kagablog

dear friends click here to watch dick tuinder’s documentary space, a portrait of the exhibition sanctuary mental space held at the centraal museum, utrecht, in november 2003

My earlier work Toto! I have a feeling… is a story about a girl on a journey. Loosely based on the Wizard of Oz , the central character travels through a digital labyrinth of fiction, fantasy and actuality. Swept up in a tornado of different realities she tries to find her way back home. This autobiographical work about traveling back and forth between Amsterdam and Johannesburg, was the initial attempt to create a digital character who is a synthesis of my artistic persona. This persona has existed in the form of sketches and in performances I have made over the last years. Episode 2 is a continuation of this work.

Episode 2 marks the end of the journey - and the girl reveals the destination at which she has arrived. The work is no longer a search for identity or the idea of what home might be – but a manifestation of these ideas. Landed in a world of ‘terror and evil’, this character is a self styled ‘freedom fighter’. Her remaining search is to find a name. The significance of being named is political – a designation, role or association of who and what she represents.

The thematic content of the work is broadly political: an individual in the world. The identity of the individual transcends definitions based on country, nation or point of origin. Identity is constructed from deprogramming politically correct ideas and definitions. Identity is constructed from a process of spiritual and creative photosynthesis . Identity is constructed from all the influences that formally constitute this characters existence.

Working within a technological framework allows one to instantly transfer ones creative visions into the hands, hearts and hard-drives of others – as the material is engaged in an ongoing digital discourse it is transformed and influenced by all who touch it.

In a similar way that Kaganof’s half of the brain is composed of six individuals whose work taken together fit to form a composite identity, Henegan will set up a studio where she will invite a number of guests to collaborate with her on her actualization of self as … project. The guests will each work with her a few days at a time in the creative process .

HOME

Home is the studio / exhibition space of 5 X 7 meters. It will be a constantly transforming installation and performance space which will evolve over the 3 week period. I have made several installations playing with video projections and one-way mirrors. These elements provide for a variety of projections, reflections and an inter-play of the real and un-real – and will make up the basic furniture of the space.

These formal elements provide for a holographic scenography within which the character will reveal her deepest desires and fears.

The home has a ‘painting on the wall’ – an LCD screen which will run digital paintings, films and animated sequences. These narrative sequences will probably be anecdotal antics of this character out and about in the world.

The studio will be made up of computers, lighting and sound equipment which will shape shift over the period as it is lived in and is host to various guests.

All the guests are artists with whom Henegan has previously collaborated. Their artistic practice and diversity have all made a large impact and had an influence on the form and content of her own work. The artists come from a range of different disciplines and cultural backgrounds – with them she has a connection on a creative and artistic level, as well as sharing notions of identity beyond ideas of nation, state or country.

GUESTS

Aryan Kaganof – film maker / visual artist (south africa)

Jimmy Rage – poet / performer / visual artist (jamaica)

Edit Kaldor – director / theatre maker (hungary)

Kees Roorda – director / theatre maker (nl)

Sub Multi-media Re_search Laboratory
TeZ - video artist / software designer (italy)
Frederico Bonelli – techno logitics (italy)
Sagi Groner - sound and video artist (israel)
Tijn sound artist (nl)

Many years ago, at University of Wurzberg, philosophers and pysycologists studied the nature of introspection. What they discovered is what is now known as “imageless thought.”

In arts and literature, we have had our surrealism. Unfortunately, too often surrealism is closely tied to imagery, mostly visual. But I dare say that the ultimate surrealism is imageless. It is, to use Buddhist terminology, empty of any intrinsic property or attribute.
So, what appears to be shifting paradox is not paradox at all if paradox itself is devoid of paradox as an intrinsic attribute.

Here is one attempt made by a Korean poetess.

Taklamakan Desert
by Kim Hye Soon
(from Words Without Borders)

Translated from the Korean by Jiwon Shin

Washing her hair as the sun rises
a thighless one
pours a dipper full of sand over her hair and
lowers her head into the sand pit with a splash.
The footless one
tosses her hair in pendulum as she
rinses it out in the sand river.
This chestless,
hairless,
O, bodiless one washes her hair.
We shall never come . . . or go . . . you there . . . and
me here.
Dry strands of hair from the fallen days rise and
tumble, swaying this way and that.
From sunrise to sundown
the woman washes her hair
not even once straightening her waistless back.
She combs and caresses the ripples of the sand river.

How aptly said! The memory someone you once loved never ages. It only fades, and vanishes at the end.

Biography

Catherine Henegan was born in Johannesburg South Africa. In 1992 she graduated from The University of the Witwatersrand with Dramatic Art Honours. Since then she has worked as a scenographer, art director and performer, and has been involved in a number of multi-disciplinary projects both in South Africa and The Netherlands. In 2001 she graduated from DasArts ( De Amsterdam School for Advanced Research in Theatre Studies). Her work now revolves around video, installation and performance.

Her graduation project for DasArts Toto! I have a feeling… was presented as a performance and video installation and was a research in non-linear story telling. Later she went on to develop this work with Sub Multi-media Research Laboratory into a real-time random editing software prgramme. Toto! was based on a journey from the North to the South, The Wizard of Oz and other isolated actual incidents which combine to tell a story of a girl looking for home. Projects during 2002 include Virgins: The staging of the artist as the work itself in collaboration with Aryan Kaganof, Helge Janssen and Nicola Deane at the NSA Gallery in Durban – which was the South African premiere of Toto! Or Press Escape a theatre play which was entirely performed on a laptop computer and dealt with fictionalising an identity in order to secure a residents permit in the Netherlands – a largely autobiographical piece made in collaboration with Edit Kaldor at Gasthuis Theater Amsterdam. Art Direction for Lulu – a feature film produced by Moskito Films Amsterdam. Familieverhalen uit Zuid Afrika – an exhibition for the Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen for which she designed two family portrait installations . Her work was also part of the world’s largest open air exhibition in Johannesburg with The Rainbow is Real - a billboard installation which was presented on The Joubert Park Public Art Project during 2001 and 2002.

Previous projects include F***ing in the $tars made in collaboration with Stefano Odoardi, which was on the competition programme on The Netherlands Film Festival, The Netherlands Internet Film Festival and Unimovie Festival in Italy in 2000. This piece was a love story set in a 4 screen format : a War movie , a Western, Shopping and a Road Movie. This work was presented both as a short film, as well as a performance and installation combining video images, spoken word and live soundtracks created by DJs.

Currently Henegan is collaborating with a number of artists on different projects combining her interests of video, technology and performance. These include: Jimmy Rage of One Cent People – for which she is developing video images and text synthesizers for live music performances. Kees Roorda together with whom she will create Nogsteeds niet - a theatre play about a father and son which is commissioned by Productiehuis Brabant for the Cement Festival in Maastricht in March this year. As co-designer of Hayal Kutusu an installation by composer Alison Isadora.