ACTS











Influenced by the instructional text scores of composers Cage, Cardew, Wolff and Tenney which I've been performing as part of my work with A Scratch Ensemble, ACTS starts as extremely short scripted pieces for performance which either generate, utilise or arrange collections of objects. Performances that generate sculpture and sculpture that generates performance have become a focus of my work lately in an attempt to look at what I see as the somewhat diminished the role of the actor/performer/maker.  I've been using models from composers that allow a great deal of autonomy within these roles as starting points

The performances were recorded as simply as possible and edited end to end, they were presented on three seperate screens all playing out of synch so that the soundtracks would combine into one loose overall composition. The work is not however the video, the performance or sculpture but exists somewhere between all three.

The ACTS are below feel free to perform them yourself, I'd love to see any documentation you generate.


  1. Fill a hole/gap/space with a balloon.

  1. Imitate the sound of squeaking balloons (you can use an instrument).

  1. Drum along (to a song).

  1. Blow up a balloon inside a bag (variation on ACT 1).

  1. Breathe into a bag.

  1. Shotgun a can (you might have to google how).

  1. Make a ramp, jump an asprin into a glass, drink.

  1. Make a corner out of foil (on a table, plinth, block).

  1. New national anthem: replace each pipe on a trumpet with different pipes, play the national anthem.

  1.  Fill a balloon with paint, pop.

  1. Stab with a drumstick.

  1. Push a pipe through a block (of Styrofoam).

  1. Make a cup of tea, dip the tea bag in plaster. Now you have a sculpture and a cup of tea.

  1. Shower yourself in ping pong balls.

  1. Highlight danger with a red t-shirt

  1.  Fountain: drill into a full bottle of water.

  1. New national anthem: make a xylophone which only plays the national anthem, throw it on the ground.

  1. Make a picture frame, clean it, shave over it, seal

  1. Test your safety glasses


ACTS - Nathan Gray - 2012
Utopian Slumps, Ground Floor, 33 Guildford Lane Melbourne, from 17 November to 8 December 2012.

Made with the assisstance of Arts Victoria with thnks to Jeph Neale, Julia Sylvester, Julie Burleigh, Helen Hughes and Jason Heller.
 

TTC-PP by NG and HH

 
A conversation between myself and Helen Hughes (editor of Discipline)about Theorists Training Camp is available here. Its being published to accompany the show which opens tonight. see last post for details.

Theorist Training Camp/Practice Piece

West Space
Level 1, 225 Bourke Street
Melbourne, Vic, 3000

Exhibition Dates
21 Sep 2012 - 12 Oct 2012
Wed-Fri 12-6pm Sat 12- 5pm

Performance
Friday 28th of September 6:30 pm



Theorist’s Training Camp/Practice Piece takes the preparatory practices of working out, study and music practice and adds them together to form a single complete action, an open performance, made by the audience themselves. The work is a space divided into reading, exercise and music zones all inspired by the DIY culture of Jogjakarta, Indonesia where the work was initially developed and shown.

Nathan Gray is an artist and experimental musician whose spatial compositions draw explicitly on contemporary and experimental music practices.
 
On Friday 28th the work will be performed by specialists, art theorists, gamelan musicians and athletes will come together to perform the various activities invited by the installation.

The artist would like to thank Asialink, Cemeti House, Arts Victoria and the Australia Indonesia Association for their assistance in the development of this work.

Tarrawarra Biennial 2012

Some of my work for Tarrawaa Biennial 2012 
Page 77 and Page 131
Two pages from Treatise by Cornelius Cardew rendered as sculptural assemblages.

A Scratch Ensemble will perform this work on the first Sunday of each month.
Photo By John Brash

5 August 2012 - 9 December 2012

TWB2012-SS_logo_line_PRPL-560PX
An assemblage of contemporary Australian visual artworks engaged with music, sound and voice.
Curator: Victoria Lynn
The TarraWarra Biennial was inaugurated in 2006 as a signature exhibition to identify new developments in contemporary art practice. The first Biennial Parallel Lives: Australian Painting Today was held in 2006. The second Biennial, Lost & Found, An Archeology of the Present, was held in 2008. Both exhibitions were opened to coincide with the Melbourne Art Fair.


The TarraWarra Museum of Art will present the third iteration of its Biennial from 5 August to 9 December 2012. Entitled Sonic Spheres the exhibition presents an assemblage of artists who are engaged with sound, music, voice and performance. The exhibition will include drawings, musical scores, sculptures made from musical instruments, paintings and video. These works invite us to listen to art, to find new sounds and melodies. Many of the artists will perform live with their art works during the opening weekend of the exhibition. This year, the biennial will include the work of 20 artists and one collaborative group: Robyn Backen, Lauren Brincat, Eugene Carchesio, The Donkey’s Tail, Marco Fusinato, Nathan Gray, David Haines & Joyce Hinterding (collaboration), Ross Manning, Dylan Martorell, Victor Meertens, Angelica Mesiti, Yukultji Napangati, James Newitt, Tom Nicholson with Andrew Byrne (collaboration), John Nixon, Sandra Selig, Christian Thompson, Ray James Tjangala and Johnny Yungut Tjupurrula.






Pages 1, 4, 9, 13 and 16 from Treatise 2 my sequel/homage/parody of Cardew's Treatise

Social Life of Things at Monash Faculty Gallery


 Window Work and detail, Score for Dance and detail

25 July to 1 September 2012

The Social Life of Things

Adam Cruickshank, Arlo Mountford, David Chesworth, Nathan Gray, Sonia Leber

The Social Life of Things features work from five Melbourne-based artists: Adam Cruickshank, Nathan Gray, Arlo Mountford, Sonia Leber & David Chesworth who investigate the things (both physical and theoretical) that circulate through our lives. Through objects, imagery and philosophy each artist interprets how things transpire, illuminate and drive human experience. It is through the analysis of these trajectories that the exhibition forms a critical discourse around our relationships with the traditional and conceptual notion of ‘things’, and asks us to consider the meanings and ideas behind these familiar objects and imagery. Curated by Alicia Renew.
Source: Monash University Faculty Gallery.
www.artdes.monash.edu.au/gallery/
Opening event 25 July from 5pm.
Caulfield Campus, Art & Design Building, 900 Dandenong Rd
Caulfield East VIC 3145
03 9903 2882
Mon to Fri 10am to 5pm, Sat noon-5pm, closed public holidays. Free entry

picture from research blog http://inspirilog.blogspot.com.au/

Score For Dance



Score for Dance 
Presented by Open Archive
Clear Acrylic Sheets, Black Masking Tape, Amplified Floor, Effects, Sound System
May 2012

Poster for Meyer's Place

Poster for Meyer's Place
4 colour poster
February 2012

Theorist Training Camp/Practice Piece Part 0



Theorist Training Camp/Practice Piece is an installation which creates a situation for performance. It encourages small groups of people to study, exercise and play music at the same time. The different activities form accompaniments to one another. The installation guides the performers by its layout and the types of equipment supplied. It subtly creates prescriptions for the type of piece which might be created.

I think of this installation as similar to one of the experimental scores commonly used in avant-garde composition. Rather than a work by itself, it is a blueprint for a work which is performed by the audience. I've drawn direct inspiration from Cornelius Cardew and the Scratch Orchestra here and their strategies for increasing the autonomy of the performer particularly their Scratch Pieces .

The physical structure of the work is based on practices of contingency common in Indonesia; the home-made, the bootleg, and the portable. They are strategies for coping with a lack of resources, money or access and are usually considered incomplete or imperfect but serve the same function as more permanent, expensive or authentic forms. Various relevant images to this work and my continuing research into making in general are at www.inspirilog.blogspot.com

This installation and its accompanying fleeting performances celebrate the continuing processes of exercise, study and practice.

I would like to thank: Julie Burleigh, Esther Kokmeijer, Leonardiansyah Allenda, Febrian (Yayan) Mulyono, Rizki (Kiki) Lumaela, Woto Wibowo, Taring Padi, Lintang, Tim O'Donoghue, Ican Harem, Prihatmoko Moki, Krishna and Dinah and Everyone at Kunci

and especially
Everyone at Cemeti Art House
AsiaLink, Arts Victoria and the Australia Indonesia Institute.




Theorist Training Camp/Practice Piece Pt 1





This is a collection of DIY instruments made or rehoused for the show chosen for their ease of operation. They are largely Gamelan parts salvaged and roughly rehoused but also features an analogue synthesiser and cardboard amplifier, photos feature Prihatmoko Moki, Krishna and Lintang who conducted the analogue synthesiser workshop.

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