Guy La Pointe

 

Foucault's Oz S'poring

by Lutz Presser and Guy La Pointe

Source: Press release 2001


In this project, members of the public unwittingly trigger electronic mechanisms by moving around the given space. The sensors respond firstly with animal noises, such as barking or croaking, and secondly, by activating a series of short films, which are automatically displayed on the large television monitors. The content of the movies is absurd and out of place in the given situation. The movie excerpts have been gleaned from longer films produced some years ago highlighting Australia's projected public self to the world. The edited images haven been "mined" from the film archives of the Australian High Commission.

The project is supported by Australian High Commission (Singapore) and anticipates another one scheduled to open later this year. Foucault's Oz S'poring explores human behaviour in public spaces. They also play with the notion of surveillance and the sudden realisation that one is being observed, without necessarily knowing who is watching and why.

Lutz Presser is an artist/educator/writer who has taught in art schools at university level for over 25 years. Simultaneously he has made art and exhibited in Australia, Europe and Singapore, been included in Australian national surveys and has been awarded grants and overseas studios. He is presently engaged in works dealing with human behaviour, cultural displacement and "acculturation". He is also engaged in research leading to a book on fetishism in the work of Man Ray, Andy Warhol and Robert Mapplethorpe.

Guy Lapointe is a Canadian artist has lived and worked in Singapore for the last few years. His work has been shown regionally as well as in Europe and North America, and his most recent practice is essentially focused on the use of videography in the context of performance and installations. He presently lectures at the National Institute of Education.