in dust real, cecilia white, 2010

In this forty minute performance Cecilia White continues her investigations into self asking …dust is matter, but what matters? Dust is domestic, atmospheric, industrial. It is our landscape, unsettled by the breath of air and layering itself in perhaps (un)settling locations. And as it shifts again, its dislocation raises the question of what is real. Inspired by Patrick White’s fourth novel ‘The Tree of Man’, published in 1955, this performance locates itself in a visual space of responses by Idris Murphy’s touring exhibiton to the iconic Australian landscape exhibited in an industrial city.  For this investigation Cecilia White invokes particled narratives to engage with the energy and depletion located in the creation of what matters in a perpetually disrupted world. To do this she invites three other artists into the performance, installing them on ladders, against walls, behind walls. Her bare feet are grounded. It evokes the generation of experiential layers, threads of thought and specks of memory that may breathe an identity into being and away again. If we are dust, we may be the landscape we consider real. Perhaps that is what matters.

in dust real 2, cecilia white, 2012

The act of breathing often passes unnoticed as a marker of both constancy and change. The simple in, pause and out rhythms are key to our ability to engage with our emotions, thoughts and actions. This performance examines the construal and (a)rhythmic breath of identity in a dynamic universe.

Artistic & Curatorial Direction
Cecilia White

Installation
Cecilia White

Performance
Cecilia White (text/voice/body)
Rosalind Halton (harpsichord)
Ben Opie (oboe)
Michael Bardon (cello)

in dust real 3, cecilia white, 2012

in dust real 5, cecilia white, 2012

Tuesday 17 July 2012
12.30pm – 1.30 pm
University of Newcastle Gallery
Callaghan NSW

This event was supported by the University of Newcastle.

The exhibition was Idris Murphy’s Touring Landscapes.