Tag: Otiose

FADO is pleased to present Spoken House, a new work by the British performance duo otiose, as part of the Public Spaces / Private Places series.

Spoken House is part of an ongoing series of works by the artists which examine various aspects of household space. Over three days, the artists will hold public conversations with everyone who visits this constructed space, beginning with a spoken description of the fictional Southfork ranch of the television series Dallas. With each description, Southfork will be remodelled into a private space built up from the recollections and desires of each ‘house guest.’ Visitors on the fourth day will find a text/audio archive documenting the results of the three-day performance project.

TEXT ARCHIVE

On November 1 & 2, spoken house inhabited the following fictional, historical and actual homes:
The Southfork ranch from Dallas.
Seinfeld’s apartment.
The family residence of the Brady Bunch.
The living room of All In The Family.
The home of the Simpsons.
The shared apartment in Friends.
The house occupied by Norman Bates in Psycho.
A shared bedroom in New York.
A house lived in by an old Estonian lady in London.
A shared flat in Finland.
An 18th century Chinese house.
Military barracks housing in Canada.
Cooperative housing in Toronto.
Mary Tyler Moore’s apartment.

Presented in the context the 3rd 7a*11d International Performance Art Festival with travel support from The British Council Canada.

Image © Otiose, Passage, 1999. Photo by Paul Couillard.

Ailith Roberts and John Dummett, known collectively as otiose, are rising stars on the British art scene. Their intriguing investigations into the acts of archiving, documenting, and witnessing combine a strong conceptual bent with a penchant for obsessive, repetitive physical activities. Based in Leeds, England, the duo have been working together for the past three years, presenting actions and installation works that invite us to reconsider our relationship to the world while calling into question the nature of public space.

passage: n. passing, transit; crossing, being conveyed, from port to port; corridor; (pl.) what passes between two persons; part of speech or literary work.

Bring two artists who usually work together to the same city a continent away from home. Split them up and set them loose in different parts of the city. After five days, bring them back together with 24 tape recorders for 12 hours to hear what they have to say to each other. The result is Passage, the latest performance in FADO’s 12-month duration performance art series, TIME TIME TIME.

Upon arrival in Toronto, the two members of otiose will go to separate locations, unknown to the other. The following 5 days will be a solitary process of speaking, searching & witnessing; for each other. This will culminate in a 12 hour public dialogue between them.

Ailith Roberts and John Dummett, known collectively as otiose, have been working together for the past three years, presenting actions and installation works that invite us to reconsider our relationship to the world while calling into question the nature of public space. Past performance activities by otiose include what may well be the quintessential British performance – 3 days of repeatedly making single cups of tea. This piece was part of otiose’s Showhouse series, which also featured an 8-hour performance spent arranging 6 ornaments on a mantelpiece, and an in situ exhibition of 10,000 Polaroids of an empty house. Whether fingerprint dusting the floors and walls of a public gallery to reveal traces of past activity, or spending hours browsing in a supermarket to see how long it will take to be noticed and asked to leave, their works point out the uneasy links between inhabited space and human behaviour.

Travel support provided by the British Council.