Biennial : FACT

One Year Performance (1980-1981)

A few days ago I visited FACT to see the biennial work in there. I was very impressed by it.

The exhibition focused on the documentation of his performance ‘life work’, One Year Performance 1980-1981 (Time Clock Piece). I thought this was documented very well and the way it was presented in the gallery was amazing.

For one year, the artist punched a worker’s time clock located in his studio, on the hour, every hour. Marking the occasion by taking a self-portrait on a single frame of 16mm film, the resulting reel documents a year in his life at approximately one second per day. For me this represents the mundane and the repetition we all experience in life. By the end the artist looks haggard with his long hair sometimes falling into his eyes. This is a very interesting piece. It also reminded me of a documentary we looked at in second year about consumerism. It showed Chinese factory workers and the sheer amount of workers, plus the long hours they worked everyday. This was a good piece to see as I am looking at the passage of time for one of my pieces and plan to make a video piece.

I also loved Yves Netzhammer's work in Gallery 2 that reflect on fundamental, even subconscious, aspects of the human condition. His work contains a three-dimensional animation that focuses on characters who are struggling to remember situations that are lost or strangely misshapen by the memories of the collective consciousness. The result is an eerie and surreal atmosphere which made me feel uncomfortable at times. I think it is amazing when you feel such a strong reaction to a piece of work.