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on second thoughts
A screen poem for slide and video projection
on second thoughts has been transcribed from a live
dance performance for a solo dancer and slide projections.
Thematically the work deals with ideas of time, memory
and journey. The work explores notions of biography
and performance. It uses time to reveal time. The text
was written in an almost improvised way with very little
restructuring. This installation version attempts to
elongate the sense of time and to arrest notions of
the ephemeral nature of dance performance. Text and
images overlap to take the 20-minute performance piece
to a longer duration, hours and possibly days. The editing
make use of fade-outs between scenes, a cinematic device
that reinforces the sense of passing time. Filmed in
a one-take 45-minute sequence the performer is placed
in a room with the intention to use naturalistic, non-codified
movement to suggest the passing of time and the thoughts
that surround. The performers body is documented in
contemplation and as a site that embodies thought, a
history, a gender and an experience. The video component
makes reference to the early cinema of Andy Warhol;
Sleep (1963) Kiss (1963) Empire (1964) etc. It also
responds to Auguste Rodin's "The Thinker".
on second thoughts intends to heighten the experience
of the spectator in considering the past and the present,
thought and memory. To view, as with the Rodin sculpture,
over an extended time-frame, a body absorbed in thought.
The nature of the video component, with its use of saturated
colour and its television monitor quality, amplifies
the notion of watching, it becomes almost voyeuristic:
to become absorbed in a performance and performer in
the intimate experience of thought.
on second thoughts has been presented at the Palma Rosa
Gallery, Brisbane and the Performance Space, Sydney.

For further information of technical details and
availability for exhibition please contact John Utans.
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