the ’sham

Last night I went to speak with a very cool group of artists in Erskineville. This group graduated from art school a few years back, and wanted to continue an engaged collaborative self-learning thingy. So they meet once a month and have an invited guest speaker as their stimulus who they can interrogate and badger (in a friendly constructive way, of course). I liked their format - they have established a pedagogical structure in which they are simultaneously teachers and students, those who learn, and those who set the curriculum. (Paulo Friere would be pleased).

The group wanted me to talk a bit about Relational Aesthetics. This is a subject I’ve been invited to discuss regularly in the last few years, most recently at a guest lecture at COFA.

The Erskineville group had been to see the Craigie Horsfield show at the MCA, and, rightly, wanted to unpick some of the rhetoric surrounding this (too often over-marketed) term.

I really enjoyed speaking with them. The event itself - small discussion in a loungeroom over wine and hommous - was not dissimilar to a paradigmatic Relational Aesthetics piece - one of Tiravanija’s food servings, for instance. Certainly it was interesting to observe the differences between the lecture format at COFA (one speaker with a microphone monologuing to a lecture hall of patient docile listeners, and only enough time for 2-3 questions afterwards) and the livingroom format (ten feisty “teacher-students” constantly interjecting, demanding clarification, pointing out inconsistencies…in short, directing the “learning” towards where it will have most meaning in their own lives.)

I spoke about my Petersham project (of course, they wanted to know what my “relational” projects were like). There was much discussion about the nature of the work - the way that writing about events changes the way you live those events, possibly even changes the kinds of things you do… My favourite comment was that Bilateral Petersham sounded a bit like an “intellectual version of big brother”.

…in which I read aloud an amusing letter (a thinly veiled satire of my ’sham project) left on my doorstep by Chris Fleming. It’s a short one, only 2 minutes. Get it here.

The original posting, including a scan of the letter, is here.

Barbara thinks there’s still time for another climax, another crisis-and-resolution before the end of the ’sham. In fact, she’s even gone as far as to prescribe the type: a romantic encounter. She’s been itching for it to happen ever since the beginning. I can just imagine her sitting at her laptop in her Camperdown apartment (only a few blocks away from the gallery where I type these words) scanning my paragraphs for some clue, some hint of juicy gossip that might sneak sideways, and unintentionally, into the blog postings.
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Sunday, 7.41pm: I haven’t the energy to write any more today. But if you have thoughts, responses, reports on your experiences at the weekend, at the Friday night slideshow/bowling event, or at the exhibition/border walk on Saturday, feel free to chime in here! I’ll keep updating over the next days.
Hooroo!
-Lucas

Anne sent through this email, just minutes ago. Without further ado, I pass it along.
Cheers
Lucas

- - - - -
bee longing
to: shortleftleg@yahoo.com

hey lucas. it’s sunday. the day after your opening. which offered a very meaty bit of bait to those of us who aren’t hooked yet. mind you, bit late to get hooked. but anyway, maybe the time for baiting is over and it’s the catch, we’re being shown now. hmmmm … that’s interesting. the ‘catch’. y’know, like ’so, what’s the catch?’. which is an expression of suspicion isn’t it? that there will be something required or asked of us. in legalistic terms, it’s a ‘consideration’. which skirts the notion of exchange. but i’m getting ahead of myself now. which isnt surprising, because these last few sentences were written AFTER the ones to follow, if you know what i mean. because this email is getting so long that i’m writing my way back INTO it. yeah, so as i was leaving (with hard copy of blog tucked under me arm, and mixing with the experience of the mayoral tour to warm me heart) i told you it made me feel glad/sad. you seemed puzzled by the ’sad’ bit. think i was too.
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Anyone know how to interpret this data?

It pleases me to know that a large proportion of readers are from Petersham itself, and from the Inner West more broadly. I like the idea that the project communicates with the same people who are featured within it. My fear from the Kellerberrin blog was that most of my readers were in Sydney, although apart from comments I had no way of testing that. But even the thought itself made me feel a bit odd - a kind of exoticism, urban subjects spying on the countryside…

But to what extent can we trust these ’sham stats? For instance, a nice man called Benedict has admitted to voting himself into Petersham, although he actually lives in Marrickville. How much of this is going on? To what extent are locals more likely to vote, out of pride? To what extent can we measure the apathy of out-of-town readers? Are there other stats issues that I’m not even aware of here?

[footnote: I have applied to be a census collector in the ’sham later this year. A few days ago I got a call from a nice fellow indicating there might be a possibility I’ve got the job! I’ll keep you posted, and you might see me at your doorstep with some forms to fill in soon…]

Vanessa dropped this tiny cardboard package, the size of a matchbook, in my mailbox. I will take it to my Portuguese neighbours, two doors down, for interpretation…Any hints?
(”Creative” suggestions welcome).

Exciting items in my mailbox this morning! A two page handwritten letter, and a list of “some secrets that may help you”.

This must be the reconstructed version of the note that Vanessa delivered two weeks ago, and which mysteriously disappeared. Inserted in the letter was a rabbit shape cut out of floral contact (the sticky stuff we used to cover books with at school). I stuck the rabbit on my mailbox, around the corner from my new “no junk mail” plaque.

Read the full letter over at my Flickr.

Sunanda Creagh has written an article about little ole me, here.

If you get the print copy of the paper, there’s a picture of Luciana and Wolfie and me rollerskating. Perhaps some clever bored person who steals time from their office job to read this will make themselves look busy scanning in the article and email it to me. Hint hint. Then I can post it up here and send you a thousand thanks. [NB! This has been done! Thanks to Lisa from North Petersham, and also to Sarah from the Marrickville Council.]

Oh, and if you’d like to compare stories…MY account of Sunanda’s visit to the ’sham is here.

Anyways, just in case the Herald website goes belly-up some time in the future, I’ll include a transcript of the article below. Hooroo.
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…left on my doorstep… [click for larger image]