two girls and a van and a whole lot of electronic equipment. plus the desire to infiltrate marginal places to create a gathering place. ah yes. territory. who owns, who controls, who has access, who polices and for whom? illusions of « public space. » as if public was an all-encompassing word. there is always a certain « public » in mind.

and what public did alexis and danya have in mind?

right away lighting up and projecting into a space will invite certain people at the expense of dis-inviting those who live/work/play in the shadows. lighting is often the first form of control to be employed by the authorities…if we light this shopping mall parking lot we are gonna keep out the undesirables…

no…i am re starting. it is, in my mind, impossible for an artist to project what will happen in the public realm. it is a space that you can never fully know unless it is « your » space. you are working with an unknown. as such, it has to be a venture where process takes precedent over any desired effect. this alexis and danya were confronted with, and yes, they adjusted and responded to what they experienced.

however, what was striking to me, in their artist talk, was how innocent alexis and danya seemed in their sincere self questioning. how they were really trying to figure out their position in relation to the spaces they had occupied. but also in their innocence they experienced a type of wounding. which is, in effect the wounding of marginalization. so the areas (both physical location and cultural location) where they placed themselves had the effect of imprinting upon the artists.

performance is not popular. people do not flock to see performance. off-site performance is even more marginalized in terms of audience support. sound off-site performance is probably, within the strata of mass popular appeal, one of the lowest. either the artist relies upon a good support network of friends, or resigns themselves to a small, select audience (or both). if you don’t get pleasure from the intricacies of working in this type of environment you are not going to be able to sustain your practice. you will have to alter your work to fit your needs so you can find and support the energy required to produce what it is you do.

alexis is a figure who appears to possess a certain amount of bravado and confidence. dayna too projects a kind of cheeky self confidence. both artists are drawn into those areas which are pioneering and unchartered…and controversial.

but through this artist talk it became apparent to me that these two spunky artists need us. in their forward march into the unknown these two artists need to have a feeling of real support for what it is they do.

strategies of survival.

me…i hope alexis o’hara and dayna mcleod figure out how to get what they need so they can continue to chart out this particular research in creating temporal « spaces » where people come together.

gathering places.