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Statement
of Live Art, Curiosity, by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney and Tony
Knox.
Written by Lucia Andrea Sweeney (Written with consultation
from Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney).
Photograph by Tine Wille.
26 April 2007.
Tony Knox and Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney presented a live art collaboration
at Galerie Martin Turck in Cologne on 25 April 2007. This
was titled 'Curiosity' and a fusion of the concepts from their
independent art practices. This live art was associated to
the Eight Days a Week Liverpool/Cologne Exchange Programme,
managed by Pete Clarke and Georg Gartz respectively.
Knox and Sweeney, who both explore the concept of gender politics
in performance art. Knox embodied in his own alter ego the
idiosyncratic character of Mothman derived from his creative
research in wrestling culture. In contrast, Sweeney, whose
art is set on the temporality and spatiality of body politics
in the post modern environment, institutional constructs and
the canon of the body.
The performance was researched in response to the gallery
space. The artists chose to platform the performance in the
window and had to be viewed from outside. A washing line with
pegs was visible across the window and two long sheets on
either outer edge attached hung. The window itself was sectioned
by a band of frosted glass. The two artists entered the window
space. The female unrecognisable, her gender concealed by
the hybrid costume of the Mothman attire. The male was naked.
Each artist took position in the window. The male on the left,
behind the white sheet, only his head visible, like a portraiture.
The female in the male wrestling persona on the right and
similar behind another sheet.
The Moth(wo)man walked to the centre of the window area. She
momentarily took the stance of a wrestling hero, motionless,
as if on a press poster advertising the symbolic of a wrestling
protagonist. She removed the mask and fixed it to the line
to reveal her long hair and face made up with cosmetics. Next
came the leather shorts and then the rest of the body suit.
Her naked flesh was concealed by the translucent glass. She
returned to the right behind the sheet and faced the male.
She un-pegged the white sheet, wrapped it around her body
and over her shoulder. She took a pose cognitive of sculpture
from antiquity with the folds of sheet falling as a robe and
imbued a character from Greek mythology, Hestia; her body
poised and arm stretched upwards.
The male moved from the left to the centre. Although naked,
his exposed body was obscured by the costume on the line and
frosted gallery window. He removed the full costume first
and slowly dressed. Then moved to the leather shorts and put
them on. The last was the mask and he pulled it over his head.
Similar to the onset of the position adopted by the Moth(wo)man,
he takes a pose of wrestling hero. He then steps down from
the ledge of the window. The female, who has remained in the
iconic position of Greek statue moves to the centre. The Mothman
then lifts her and departs. The male defined as the dominant
and the female the submissive.
This is an visual analysis of the concept of hero from the
precepts ingrained in conventions and representations in post
modern society and culture from the historical canons. Although
there have been transitions in gender politics of equality
and redefinition in the roles, the performance concludes on
the common knowledge the stereotypical positions of male and
female still pervade in 21st century portrayal’s of
gender relationships and equally imbued in mass media.
This event was supported by the Curator, Martin Turck, of
the gallery and Georg Gartz, who co-ordinates and manages
the Cologne groups of Eight Days a Week.
Further information can be viewed on the artists and Eight
Days a Week at:
www.tonyknox.org.uk
www.gaynorevelynsweeney.co.uk
www.eightdaysaweek.org.uk
www.galerie-martin-turck.de
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