DEAD ART

Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
18th November, 2007

Intervention at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, about the lack of local live art in the curatorial vision of one of Australia’s foremost contemporary art institutions. Apart from rare appearances by foreign artists, mostly curated by the Biennale, the MCA disregards performance. By extension, all contemporary art institutions which do the same, are implicated.

It was a tense, witty, yet serene work which captivated gallery visitors, until security shut the gallery in an attempt to threaten me. I remained dead for almost two hours, until my forced removal by NSW Police. The performance took place on the day after John Howard was voted out of power, enhancing its bid for liberation and change.

Guerilla documentation from Dead Art was taken up by blogs and art websites all over the world. It has been quoted in other subsequent protests by artists Jeff Stein at the Sydney Opera House during Vivid, and by Deborah Kelly at the new Kaldor wing at AGNSW. It was a nerve-wracking but ultimately exhilarating experience to perform Dead Art: it punched a hole in the seemingly impenetrable wall of art institutions, relieving not just me, but people everywhere.

More extensive photos, and a small blog, can be found here.