Splitting open the surface on which it is inscribed

^{Splitting open the surface on which it is inscribed, cutting closer to the cache, 2019
site-specific solo performance for video, steel sheeting, three-channel video with synchronised sonic recording, spatialised for site. additional single channel video, various screens and speakers, custom steel fixtures and trolly. dimensions and duration variable

in: ‘Temporal Proximities’, curated by Kelli Alred, Naarm Melbourne
w/: Score enacted by Helen Grogan}

^{all activations, Splitting open the surface on which it is inscribed:

GERTRUDE CONTEMPORARY
w/ score enacted by Shelley Lasica
‘Great Waves of Feeling’, 2018

ABBOTSFORD CONVENT
w/ score enacted by Helen Grogan
‘Temporal Proximities’, 2019

LATROBE REGIONAL GALLERY
‘Great Waves of Feeling’, 2021

2019
MILDURA ARTS CENTRE
‘Great Waves of Feeling’ , 2020

HAMILTON GALLERY
‘Great Waves of Feeling’, 2019

MARGARET LAWRENCE GALLERY
w/ score enacted by Helen Grogan
Victorian College of the Arts, 2019

also as:

shield/splitting, 2019
2 x pigment ink-jet photograph prints 119.0 x 67.5 cm (each)

further credits:

Sound recordist, Liam Power. Artists in 2018 ‘Lilac’ Artery Studio research, Atong Atem, Jess Gall, Laura May Grogan, Simon MacEwan, Liam Power. Documentation at Gertrude Contemporary Christo Crocker}

^{From Zara Sigglekow’s catalogue essay:

Helen Grogan’s practice is concerned with systems of observing, sensing, and locating. She is hyper-aware of the ethical tensions of the subject viewing an object, an audience viewing a performer, and seeks to disrupt this relationship that can be fraught with power imbalance. ‘splitting open the surface on which it is inscribed’ (2018) is an exploration of the agency of an object. That is, how to work with an object with limited subjective impact and reveal its materiality and agency, encourage a more sympathetic relationship between viewer and artwork, and the place/architecture within which it sits.

The work consists of a 15 minute choreographic score, enacted for three different restrictive camera views and a detailed stereo audio recording. A thin mirror-finish steel disk is forged, folded, and pressed by the score participant Shelley Lasica, revealing both resistance to her actions, and compliance to her force. The manner in which Lasica undertakes her actions is sympathetic and adaptive to the object’s response. All the while, the surface reflects the room, actions, and apparatus around it. The visual replay of this event within the exhibition is fractured and dispersed across three screens, while the sonic re-articulation manifests as a synchronised real time diegetic audio recording. The sum of this effect is the creation of an embodied sensorial empathy between viewer, artwork, and gallery space in which it sits.}