April 2007

We are at a critical and significant moment in the history of the world and as an artist one feels enormous responsibility to document the truths of our experiences, not just simply erase history and support a collective amnesia. As Albert Camus once said ‘I am not a philosopher I am an artist'.
 

The collaborative process in my projects has forced me to relinquish a certain amount of control and embrace an element of chance and risk. The idea and reality of being in unsafe territory, as well as the intuitive play a large part in my work. I like the idea of free falling into an unknown space. Even though my projects are eventually housed in institutional structures the lengthy negotiations, research and relations developed with many different communities and individuals are an inherent aspect of every new work.
 

Recently I have developed a strategic and experimental working model that acknowledges my artistic collaborator David Mackenzie (video artist/camera and sound), with Robert Hindley (sound composer) and Justin Hale (journalist and interpreter). Collaboration becomes a process of relinquishing and redefining power and dynamics. It also allows a space to inhabit uncertainty and to represent multiple viewpoints rather than imposing a singular vision.
 

In this new project for the Venice Biennale 2007, I continue to deal with my ongoing interest in thermodynamics, which is an indicator of disorder within our times. This project is located in the region of the ‘ring of fire' ­- a glimpse into worlds which are both geologically and politically volatile. In this particular work, HAVOC (2007), Indonesia acts as a microcosm for the broader condition of the world.
 

Making art in the 21st Century we find ourselves in an increasingly mediatised and manipulative global culture. We are observing the disappearance of agriculture as the predominant human activity, with information technology redefining our relations with others in space and time. In a way it is the artist's ability to witness events with a certain poetic detachment that can access the truth within a range of images. Rather than using the moving image as passive consumption I am interested in making it into a state of active discussion. I feel that it is crucial that the artist today continues to resist orthodox marketing strategies within administered cultures and to find a context and site, which is often in the gaps ­- the imaginative spaces that so often represent the margins and the other.