Performing the situated line, 27.04.2013 - 12.05.2013, real-time documentation of ‘The Situated Line’ at Articulate Project Space, Leichhardt, curated by Michele Elliott, featuring Brogan Bunt, Boni Cairncross, Michele Elliott, Ruth Hadlow and Jo Law,10 days, 6 hours each, 708 pages.
Performing the situated line is a subjective, hand-written document of ‘The Situated Line’ – a group exhibition presented at Articulate Project Space, Leichhardt, between 26.04.13 – 12.05.13. As a form of real-time documentation, the pages trace sixty hours over ten days of occupying space, being in a given moment and an attempt to capture the elusive present. Dispersed with diagrams, sketches and pauses, the text is at times feverous, excitable and detailed. At other times, it is languid, mundane and tedious. Fragmented and disjointed, the text grapples with the process of evidencing the split between time frames – the ‘now’ of real-time, the ‘now’ being captured on the page and the lag between them.
The process offered a space of heightened awareness (until fatigue set in), making explicit the incomplete nature of live experiences and the role of attention in framing such events. While the process was performed publicly, the experience was highly subjective and internal. The distance that was established called into question the relationship between artist and audience within the live encounter. Here, the document-as-object operates on the same conditions of its production - as the 'third thing'. It supplements the performance as the mediator between artist and audience, questioning the legibility of the document and initial process in turn.
The real-time documentation produced during the Situated Line was later exhibited as part of Public Thinking, a group exhibition curated by Susan Gibb, featuring Boni Cairncross, George Egerton-Warburton and Zoe Robertson., held at 55 Sydenham Rd Marrickville NSW 2204 AU in 2013.