Calling On The Redundant

Calling On The Redundant

In the latest Letting Space art project, Productive Bodies, artist Mark Harvey is calling for redundant public servants, beneficiaries and people who work in the arts to participate in a performance work during the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts in March next year.

“We are particularly interested in working with people who have been laid off from the government sector, people who work in the arts, and people who feel vulnerable in their employment in the current economic and political climate,” says Harvey.

This work follows that of an earlier Letting Space project, Tao Wells’ The Beneficiary’s Office which caused controversy in late 2010. “On the one hand Productive Bodies is a response to Tao’s work but moreover it responds to the political conditions facing government employees, beneficiaries and artists. We’re asking ‘What does it mean for these people to be valued and useful?’”, says Harvey.

Both artists and government employees face threats during this current political period. As the Dominion Post has reported, over 900 civil servants have lost jobs in Wellington in the past 12 months and more redundancies are expected.

Harvey expects the performance of Productive Bodies to be physical and playful. “This will be a fun, collective experience and provide some exercise,” he says. People willing to participate in the performance over the week 12-16 March 2012 should contact sophiejerramandmarkamery@gmail.com

Productive Bodies is being produced with assistance from Creative New Zealand and in association with City Gallery Wellington. For further information on the project go to http://www.lettingspace.org.nz/productive-bodies

Mark Harvey is a lecturer in Creative Arts and Industries at The University of Auckland but like many artists has been on the unemployment benefit for periods of his life. He has worked extensively in New Zealand and internationally creating performance projects that test the boundary between dance and performance art. Harvey’s performance practices are conceptually driven and test out notions of endurance with constructions of idiocy, seriousness and deadpan humour, and draw from his visual arts and contemporary dance influences (he trained in contemporary dance).

LETTING SPACE seeks to transform the relationship between artists, the public and their environments to enable social change. Over 2010 and 2011 we worked with artists to create a major series of projects in vacant commercial sites in Wellington and Auckland, and a series of fora brokering relationships between artists and property owners, with funding support from Creative New Zealand, Wellington City Council and Auckland Arts Festival.

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