TAKE MY BREATH AWAY
Image: Take My Breath Away, 2012, Daniel Mudie Cunningham
It’s looner-cy! In perhaps one of the strangest homages to seminal performance artist Marina Abramovic – and there’ve been a few – local artist and curator Daniel Mudie Cunningham is breathing life into her 1977 collaboration with Ulay using a balloon. In the original incarnation Abramovic and her partner passed a breath back and forth between them for over 15 minutes until they collapsed unconscious from carbon dioxide poisoning.
In this new HD video installation, Cunningham and Spanish-Australian artist Dani Marti substitute the intimate kiss for the intermediary of a shiny white balloon. Breathing in and out is transformed into an empty act of sucking in and out, so that 35 years later, the revolutionary and life-defying act becomes something much sillier.
With a nod to the ‘looner’ community that fetishises balloons, Take My Breath Away manages to cheekily capture a pop culture moment and cap-doff to the canon. It’s also your last chance to check out the artist-run gallery space, with the sudden and unfortunate news just announced that they will be forced to close very soon.
Until Feb 23, Peloton, 78a Campbell St, Surry Hills, peloton.net.au
