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"The Elastic-Sided
Boot" was performed in the basement of
the EAF. A continuous band of 35mm contact
prints linked four concrete pillars to form
the performance space (Arena). This was sub-divided
into two areas by a hanging plastic screen.
The contact prints referred to a recent Adelaide
down-town incident where a man had walked
into a gun shop, grabbed two guns and some
ammunition and threatened the shopkeepers.
The police were called and asked the man to
come out and give himself up. He came out
into the street holding two guns both pointing
to the sky. The police then told him to drop
the guns or they would shoot. The man continued
to hold the guns pointing to the sky without
making any attempt to use them and the police
shot and killed the man. It was widely believed
that he had staged his own suicide.
Against this backdrop
of real-life drama participants were asked
to bring stones, tins, mouth harps, nose flutes
or any musical instruments and develop an
impromptu dialogue with their fellows including
shaking hands and drinking wine, in one of
the two marked off spaces. The debris of the
performance was left as a sign of the event.
The performance was recorded on audio tape
for later playback.
Following this
event, in the second enclosure, an 8mm continuous
film loop projected on the intervening screen
a close up image of a child building and destroying
a Leggo toy accompanied by the sound of the
audio playback.
The performance/installation,
had positive parallels with the early installation
work Arena (1970) including an outer
perimetre/enclosure, and in juxtaposition,
two inner enclosures. Life and death; performance,
beginning and end (life and death); contiuous
playback, end without end.
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