The Centre for the Less Good Idea is a multifaceted platform, with curated seasonal projects twice annually. In addition to this they have an interspersion of events referred to as ‘For Once’ – a finished project which is exhibited or performed to the public – or ‘Off The Cuff’ – an impromptu or work-in-progress endeavour which is also exhibited or performed to the public but with a sense that what is happening is very much process.
It was helpful therefore, that the collaborative performance piece ‘Permanent creation‘ by artists Snyder Morena Martin and Eduardo Cachucho, was listed as an Off the Cuff performance, which gave it a flexibility to be interpreted in the light of process. I came in with as few expectations as I could, which was helpful too as there were few points of entry into the work (except for a FB event blurb outlining the aims of the performance and the artists’ bios, which I only allowed myself to read after being in the space for over an hour.) And to be honest, it took a while for me, as a viewer, to be drawn into the work; it didn’t seem as if the actions of the artists were typically performative (intended to entertain or create a spectacle), and the narrative which was “presented” was opaque at best. What did begin to happen, after I had turned off my phone and attempted to bring my mind to rest in the present, was that I began to notice things. I looked.
Credit here, needs to be given to a member of the audience who changed my perception of the performance dramatically. A very young girl from the audience, had escaped the clutches of her parents and began picking up bits of paper lying around the space, and mimicking the action of the artists by dropping them from the balcony up the stairs, watching it spiral through the air downwards. This child’s unpretentious and unselfconscious engagement with the space and the performance stopped my questioning and critique, and suddenly I simply began to enjoy the moment.
I noticed how communication was played out through the relationship between the two artists; there were language barriers (Snyder is from Columbia and Cachucho from South Africa, they met on residency in Sao Paulo) and choosing to communicate in English provided some interesting slippages, allowing for humour to be used as a device of potential critique. There was an innovative use of live recorded sound which was relayed through speakers in the space on a loop, creating a rather meditative chant. Coupled with incense, burnt near the end of the performance, the meditative chant began to suggest a spiritual dimension to the actions unfolding before us. The performance, which I viewed as a metaphor for artistic studio practice at large, became liturgical, embedded with meaning and significance, even though most of the actions presented to us were entirely mundane.
As good art challenges our thinking, it often challenges it in ways we had not expected (forgive the redundancy there), and this performance did challenge me; it challenged my Joburg-city mindset which was going at 120km/h. It forced me to slow down and consider; to look with the eyes of a child, and to see.
