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
