ONE
MONTH – MELBOURNE VIENNA
Catalogue essay by Georgia Cribb
One month can zip by without notice or drag on for eternity. Occurrences
within the month are sometimes remembered, but through the space of
time, these memories can become distorted or blurred. Those who keep
a diary might have a better sense of events gone by, however diaries
are usually selective, mostly recounting significant highlights or misfortunes
and rarely discussing the menial tasks undertaken on a daily basis.
Most importantly, diaries are private and written only for the writer,
not an audience.
Louise Jennison and Gracia Haby, two Australian artists, live together
and often collaborate in creative projects. These two artists create
a new body of work that documents their experience of one month and
present it publicly as part of Global Fusion, an urbanart International
Public Project shown at two different exhibition spaces, Palais Porcia
and Wienstation, Vienna, Austria in 2002.
The documentation of events and experiences that occur within varying
time-frames is a theme previously explored by the artists, specifically
in a series of six artists books created in 2000–01. Nao falo
Portugese, a book created out of Jennison and Haby's travel experiences
through Portugal in 2000 and The ermines tea party –
one weekend, an account of how both the artists and their friends
and family spent one weekend, are two examples from the series.
Haby and Jennison's new work has three components — two
artists books, Melbourne in 31 days and 30 days in Vienna,
and a performance undertaken at the Wienstation, Vienna in March 2002.
The first component of the work, an artists' book, was undertaken in
September 2001 and documents the artists' experience of one month in
their home-town of Melbourne. The second component is the performance
occurring in Vienna in early 2002, during which the artists recount
the experience of one month in Melbourne and both document and present
their experience of one month in the city of Vienna. The final stage
is the compiling of the Vienna material into the second of the artists'
book 30 days in Vienna on their return to Melbourne in mid
2002.
The artists book Melbourne in 31 days exists in two parts —
a hand-written narrative of the artists' experiences over the period
of one month around Melbourne as documented by Jennison, with the second
a visual collage of ephemera collected during the same period by both
artists. The artists self-consciously document their home life, both
public and private, selecting and discarding much over the month long
period.
Jennison's narrative in Melbourne in 31 days is written in
the first person, beginning with waking up and finishing with going
to sleep one month later. The text is written in one continuous stream
documenting in detail daily activities such as feeding pets and cooking
dinner. The text immerses us for a period of time in the life of the
artist, experiencing her daily routine and her interaction with Haby
and other friends and family.
The second part of the Melbourne in 31 days is comprised of
visual material including receipts from various purchases, tickets,
handwritten notes from friends and family and photographs, all sourced
within the same month. Once collected, the artists have sorted the material
chronologically, scanned the material onto computer,creating a digital
visual diary which was printed and bound into a book. Finally pages
were hand-coloured, and additional material such as stamps and ephemera
were added. This process illustrates the artists' experiences from one
month.
Melbourne in 31 days, which is displayed in an antique hat-box,
is shown in the Palais Porcia Vienna, along side an aeroplane case containing
the first six books created by the artists.
The performance component begins with Jennison re-writing the narrative
component of Melbourne in 31 days on the windows of Wienstation,
Vienna. Simultaneously, Haby is compiling a written description of the
artists' experience of living and working in Vienna during a period
of one month, and begins to transcribe this text on the same windows.
In turn, Jennison returns to slowly erase her experience of Melbourne,
blurring the account of life in one city with another. As an adjunct
to this performance, a box is provided in the exhibition space in which
visitors to the exhibition are asked to donate mementos, souvenirs and
thoughts from their daily lives. This visual material will be sorted
and combined with ephemera collected by the artists into the second
half of the book. This, together with Haby's Vienna text, replicating
the same format of Melbourne in 31 days, is the basis for 30
days in Vienna, to be produced on the artists return to Melbourne
in mid 2002.
Louise Jennison and Gracia Haby's project raises the question how does
experience of one month in a city differ from any other? The artists
have created a body of work from multiple perspectives —
two different people living alternatively as residents and tourists
in two different cities and two different time frames. This project
reminds us that experience of one month in one city is always subjective.
Although we may not consciously recognise it, we have a personal relationship
with a city. Different locations remind us of events or interactions
that have occurred there. Most often, when we approach a new city as
a tourist we look upon this destination as a site that in the future
will stimulate memories of time and circumstance. Whether from Vienna
or Melbourne, observers encounter this body of work from one of two
perspectives - as a resident or a foreigner. The artists' account of
one month in our home city lets us see it from a new perspective, whilst
of the tourist we are reminded of the possibilities a city can hold.
For the observer, the time frame of one month is experienced through
Jennison and Haby's body of work in minutes or hours depending on how
the exhibition is becomes an abstract idea that merely frames the beginning
of one experience with the end of another.
Georgia Cribb, 2002
Gracia
Haby & Louise Jennison
And we stood alone in the silent night
2008
artists' book
