Noel Maghathe and I started this train of thought for the inaugural Revelry event at the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center. Noel and I are both interested in making objects that have many applications (ie. can come to the body, can be activated, can be explored in a space as installation and/or sculpture). Noel and I are also Fluxus artists at heart and believe that all objects have the potential to become art objects (especially ordinary objects) and all people can create and have art experiences. For this Revelry event they invited us to respond to Lauren Henkin's work. Noel and I felt kindred to Lauren's work being in spaces that were not traditionally reserved for art like bathrooms and hallways, and we also loved the idea of thinking of one's work as "interventions." We chose to pick our materials from the hardware store for our first set of "Action Objects" as a reaction to how Lauren traditionally works materially. The strategy Noel and I enacted when we went shopping together was picking objects that excited us either aesthetically or desire for experimentation. Where we differed from Lauren Henkin's work, and this didn't hit us until we started working, was that we realized we were not actually making props, which is how Lauren referred to her installations at the CAC. Noel and I are both performance artists that make objects. The more we talked about it the more we felt like the things we made were more than props, but they also weren't stationary sculptures. The objects we made had a soul, they were an invitation for action, action from us and everyone we invited to participate and activate our score. These objects are never really finished until they are being engaged and activated and even then they are always an open ended conversation with no conclusion. Our decisions when making our objects were based around visual appeal, but also objects that had no "right way" to interact with and would ideally prompt curiosity. This collection of objects is the first in our series of "Action Objects" and Noel and I look forward to pushing this idea further
Gallery of "Action Objects" Series 1 (Images shot by Noel Maghathe)
Revelry event #1 Feb 28,2020 Our biggest goal was to merge idea and action, by layering process writing with image documentation of action. See score and results below.
Here are some fun process images of Noel and I preparing this work.
Part 2:
Nov 20, 2020
Noel Maghathe and I loved the work made with our performance score and Action Objects at the Cac on Feb 28. But when we were making these objects we also were thinking of ways we might engage this objects as performance artists ourselves. We had planned to get together and activate these objects shortly after they were made, but then the pandemic hit, and we were all in lock down. After a very challenging few months we were finally able to meet outdoors at dawn (5AM) on a brisk November morning to activate these objects togehter. It was interesting to continue work that we had started before the pandemic, seemed like a dream. The first section I activated some objects and Noel shot images, then Noel activated some objects and I shot images. Lastly, Noel and I both performed together (in a distanced way) and Griffin Ritze and video shot by Clint Basinger. We did not react to the score we chose to react to the objects themselves and eachother.
