KIERAN BRYANT
’GRAPPLING ON THE PRECIPICE OF THE SQUIRT AND THE STREAM’
12 APRIL – 19 MAY, 2018
Kieran Bryant, how do you think this is the deepest hole in the water, digital still, single-channel video, 2017, Image courtesy of the artist.
ARTIST STATEMENT
grappling on the precipice of the squirt and the stream presents a series of video, mixed-media installation, and collaborative performance that examine differing modes of a fluid queered body experience in its connection to both water and the hole. Looking at the connections that can be made between man-made watery sites such as dams, fountains, canals and sewer drains, and the human body; particularly sites of control, shame, and regret in a queered body. This exhibition asks how water, through its relationship with holes and orifices, can be a conduit to discuss themes of queer visibility and identity signification; re-contextualisation of image and sound in popular and contemporary culture; and collaborative distance. An exhibition text written with Spence Messih addresses some of these themes in a collaborative back and forth that touches on the use of sensuality. This new work was developed at the Cité Internationale des Arts Paris with the support of UNSW Art & Design and the generosity of Mr Ross Steele AM.
Kieran Bryant, grappling on the precipice of the squirt and the stream, installation view, 2017. Photography by Document Photography.
Kieran Bryant + Spence Messih, water we / deep focus, laser print on silk matte, 115 x 158mm / 158 x 115mm, 2017-18. Photography by Document Photography.
Kieran Bryant, how empty of me to be so full of you, digital print on polysilk with cord, 2 m x 1.35m, 2018. Photography by Document Photography.
Kieran Bryant, grappling on the precipice of the squirt and the stream, installation view, 2017. Photography by Document Photography.
A suite of live performances will be presented throughout the duration of the exhibition. Over 5 successive weeks the artist will collaborate with performers Eugene Choi, Neil Beedie, Marcus Whale, and Megan Alice Clune. Each performer will re-interpret and re-imagine songs used in ‘wetness quartet’, the artist responding with movement (and for one week, song). The final week will consist of a massed harmonisation including all performers, a concluding act of collaborative flow and fluidity. This performance series was developed in part during Liveworks Lab 2017 at Bundanon Trust with the support of Performance Space.
Fluid feelings, Eugene Choi performance. 2018.
Fluid feelings, Neil Beedie performance, 2018.
Fluid feelings, Marcus Whalen performance, 2018.
Fluid feelings, Marcus Whalen performance, 2018.