Zonal Interspersions 2004

09 Nov 2004 : The Performance Space, Sydney

A repeat performance of a section of the orioginal work, I inhabit an overlooked shelf above the entry to Performance Space. However on this occassion drivers passing by called the police, thinking a suicide was underway !

Text of sign at the entrance: “He is overlooked, ignored, passed under, whilst looking on, gazing down, overseeing. Insight: look at something until what you have overlooked, what you couldn’t see before, the most integrated aspect, reveals itself to you. Leisa Shelton invited me to use the building frontage. I “surrounded” the site and infiltrated the event in a series of interventions that utilized the street entrance, the two rear laneway doors, and the space inside the roof of the theatre. In 2004 I again take up residency, a vagabond seeking refuge at the threshold of the art house, in the space over the front door: a lintel, ledge and sill,: a uniquely doubled space.”

Sydney Morning Herald November 10, 2004, Lenny Anne Low [https://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/11/09/1099781386883.html?from=moreStories] “As the sun set over Prince Alfred Park, young men were kicking a football across the grass, picnickers were lazing under trees, and joggers, cyclists and strolling couples were passing by. It was seven o’clock on a warm spring evening. But only 50 metres away, outside a grey and red two-storey building on Cleveland Street, police had arrived to prevent a man attempting suicide. Except that he wasn’t. Alan Schacher, a dancer and artist installed on a ledge on the facade of Performance Space, the inner-city centre for “contemporary interdisciplinary arts and hybrid performance practice”, was presenting a performance. The police had been called by someone who thought Schacher, who was floodlit, carrying a rope, wearing a safety harness and positioned near a back-lit theatre sign advertising the event he was part of, was about to hang himself. Schacher was taking part in Bullseye, the organisation’s 21st birthday party last Saturday, a night of theatre, dance, visual arts, video, music and museum-like installations to celebrate Performance Space’s history and survival. Nearly three hours later, after Schacher had left the ledge and performances from Ros Crisp, Frumpus, Julie-Anne Long, Version 1.0 and the Sydney Front were under way, the Performance Space artistic director, Fiona Winning, told the crowd about Schacher’s encounter with the law.”



Project Details
Dates 09 Nov 2004
Duration 30 minutes
Category solo