performance

meet me at the steps

bdes2024 art processes (2022)

koji ryui / alex kershaw

The pandemic pushed individuals to seclusion within their rooms, isolated and segmented from others. A year on from Sydney’s last lockdown, our social landscape still teems with fears of congregation, retreating from the public space.

meet me at the steps is a happening on Town Hall Steps, a prominent symbol of social life and meeting within the city’s collective consciousness. Drawing from the Neo-Dada public interventions of Mierle Laderman Ukeles and Marta Minujin, I utilise my body to probe the virtual privatisation of traditionally physical functions – socialisation amongst them. The work is disruptive and cheeky; I trace movements within my own bedroom and impose them on the Steps, thus undermining the boundaries between the public and personal.

The absurd pantomime which occurs is self-deprecating and ironic, alienating onlookers – and in doing so – compelling them to question the paradox of these post-pandemic times: desiring reconnection yet actively working against it.