Schedule of events

Present politics: pavilion for one-to-one and small group discussions

With Diego Bonetto, Ian Milliss, Jacqueline Milner, Contemporary Art and Feminism research group from SCA, Oliver Watts, Danny Butt, Space, Place, Country research group from SCA, and others to be confirmed during the Biennale.

Each Friday afternoon from 2pm.

Cinder-block pavilion in building 6, Cockatoo Island.

Events currently scheduled:

Friday 28 March with Diego Bonetto

Friday 4 April with Oliver Watts
Friday 11 April with Ian Milliss
Friday 18 April (Good Friday - no event)
Friday 25 April Jacqueline Milner
Friday 2 May with Helen Hughes
Friday 9 May with Terri Bird (Open Spatial Workshop) 
Friday May 16 with Danny Butt
Friday May 23 with Olivia Barr
Friday May 30 Lucas Ihlein

Discussions will be held with members of the public who happen to be present in Building 6, concerning the current political crisis in Australia. Peers, guests, friends and colleagues will be invited to contribute by leading some of the discussions. At other times, I will be present to engage the public on a one-on-one basis. Conversations will generate material for a series of essays to be published after the Biennale.

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Sonic alterations of constructed space with metal objects

With Ivan Cheng, Barbara Campbell, Brian Fuata and Jess Olivieri

Wed 9 April: Building 6 on Cockatoo Island

Sunday 4 May: Cathedral Square, outside St Mary’s Cathedral (parallel to College Street)

Wednesday 7 May: Building 6 on Cockatoo Island

Wednesday 4 June: Building 6 on Cockatoo Island

Sunday 8 June: Cathedral Square, outside St Mary’s Cathedral (parallel to College Street)

Since 2011, a series of informal performances have been carried out in a multiplicity of public sites, using steel rings that measure 1m in diameter and which weigh 10kg each. These rings are spun upon their own axis upon a flat (usually concrete, sometimes wooden) ground. The spinning of the rings generates a set of overlapping rhythms and discontinuities. A sonic field emerges in the physical relationship between the steel of the rings and the materiality of the ground upon which they are spun. The sonic field that is generated temporarily seizes the space in which it occurs, repositioning these sites from their familiar function to becoming sound-generating surfaces.

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Solar objects: held toward evening’s diminishing westerly light

with Stuart Bailey, Naomi Derrick, Ivan Cheng, Mark Shorter, Salote Tawale and Sarah Rodigari

Friday 25 April on the pedestrian footbridge over St Mary’s Road in Wooloomooloo at 3.30pm
Saturday 24 May on the pedestrian footbridge over St Mary’s Road in Wooloomooloo at 3.00pm
Saturday 7 June outside Building 6 at Cockatoo Island beginning at at 3.00pm

A set of objects has been constructed for the purpose of being held towards evening’s diminishing westerly light with a group of people. This performance seeks to engage the sun at a particular moment in its trajectory across the sky, and witness the recurring relationship it makes to the materials of the earth that stand in its fleeting pathway.

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Walking to remnant grasses together

Open to the public

Meet at Royal Botanical Gardens, Pioneer Lawn

Saturday, 17 May, 9.45am–12noon

Beginning at the Pioneer Lawn, the walk will culminate at a stand of remnant grass in the Camperdown Cemetery on the morning of a working bee with people who help maintain this tiny patch of remnant grass. The walk is 5 km and 1 hour in duration.

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Annexing a patch of grass, temporarily

Amendment present on the Pioneer Lawn in the Royal Botanical Gardens until 9 June, 2014

This amendment to the Royal Botanical Gardens has involved a process of negotiation with the authoritative body that maintains the lawns to annex an area of grass from mowing or maintenance for a fixed period of time. This is in order to enable the potential flourishing of life forms that are usually repressed by regimes of cultivation (such as weeds and local grasses) to take root and become visible. It also seeks to make an addition to public space via a subtle strategy involving the suspension of standardized procedures, in order to reveal that which operates invisibly.

Thankyou to Ivan Cheng, Jess Olivieri, Annika Kristensen, Aarna Hanley, Tai Spruit, Ezzie Margin, Anthony and Travis Farnell for assistance with this process.

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Three tones of soil temporarily excavated from Hyde Park

Between 21 March – 9 June, 201

Northern side of Hyde Park, adjacent to College Street

The soil that has been removed from the site at Hyde Park has been temporarily relocated and placed within the installation on Waremah (Cockatoo Island) where it will remain until Monday, 9 June 2014, after which time it will be returned to the park. This process of removal shows the profile of the soil in the exact location, revealing the layers of history within the park’s soil structure. The hole is accessible for viewing 24 hours a day.

Thankyou to Professor Stephen Cattle, Dr Damien Woods, Dr Lisa Murry, Guy Stearn, Patrick Houlcroft and Michael Abbott for assistance with this process.

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Traversing fragments of the remnant iron-bark forest of Western Sydney

With Saskia Beudel, Olivia Barr, Lucas Ihlein, Ian Millis, Gary Warner and others to be confirmed.

Locations: dispersed areas around Western Sydney

Dates: Beginning in April and continuing throughout 2014

Prior to colonization, the area that is now known as Western Sydney was covered in iron bark forest. This forest was almost totally removed for grazing and firewood, yet tiny pockets of remnant trees remain including a small cluster adjacent to a factory on Roberts Road in Greenacre and along a ridgeway in Hurlstone Park. An action will occur that (roughly) maps the area of land where the forest stood. This mapping will take the form of a walk, whereby the process of walking becomes an event that temporarily marks out the forest’s imagined edge. What I anticipate becoming interesting during this walk are the plethora of current boundaries (fence-lines, roads, etc) encountered along the way – all expressions of the cadastral grid that signifies an ongoing process of colonization and privatization - which will perpetually interrupt the walk’s (imagined) continuity. This walk will be developed and carried out with a range of people over a number of months including Saskia Beudel, Olivia Barr, Lucas Ihlein and Ian Millis.