ARTISTS JOURNAL
Monday. The water is dripping from the sky. The rotunda has a moat.
Dripping, splashing, ripples all around us, we are an island in the sky.


Kimvi Nguyen . Maija Liepins . Julia Keenan
ARTISTS JOURNAL
Monday. The water is dripping from the sky. The rotunda has a moat.
Dripping, splashing, ripples all around us, we are an island in the sky.
(Games for self-reflection)
No / yes (in/out)
React / Reflect
The Undefined Unknown / The Remembered Past
Shouldering the burden / An alternative / Bypassing Responsibility
To be continued…
(The inner whisper)
I can imagine
I can explore
I can learn.
(I trust I’ll see you at the next crossroad)
Every answer is but a hypothesis
so says my inner muse
yet to be realised
I feel a bit vulnerable about this post, because it is a true unedited reflection of my morning thoughts.
I would like to, in the course of my group residency, find a moment of dissent I can call my own.
Is it possible to find a deeper truth?
I always thought truth would be firm enough to stand on, at least for a moment, like a stepping stone in the river. Until then, my intentions are to show up for a dialogue. To show up without an agenda that would contextualise my actions… so it will be uncomfortable.
It will be uncertain.
But I will be open to possibilities,
I will be open to influence
And in the flux I will find my
standing place:
Balancing the inside with the outside
My attention is on the water, as a result of reading other artists’ posts on this blog so far.
If there is water connecting us, absorbing the vibration of all the sounds and movements of our thoughts and actions, then Group 3’s square which will appear in the gallery is like an island.
An island abutting an ocean, land rising up out of the water to kiss the air.
It is, a place to stand.
Participating Artists: Julia Keenan . Maija Liepins . Kimvi Nguyen
With presence and site-responsive curiosity we will use the surfaces such as windows and floor to investigate our relationship with dissent.
We recognise that to stand alone, to stand out, to be the only one who says no, or calls it out, takes great courage and personal conviction. So we will use the Laboratory of Dissent as an incubator for creative dissent.
When our group were initially offered a site at the school, it came with the proviso that we be quiet during classes (shhhh!) Consequently, our attention turned to how we could occupy space and work with sound in direct response to the limitations of ‘quiet space’.
In a series of whispered monologues and recorded conversations the artists will explore the ways they see, feel, or think differently and how they can be themselves, with particular attention to documenting what arises internally and between them and their environment.
Julia Keenan, Kimvi Nguyen and Maija Liepins (the whisperers) present The Soapbox. A live art experiment which asks how comfortable we are with sharing space with alternative points of view. We will create a space / zone where we are allowed to be ourselves: a version of a ‘soap box’, a space for meditation, hold workshop, rest . . .
A 1.5m x 1.5m white square will set the perimeters of our actions. We are welcome to do anything inside this square, be ourselves, work, sleep, eat experiment, bring things in etc. We can share the space at the same time. Interesting to record and to watch our constraints and behaviour. What will manifest in a restricted space?
@kimvi_nguyen
@maijaliepins @litlLinden
@juliakeenanstudio
Will the soap box concentrate, amplify, and contain our internal energy?
The responses of “the other” are unknown.
Our willingness to practice ‘being ourselves’ without giving way to social or institutional pressure will inform the tension and creativity that is generated in the space between self and other.
art experience ash Body collaboration conversational practice conversational storytelling Conversation through encounters cross-pollination cultural dissent Dialogue Dissensus dissent methodology experiment fluidity going against the grain hair island Karen Wood learning lily pad live-art Mindchatter Notes Noticing not knowing observing performance Place Play poetry Questioning ranting rebellious Reflection responding Rotunda sound in the landscape Spacebetween tower uncertainty Unplanned Response Water Whispers words yellow
30 September 2019
As if the feet cannot agree, the socks present a difference between two sides.
How might we express our points of difference constructively whilst also choosing to move as one body?