t have to make sense. The reading of this type of text is both more visceral and more conceptual. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
I don’t like to call it text-based art, I prefer to use the notion of ‘textuality’ as explained by Dave Beech in his book on art and text. Second, because lately there has been a resurgence of text-based work, much of it little more than a vehicle for inspirational quotes, aided by social media and easily available graphic design tools.


manifesto n. 2

And then by chance, I came across Laure Prouvost’s Monolog (2009). Just like Michael Snow’s film this is about the artist, the audience and language, only without self-importance, more appealing (to me) humour and feminine sensitivity. Also because I started missing doing actions with my body. So I re-wrote my manifesto.


manifesto n. 3

Actually, then I found an even better one. Warhol speaks for me. There is nothing else to add.

manifesto n. 4

I promise this is the last one.


Appendix 1

Suddenly my practice has gone back to the body or what I prefer to call ‘walking sculpture’ and my blogging hasn’t managed to catch up with it. The notion of female Sisyphus is one that has to be better explored but it makes much sense. In my mind the keyword is struggle rather than failure although they are very closely related – the tension of this in-between space between success and failure is probably the key to it . Text and the body are connected by this struggle in my practice. Struggling to articulate through language is the equivalent of the body struggling with itself and with ‘life stuff’.
I went back to Kathy Acker’s essay on bodybuilding after performing at the MAFA picnic. Acker takes it all back to the realm of failure, but what interests me more is the rejection of verbal language factor. And so my practice has been hovering between verbal and bodily language, moving from one to the other depending on the mood and opportunity, but really, it’s all the same.

Just another Instagram video

Appendix 2

I’ve recently discovered some texts about conceptual writing. To facilitate your task, I prepared a critical summary of a favourite – only half of it actually. But you’ll get the hang of it.

Uncreative Writing revised edition Part I – opens in new Tab

I am also exploring a number of other ideas (below is just a small selection) .
Best regards,
The artist

end of blog.