Interview with Kellie O'Dempsey

For another class we were asked to interview an arts practitioner. In this interview Anita and I talked to Kellie O'Dempsey a performance and installation artist from Brisbane. We focused on her studio space, her career path and her interactions with the audience and collaborators during her performances.

(Kellie - if you are reading this, then don't feel obliged to watch your own interview unless you want to)

Artist Statement

Straight Lines I consists of oil pastel on tracing paper, with a video projection. This performance piece is an enquiry into the formal qualities of repetitive mark making. When creating this performance, I enforced certain boundaries upon myself to explore this. The strategy involved myself, on a rolling chair, moving along the paper. As I moved along each side of the paper, I used both hands to create straight lines and did not allow myself to life the pastels from the paper until the end of the line.

This process of creating through full-bodied drawings in bilateral movements, was informed by the bodily actions of Tony Orrico’s Penwald Drawings. Orrico follows a strict strategy in each of his performances and I attempted to establish similar boundaries in my own work. His works are also a feat of endurance as he follows his boundaries over many hours. My own performance also became an endurance piece, yet a less time consuming one than Orrico.

I explored this concept multiple times with different bilateral movements but feel that only the straight lines performance was successful, and yet, still unfinished.

Straight Lines II is an extension of the first performance work. Again, it consists of oil pastel on tracing paper with video projection. The original strategy and boundaries were followed again, but I then took the finished work into a different direction. The work was cut into squares, overlapped and then drawn with again. The video installation was the primary concern of the second project.

I still feel that my exploration is incomplete. I think that repetition is important to my art practice and needs to be investigated further.

It is to be noted that the other artists I considered for my work are Morgan O’Hara and Charlie Ford. However, I believe Orrico's performance drawings had the most impact on my own work. 

BARI Festival

Lightening Field, Kellie O'Dempsey, Megan White & Luke Jaaniste.

I finally got to attend a performance drawing by Kellie O'Dempsey! After learning about performance works all semester it was great to finally see one in person. Lightning Field was a collaborative performance work involving a visual artist, a butoh artist and a sonic artist. I went in to the performance with an open mind, unsure of what was to come. 

All of the artists created work based off the energy and movements of the others. The outcome of the work was unknown at the beginning but slowly evolved. The energy in the room could be felt as the artists worked together. The colours helped establish certain moods and the whole work felt as if we had been transported into a different world.

The whole performance was an ephemeral creation. The light works that were created, disappeared by the end of the performance, and the drawings that were created with the ink were destroyed during the performance.

I have realised over this semester that seeing performance works are more interesting to me than creating my own. The energy and enjoyment you get from seeing a performance in person is so different to seeing its documentation in a gallery afterwards.

Response to Marsh

Performance Art And Its Documentation: A Photo/Video Essay, Anne Marsh

Marsh discusses the history of performance art and the documentation of the performance. Performances can be made for a live audience to witness in person, or for further viewing at another time. Marsh questions if the 'live' can ever be reproduced, either through a remake of the original performance, or through its documentation. 

The relationship between performance art and its documentation is fascinating and problematic, On one hand it seems logical to simply argue that a live event cannot be re-mediated. 

Performance art is an ephemeral medium and therefore the documentation of the performance is not an accurate representation of the original live work. But the documentation of the work is still vital for future viewers to be able to see the work and to understand it.

Marsh examines Jill Orr's performance, She had long golden hair. Orr's performance could only be performed once, because it involved the cutting of her full head of hair. The documentation of this work was created by using three still images of the performance. However, these photographs do not fully explain the story of the performance. Further writing or video documentation is vital to the comprehension of the work.

This prompts Marsh to pose the question: Can someone still understand and write about an artwork that they haven't seen in person? 

I don't believe that a performance has to be witnessed first hand to be considered a performance work or to be understood completely. Art historians will never be able to witness every single performance art piece first hand.  Yet, they still write about these performances, and help others to understand the work from a different viewpoint.

It can be interesting to see the 'second-order' installations from these performances. It gives the performance work a new point of view. But I also think that extra documentation, be it in video or writings or other photographs, can give context to future viewer. 

Jill Orr,  She had long golden hair, 1980

Jill Orr,  She had long golden hair, 1980

Tony Orrico

Tony Orrico's, Penwald Drawings

"Penwald Drawings are a series of bilateral drawings in which Tony Orrico explores the use of his body as a tool of measurement to inscribe geometries through movement and course. His choreographic gestures derive from the limitation of (or spontaneous navigation within) the sphere of his outstretched arms. Line density becomes record of Orrico’s mental and physical sustain as he commits his focus to a greater concept of balance throughout extended durations of drawing."

Orrico's drawings are a testament to his endurance and focus. In each of the performances he commits himself to a strategy and adheres to that strategy until the work is complete. Many of his performances are over four hours long, and some are created over multiple days. 

Orrico's process of creating his performance drawings has informed my own drawing practice. The bilateral movement of Orrico's body appeals to my own strategy as I move along the paper. There is also a repetitive nature to Orrico's mark making which is something that I feel drawn to as well. 

Tony Orrico. unison symmetry standing, 2010

Tony Orrico, 8 Circles, 2009 

 Tony Orrico, 8 Circles, 2009 

Tony Orrico. unison symmetry standing, 2010

Charlie Ford

"Throughout, and since studying dance, all I have wanted to do is somehow find a way to draw and document human motion. I like to explore how it can be captured and become a visual memory. Using movement improvisation, I have also begun to question how motion can be prepared or devised and transcend into the creation of a drawing.

I have presented open installations and exhibitions, which invite observers to come and see my work, but simultaneously see me working; my process is something I want to share, This website acts as an alternative way to do this - an online journal of past projects and new experiments.

I draw physically, and explore what this means to me."

Charlie Ford is an artist from the UK that specialises in performance drawing. He focuses on the creation of the work and his own physicality. Ford tends to exhibit himself in Galleries as he creates the work and invites audiences to come and observe him as he draws. He also exhibits the final outcomes of his performances in Galleries too. 

I really like the aesthetics of the white charcoal/chalk on the black paper. His installation set ups are quite interesting and I like how he works flat on the floor and builds his work around his body, and the limits of his physical actions. 

Charlie Ford, In His Studio, 2014.

 

Charlie Ford and Louis Petruccelli, The Charcoal Movement, 2013.

Charlie Ford, The Physicality of Drawing, 2014.

Charlie Ford, The Physicality of Drawing, 2014.

Response to Schneeman

Drawing as a Veinous System, Carolee Schneemann

Carolee Schneemann is an American painter that has ventured into performance works and installations Her works mainly focus on the body, and she has used ropes in a couple of performances, in order to test her physical limits.

Schneeman's performance works are meticulously planned and they all begin with drawings. Before this semester I had no idea how much work goes into a performance work. There is so much planning involved in her performances, and strategies have to be in place for the performance to work. The outcome of the work is never the primary concern, it is the creation of the work that matters.

"Drawings are the physical embrace for images in space, the extension of musculature onto the page. The drawings are the visual embodiment of gestures, momentum, the illusive motions that carry the parameters for shaping actions."

Response to Orrico

Voyage of the Transfer, Tony Orrico.

Tony Orrico is a performance artist that uses full bodied actions to create his works. His previous dance experience drew his attention to the awareness of his movements, so he began investigating the presence of the body within drawing. 

"I am fascinated with how physical impulses manifest into visible forms."

Orrico's works are feats of endurance. He commits himself to a certain strategy and focuses on the concept as he draws. I only did my performance works for small amount of time, about 30 minutes, and I felt physically exhausted after that amount of time. It was also a mentally exhausting exercise, focusing on something for that long, but at the same time once you get into the rhythm, you start to get into a meditative state. 

"I am continuing to explore space that is absent of emotion, rationale, memory, reaction, projection, judgement or inhibition. I am attempting to navigate through the body's receptors and simulate a sense of suspension to shift my relationship to the physical realm, especially gravity."

I like how performance drawing is planned so meticulously in its creation, yet the outcome is never 100% certain. 

Morgan O'Hara

Morgan O'Hara is an American born artist that exhibits work internationally. Her Live Transmission works are performance pieces. She follows the movements/actions of someone in real time and draws their movements. I really like her drawing method and the outcome of her work. Each one is so individual and personal. It captures the movements that O'Hara sees and also seems to invoke the model's personality. 

Human Heart: Ehrenstein

LIVE TRANSMISSION: movement of the live beating heart of TILMAN EHRENSTEIN seen through magnetic resonance imaging

La Charité Hospital / Berlin, Germany / 24 February 1999

8 1/4 x 11 1/2 / A4 / 21 x 29.5 cm

Soba Master: Kashiwagi

LIVE TRANSMISSION: movement of the hands of soba master KASHIWAGI KUNIAKI while preparing soba flour and cutting noodles

NIPAF 01 / Nippon International Performance Festival / Nagano, Japan / 12 March 2001

30 x 42 in / 76 x 106 cm

Classical Pianist: Argerich 

LIVE TRANSMISSION: movement of the hands of MARTHA ARGERICH while playing BEETHOVEN's Piano Concerto No. 1

Festival Pianistico Internazionale di Bergamo e Brescia / Teatro Donizetti / Bergamo, Italia / 11 June 2001

27 1/2 x 39 1/4 in / 70 x 100 cm

Performance Project #1

I did my performance drawing over the weekend. I experimented with three different movements, but ultimately the original straight lines proved to be the most successful. I will only be using that one for my first performance project installation. I am not sure why I am drawn to the straight lines, and the repetitive movements, but I feel like it is something I need to explore further. 

 

Week #10

I did my performance project over the weekend and decided to experiment with layout ideas for the installation of project one. I like how it rolls down from the wall onto the floor. I'll also crop the video and zoom in so that it is a thin video strip and continues the scroll.