Black Reamer 2019

19 Oct 2019 : The Stores Building, Old Parramatta Gaol, Parramatta, NSW, Australia

The performance starts as a duet of activities in the same room with WeiZen Ho under the subtitle A Kind of Divination, and then separates into two solos. I continued my initial activity whilst WeiZen, working with red strings, moved around the venue site interacting with the public titled Red Chair, Red Strings. In this performance I tear A4 sheets of black paper into shreds which pile up in a mound on the floor at my feet as a small black mountain. Seated on a child’s chair with a ream (500 sheets) of paper either side, the action could have gone on for several days. The tearing was slow and deliberate, producing a sound. As a participant in this exhibition I thought of the idea of reducing “the black square” to its parts. In partnership, WeiZen Ho concurrently performed A Kind of Divination, starting and ending together in the same room. During her work, dragging lengths of red string, she roved throughout the venue in a squat. The unrealted red wall art is by Richard Dunn. A performance for the opening event of the exhibition The 1st Biennale of International Reductive and Non-Objective Art, held in conjunction with the 5th Biennale of RNOA in Grenoble, France. The relics of both performances remained for the duration of the exhibition.