A message in a bottle

Last week I exhibited seven video works in Melbourne's CBD over three nights as the culmination of my Masters of Fine Art at Monash University. The series Untitled (domestic gestures) shows various cheeky gestures performed in public spaces (letting off a fire extinguisher, rolling down a hill, smashing plates etc etc). The works were then shown in various contexts- a library, a laneway, shop windows, a bar!- repeating and looping, ad infinitum. I was thinking about expectations of behaviours and boundaries to do with public space, to do with women, and the labour and maintenace of society. But I also hoped the works would function as a little "message in a bottle"- something noticed by the usual flaneurs and travellers through the city as a humourous interruption to their day. There were no labels or explantory texts on the works to facilitate further information. I was pretty happy with how it all went (bar some tech issues, ce la vie!), and the happiest news came to me this week. A librarian commented to a work colleague who was watching my video that it was causing confusion at the lending desks. The librarians would often see someone at the desks, move to help them, but find they were instead watching my video. Ah, my little message in a bottle...

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