The Art of Love(war) 2007
To view The Art of Love(war)
edited video footage go to:
www.youtube.com/ainephillips
23rd October 2008
Exist in 08
Judith Wright Centre of Art
Brisbane, Australia
21st June 2008
Off Beat Performance Weekend at ART
Michael Mayhew Studios, Manchester, England
6th October 2007
The Second International festival in the Context of Art/The Differences, Mazovia Centre of Art & Culture, Warsaw, Poland
Description:
"The Art of Love(war)" is a re-writing of Sun Tzu's 6th Century BC treatise "The Art of War". I perform the text and apply the strategies of war to acts of love. I explain how to make love not war: and reveal how acts of destruction and bloodshed can be recreated into affairs of the heart.
From 'the personal to the political' is a concept explored in the performance which is presented as a witty public address (with video art projections) playing with the paradox of 'to war with love/making love with war' and asking…is all fair in love and war? I wear a costume of modified military camouflage inspired by 'La guerre eu deutelles'(the war of lace). Its' patterns are inscribed on my skin and revealed in a final act where I unfasten my clothing as an invocation to allure a beloved to the combat zone of the body – in an engagement of passions seeking conquests where adversaries are not enemies to the death but contestants in love!
The performance is presented as a formal public lecture or address and I deliver the poetic text after introducing the meaning and background to the work. I explain how the strategies of war can apply both humorously and darkly to the conditions of love affairs and how I arrived at this juxtaposition of texts (as a result of experiencing a difficult love affair and trying to find srtrategies to cope with it). In a final performative image I carefully unbutton my clothing working slowly from shoe laces to the multiple hooks of a bodice to the zipper on my 'desert storm' combat pants which are modified with camouflage-like scraps of bridal lace. This pattern extends up my torso, painted onto the skin as a tattoo. I sit facing the door with my clothes unfastened in an act of reception – the replica of an ancient female gesture or invocation to attract the beloved. Two projections accompany the performance, one a scrolling text of the script and recontextualised, modified images of internet porn.
Duration of piece
Variable, up to 90 minutes
edited video footage go to:
www.youtube.com/ainephillips
23rd October 2008
Exist in 08
Judith Wright Centre of Art
Brisbane, Australia
21st June 2008
Off Beat Performance Weekend at ART
Michael Mayhew Studios, Manchester, England
6th October 2007
The Second International festival in the Context of Art/The Differences, Mazovia Centre of Art & Culture, Warsaw, Poland
Description:
"The Art of Love(war)" is a re-writing of Sun Tzu's 6th Century BC treatise "The Art of War". I perform the text and apply the strategies of war to acts of love. I explain how to make love not war: and reveal how acts of destruction and bloodshed can be recreated into affairs of the heart.
From 'the personal to the political' is a concept explored in the performance which is presented as a witty public address (with video art projections) playing with the paradox of 'to war with love/making love with war' and asking…is all fair in love and war? I wear a costume of modified military camouflage inspired by 'La guerre eu deutelles'(the war of lace). Its' patterns are inscribed on my skin and revealed in a final act where I unfasten my clothing as an invocation to allure a beloved to the combat zone of the body – in an engagement of passions seeking conquests where adversaries are not enemies to the death but contestants in love!
The performance is presented as a formal public lecture or address and I deliver the poetic text after introducing the meaning and background to the work. I explain how the strategies of war can apply both humorously and darkly to the conditions of love affairs and how I arrived at this juxtaposition of texts (as a result of experiencing a difficult love affair and trying to find srtrategies to cope with it). In a final performative image I carefully unbutton my clothing working slowly from shoe laces to the multiple hooks of a bodice to the zipper on my 'desert storm' combat pants which are modified with camouflage-like scraps of bridal lace. This pattern extends up my torso, painted onto the skin as a tattoo. I sit facing the door with my clothes unfastened in an act of reception – the replica of an ancient female gesture or invocation to attract the beloved. Two projections accompany the performance, one a scrolling text of the script and recontextualised, modified images of internet porn.
Duration of piece
Variable, up to 90 minutes
