John Reid — Walking the Solar System, Pt. 2

The statement below from John Reid and a short video of his performance 'Force of Habit' from 2000 sheds more light on his work shown in the previous post (his video from Kioloa can be found there as well).

 

Friday 3 June Late afternoon: The walk onto the rock platform skirting Snapper Point near Kioloa, NSW, is a disorientating sensory experience. The exposed and slightly off-kilter Permian sediments form the headland on one side and, on the other, is the sizeable rolling swell of the Tasman Sea. It brought to mind a performance work that I did in 2000 titled, ‘Force of Habit’ (see Video 01, the only visual compilation to exist). In it my body is positioned horizontally on a gallery plynth. Armed with a briefcase, I assume a posture as if I’m walking to work. By virtue of being at odds with the force of gravity my limbs fatigue in a few minutes, the walking pose collapses and the artwork concludes. The performance derived some formal dramatic tension from the body being under physiological stress. Conceptually, however, the work was in dialogue with Australian artist, Stelarc, and his thesis that the brain and technology are in a mutinous relationship against the rest of the body in order to attain gravitational escape velocity.

John Reid — Walking the Solar System

Those of us from the Land Arts program who came to Australia owe a lot to John Reid, so it is a real honor to be able to show some of his work on this blog. During the month of June, Mr. Reid focused his time on the body of work tentatively titled, "Walking the Solar System." Below is a brief statement about his working process along with images and a video from the series. The video is the one he showed us at Kioloa, which I wrote about in my post "Report from Kioloa."

The idea of imaging the human figure going about everyday life (ie walking to work) as a body in the solar system began with the 2002 performance, 'Force of Habit.' A similar work was performed in 2005. In 2011, several performances were undertaken in the field for the video camera with the production assistance of Bill Gilbert and Frank Thirion. The disconnect between the figure and the ground raises for consideration the locus of the figure orbiting about the sun intersecting with a particular place that is at that point in space but at another orientation and point in time. At issue for the final resolution of these recent works is whether to show only still photographs of ‘the walks’, or only the video of ‘the walks’, which ones of either, and to decide on a title as an entrée to the contemplation of the central idea.

6/28 Winding the Line (A Jump to the Present)

Knowing that much has to be posted still about the remainder of this Australian adventure, I'd like to return to real time here because the immediacy of what I'm feeling is important. 

The line is winding back into a coil. We wound back our line from Calperum to Canberra and now from Canberra to Sydney. In a matter of hours, the winding will take me back across the Pacific to LA and then to San Francisco. There's something about this that makes me sad because what has transpired here can now only exist as memory. Its forefront is no longer in the present moment.

We are in the process of saying goodbye, though in many cases, it is very likely to be an "until we meet again" rather than a goodbye. It still, however, feels like goodbye. We've said our goodbyes to the Field Studies artists from Jigamy and Calperum. Yoshi was called away earlier in the trip, even though his spirit of levity and generosity stayed with us throughout. And as for John Reid, who is pure, unadulterated class, our inevitable goodbyes somehow still managed to feel premature. It would have felt premature regardless of how or when it was done.

Of the remainder of us who came from the States to embark on this amazing journey together — Bill, Cedra, Joseph and me — we say our goodbyes tomorrow at varying times. It is a testament to Bill and John that these goodbyes resonate with me as strongly as they do and especially to Bill for bringing all of us together.

Blake, Yoshi, Cedra, Joseph and Bill at Sublime Point, photo by John Reid

Australia

This is the first of many posts over the next few months about my upcoming trip to Australia, where I will be joining some alumni of UNM's Land Arts program and its creator Bill Gilbert as guest artists for the Australia National University's School of Art Field Study program. This program was created and developed by John Reid through the Engaging Visions Research Project. Our travels will focus on two primary locations: a) the Far South Coast of New South Wales, centered around the town of Eden and b) Calperum Station, Riverland Biosphere Reserve, South Australia, north of Renmark.

The map below shows the 85 Biogeographic regions of Australia. We will be in A) Southeast Corner (Eden) and B) Murray Darling Basin (Calperum Station)

The passages below are quoted from ANU's Engaging Visions website:

The goal of the Engaging Visions Research Project was to configure a model procedure for visual artists to participate in, and/or engage with, Murray Darling Basin catchment communities to help address environmental concerns.

The subject of the Engaging Visions Research Project was an established ANU School of Art program called Field Studies. During a Field Studies program artists participate in a series of field trips to locations of artistic inspiration while interacting with and learning from communities in the area. Artworks generated through this experience are exhibited in the local community.

The Field Studies program was convened and coordinated by the Environment Studio at the ANU School of Art. The research evaluation component of Engaging Visions was conceived and conducted by the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science at the ANU.

This research project was undertaken from 2007 to 2010. It focused on four Field Studies programs in the Murray Darling Basin: St George (Queensland 2007), Tumut (New South Wales 2008), Riverland (South Australia 2008) and Benalla (Victoria 2009).