Present LA, MS, RO
CN apologies
MS thanks Liz for recent run of excellent posts - RO seconds.
Liz accepts thanks and adds preface: thinking of these posts as encapsulating respect points for the project - respect points in the context and situation of AtCS making a public work in Christchurch/Manchester St.
We discuss the post
homophobia-free-zones-kiss.html - the 'Safe Zone' - touching on queer urbanism - is queerness often applied respectively to urban spaces? - retrospective logic? - thinking about how urban environments are specific, contemporary, an articulation of public/private space - provide opportunities for participation -
urbanism in fiction - interesting territory
Marnie references Douglas Crimp (great intersection of art history, theory and biography in his work).
Crimp discusses Gordon Matta-Clark in relation to urban space/emptiness and also Pier 52 - how Clark's work doesn't engage with or acknowledge the site as 'cruising zone'... thinking about what it means for queer bodies to be excluded i.e. from documentation of the art etc.
The below is excerpted from this essay by Crimp that covers Pier 52 and many other relevant musings:
http://www.post-post.net/psychogeography/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/krimp_textonly.pdf
“An indoor park,” “joyous,” “dangerous,” “absurd,” “flirting with the abyss”: descriptions
of Day’s End by Matta-Clark and others make it impossible for me not to think of the
experiences of those other pier occupants, the ones from whom Matta-Clark seems in
nearly all his statements about the work to want to differentiate himself—“you know,
that whole S&M,” as he put it.18 Although in many instances Matta-Clark aligned his
work with others who took over or otherwise made their mark on abandoned parts of
cities, particularly workers, homeless people, and disenfranchised youth, in the case
of Pier 52, Matta-Clark not only disavowed any bond with the gay men who were
using the piers as cruising grounds but went so far as to lock them out:
After looking up and down the waterfront for a pier, I just happened on this
one. And of all of them, it was the one that was least trafficked. It had been
broken into and was continuing to be broken into when I was there. But it
remained a kind of side step from their general haunt. So I went in and realized
without very much effort I could secure it. And it then occurred to me that
while I was closing up holes and barb-wiring various parts, I would also change
the lock and have my own lock. It would make it so much easier.
Safe zone - recovery - experience, memory, light, people, public space - what the city of Christchurch might be trying to recover.
MS refers to LA's post '
Queer space' and the first quote around visibility/invisibility:
What is queer space? Aaron Betsky [author of the seemingly spurious textQueer Space: Architecture and Same-Sex Desire, 1997] has described queer space as “not built, only implied, and usually invisible,” and as “useless, amoral, and sensual space that lives only in and for experience.” 11 Can we envision a different kind of queer space — space that is more permanent, built and visible, even as we embrace the experiential and sensory?
Visibility in relation to rights - bureaucratic policy can make pathways for social movements that are inclusive
focus on generative/participation in public process
public opinion
visibility - at the level of representation - and - being able to effect and influence structural decision-making
MS - lets also consider abstraction in relation to 'in/visibility'
triangles - symbolism
black triangle signals alt/radical women
--
Making a film in a place that might not exist anymore - or soon won't exist - perfect termporary film 'set'
Posters - how interested are we - QUITE
Why?
Posters are provisional
take on the surface they're applied to
we can go for suites
repetition
zones of quietness and activity
windy parts
'straightness of the street'
Posters can have a funny public service function - stamp out homophobia (Kanye West says so) to Women's Weekly covers signed by gay hands...
Christchurch - MS last visit - the city seemed like a toothless mouth = becomes more and more residential the further out you go - roads but little traffic
the old ebb and flow of activity curtailed
Street that is built for a certain kind of activity that not longer takes place there
Flags?
Too close to the flag debate
Performance?
Keep in mind - an invitational aspect
Christchurch artists and queer activists
Being part of the conversation - current and past generations
The ramifications of speaking of 'now' and a 'now' that's dominated by projections or uncertainties of the future - memory/amnesia
Punkfest - diy ethos and humour
Aesthetic conversations - image shower - images that are part of national/local vocabulary/collective memory - Liz's image shower - parker hulme image
Individual biographical assertions meet a four-person collaborative approach
Psycho-geography is interesting
Safe/Not safe spaces in relation to individual experience/memory
In a post-internet context this heads into navigating social media/chat rooms/cuber bullying
Diaristic - feminist - exposure method - 'opinion' that's thoughtfully contextualised
Psycho-geography can be limiting
Confessional mode can be powerful but also lonely
AtCS are often interested in abstraction outside of a drive for re/coherence within a single identity - we want to challenge and provoke understandings of who/what embodies enacts 'queer experience'
Un-broach-able relativity doesn't go far enough for us
be aware of the colonisation of isolation - the way isolation can be used to restrict and colonise thought and action
permit ourselves to form a connection/adopt a love or love of languages not our own
to break that isolation
Media
Women's Weekly
Press headlines 'man with axe arrested in hamilton' - images that play into national psyche - i.e. did we all picture a similar axe-man due to our familiarity with 'surreal/violent/masculine' imagery like that which proliferated in 70s/80s film...?
Art History in Christchurch
Canterbury regionalists
Party scene
Scenic grandeur
Settlement
Abstraction of landscape
in global tourism terms - the regional stands out
1977 Women's artist group / society exhibition - open exclusively to women in the first five days
Action plan - Clare input requested xxx
- Clare, what are your thoughts on heading in the direction of posters?
- Once we have a good sense of direction regarding the likely 'form' of project, update Mel to give heads up around materials/funding etc
- Continue to post and comment on blog
- Add and define Respect Points of project, including deepening/widening research
- RO to Christchurch on an AtCS research 'away-research-happy-time-site visit'? Clare what do you think? Keen to hear your thoughts on how we can best use this 'person in the field' opportunity?
- Discuss with Mel possibility of RO visiting ChCh for research purposes and confirm any funds available from budget for site visit
- RO to follow up with LAGANZ about access to lgbt archive materials relevant to this project
- Set our next skype time for when Clare is back home
Skype notes transcribed with liberal margins of error of rainbow% by [RO]
