i saw a review of barb bolt’s show in the eyeline mag… for me, the best thing about it was that they included a colour reproduction, SO important, it would have been useless in BW! looked like the writer’s text was edited down drastically or something…it seemed a little disjointed in its explanation of the “technosublime”…perhaps she felt intimidated by the thoroughness of barb’s own writing about her work (barb DID do a whole thesis on it), and felt she had to try to re-present that…

which brings me to a topic which i know is close to barb’s heart! – artists writing about their own work! i am currently engaged in “writing up” my project from adelaide (EAF) late last year, whew it is HARD! but so interesting. it is as if the process of writing it takes me outside of the project itself, and forces me to look at other peoples models with similar aims, to assess how those went… i guess i am thinking about “residency”models which operate in some sort of exchange with the visiting “public”…

…there are very belligerent ones (such as chris burden’s where he slept in the gallery on top of a shelf for 2 weeks without any interaction at all, or vito acconci, where he skulked under the sloped floor masturbating as he imagined and fantasised about visitors, or matthew ngui’s you can eat delicious poh piah but only if you follow my instructions!),

…to very open ones (such as a later burden piece where he displayed all his past projects in photographic form, and sat in the gallery the whole time working at a typewriter, and openly answering any questions,),

…to much more work-in-progress based projects (like sussi porsborg’s recent project in perth, where visitors could make fabric clogs with her, and i was also thinking of barb bolt’s “excessive practice longitudinal project” or “rumplestiltskin”, at the fremantle art centre)…

how do these artists approach those projects in retrospect… in terms of expectation vs outcome, or is there a more interesting way to think about what went on there?

i have been trying to think about the idea of “hospitality” when i consider what i did in adelaide. i lived in the gallery for a month, serving coffee and spending time with visitors who came to see the “show”… a show which included art that i made in singapore and hong kong, and which grew from exchange-residency situations too. adelaide was hosting me, and yet, when its citizens entered the gallery, I was their (most gracious) host…

[see eyeline issue #50 summer 2002-03. this edition of the magazine (which comes from brisbane) also contains an excellent review by Lisa Kelly of the borderpanic event]