3 Boys In A Rub-Dub-Tub
Art Show, 10-20th Nov, 1983
Alky, Wadie and Pete
This was a 3 man group show that I pulled together with two artist friends, Doug Wade and Peter McAlpine. They both showed paintings. I showed paintings, aquariums and held a performance that involved the 3 of us. This performance involved a kids blow up pool with a garden trellis backdrop. We dressed in our swim wear and hung a red light which was the only light source during the short performance. This piece was a permutation of a piece I designed for a public art show in Maitland, a small country town in the Hunter Valley of NSW a few years before while I was still an art student.
As the event began, all light were turned off and loud wild music played. A small red bulb dangled nearby as the only light source. The other 2 boys began to play in the pool, splashing and wading around, rather slowly, a little like the act without the pretense of acting. The motions were followed of the act but no attempt was made to become something other.
Meanwhile I began pinning large sheets of unexposed photographic paper onto the trellis above the wading pool. I also filled 2 trays with the appropriate darkroom chemicals for developing and fixing photographic paper. Directly in front of the pool and backdrop I set up a camera on a tripod. I released the timer and joined the boys in the pool. As we awkwardly intertwined, the camera and flash went off. I removed the paper and put it through the correct trays and afater completing the develkopment of the images, I pinned them back onto the trellis. The lights went back on and the performance was complete. The image on the trellis was a sillouhette of the 3 boys. The black and white image had drips and smudges as well as the white shapes left unexposed by the shadow of the bodies in the flash of the camera.
As the event began, all light were turned off and loud wild music played. A small red bulb dangled nearby as the only light source. The other 2 boys began to play in the pool, splashing and wading around, rather slowly, a little like the act without the pretense of acting. The motions were followed of the act but no attempt was made to become something other.
Meanwhile I began pinning large sheets of unexposed photographic paper onto the trellis above the wading pool. I also filled 2 trays with the appropriate darkroom chemicals for developing and fixing photographic paper. Directly in front of the pool and backdrop I set up a camera on a tripod. I released the timer and joined the boys in the pool. As we awkwardly intertwined, the camera and flash went off. I removed the paper and put it through the correct trays and afater completing the develkopment of the images, I pinned them back onto the trellis. The lights went back on and the performance was complete. The image on the trellis was a sillouhette of the 3 boys. The black and white image had drips and smudges as well as the white shapes left unexposed by the shadow of the bodies in the flash of the camera.