EXHIBITION: TRACE DISPLACED
Speaking on the phone to Welsh-based proponent of ‘akshun’ (the wily love child of visual arts and performance), Andre Stitt, is a little like recreating the, “Points of arrival and points of departure,” that characterise his work; attempting to bridge the gap from post-colonial Old South Wales to post-colonial New South Wales, with lots of static and technological breakdowns in between. He tells me about Trace: Displaced (Post-colonial Cluster F**k), an upcoming installation at ARTSPACE, “Based on a series done last year at a house in Cardiff. We worked with an architect and rebuilt it around Britain. We take [memories] and superimpose them onto new places.” In Sydney, the group, comprising four Welsh artists, enlisted an Aussie then hit the streets seeking what it means to, “Come to place and interpret it. Where do you start? What was the First Fleet confronted with?” An alien land no doubt, but one full of wonder. One member mapped out the tank streams and fountains in running routes, then transferred them by way of stitched lines onto a quilt. Another sanded permanent compasses in the pavement, pointing towards Wales. Or you may have seen Stitt himself, handing out Eternity badges in a testimonial to Sydney icon Arthur Stace. But this isn’t a one-way conversation; a little bit of Cardiff, in the form of a reconstructed floor plan in ARTSPACE (it couldn’t quite fit the whole house), will give you a taste of our namesake. But what of the ‘cluster f**k’? Stitt says, “It’s a term that describes a Catch-22. A series of problematic events occur simultaneously and mutually disrupt each other.” A little like our phone conversation. But eventually, the message comes through loud and clear.
Aug 29-Oct 3, ARTSPACE, 43-51 Cowper Wharf Road Woolloomooloo, 9356 0555 or artspace.org.au
