NOX Night Sculpture walk
Small journal of my experience and what happened during this performance 14-16 May 2021.
Day 1 observations
I started performing the work, posing still for a few minutes while the public gathered around, then slowly changing poses I herd whispers from the audience “oh look there’s a real person there!”
Sometimes people were too shy to come in the frame so they just took pictures of me posing, I then would invite them and say “would you guys like to come in the frame with me?” once a few people came in everyone wanted pictures!
I got a suggestion form one lady in the audience to shift my lighting a little so the audience could see better which worked really well, I couldn’t have known myself.
I alternated between posing in the background in the middle of the trash and coming out to the front near the golden frame to pose with people exactly like taking a picture with Santa.
I heard a lot of positive feedback, I think people liked having conversations with the artist and seeing the creator. I could hear mothers explaining to their kids how the work was all the toys that people threw out to get new toys for the next Christmas, I also heard people saying how surprised they were that all of that was found in the council cleanup thrown away. I could see how my work started conversations about this subject.
People Highlights :
A group of young teenage girls taking pictures having such a positive vibe.
A big group of young families putting the strollers in the frame and leaving the strollers with the babies on their own in the frame to take a picture with me.
A grandma taking a picture asking if that’s how my room looked like, a lot of people giving me courage and asking me to stay warm (it was really very cold in winter’s freezing wind) .
Day 3 performance
It was super cold this night! The air was still and I could see my breath. This time people were queuing to take a picture. A lady around her 50s got mad because a few kids went to take a picture with me before her, I couldn’t see what was happening in front of the frame because of the lights so I couldn’t help or manage the crowd but things got in order quick enough.
Observations: most of the parents just sent the kids to be in the frame and they would take pictures of them, there was the odd parent coming in though and full families that would join me which was good.
When all of a sudden 10 kids walked towards me to take pictures all together it was quite intimidating I told them not to touch anything as they tried to all fit in, the parents where happy.
I started performing every night by 5:30pm but by 6:15pm today I was already exhausted and frozen ready for it to end. A combination of accumulated exhaustion over the past nights and almost getting sick I still held up and continued performing till 8pm, using a little more movement and dancing when there was no audience in the work to try and warm me up and keep me motivated.
Supported by Randwick City Council this community focussed event was full the 3 nights we performed.
This event was where I did my first performance to the general public.
The work I added in this show is called The Next Christmas Photobooth.
Day 2 performance
I had reorganised the trash for the second day so that it looked like a pile of objects with clear paths for the audience to walk within the ‘sculpture’ and take pictures in it with me. The audience was more incorporated and connected with me which led to a much better set up and experience. It felt more busy and I managed to invite people especially kids to come participate throughout the whole night.
Story: This little kid about 10 years old asked “What will happen to all this after the exhibition, if it’s going to get thrown away it’s bad, I’m an environmentalist you see” and I said “did you know that I found all this on the street about to get thrown in the bin so I’m currently reusing them now” and then she started clapping at me and all the kids around clapped with her she told her mum “Mum! This is Felixe. We’re clapping at her because she saved all these things from being thrown away!” it was such a heart warming moment.
I got named Supergirl by a few kids, people think I looked like Harley Quinn or jack in the box any interpretation of the character blending in the sculpture is okay.
Although I originally wanted people to share their image in the work with me this didn’t work very well, but I didn’t mind it. The point was for the work to change and be different every time someone different walked in and so everyone that took pictures these three nights kept a different unique version of the artwork.
Behind the scenes, packing up the work after the 3 days of performance. The event was fully packed and we had to stop more people from coming in. It was such a big success. I really enjoy making works for the general public, having it accessible to all was such a great experience.
