The Pile is a work emerging from two weeks spent studying a mass of dumped rubbish in a Reservoir shopping centre car park. During this time video, writing, performance and public readings were employed to contemplate the pile as a living abject body that was in a perpetual state of re-write as things were added or removed before the area was eventually cleared and fenced off.
By performing the gesture of sitting with the pile, and thereby taking up the position of watcher or invigilator, the artist proposes that there is something worth minding. This simple and seemingly pointless act represents a desire to re-instate value to the post-consumed matter. The sitting is continued at a later date after the rubbish has been removed adding a layer of absurdity as the figure appears isolated but purposeful in the minding of nothing or what was.
The resulting work consists of a four channel video installation and a performance work, Sound Pile, which involves a collective reading of texts developed from time spent observing the site.
Sarah Rudledge is a visual artist based in Melbourne, Australia. She works with observation, video, performance, sound and text to investigate and formulate responses to specific sites. Usually located within familiar urban and outer-urban environments, sites are chosen based on their potential to reveal something hidden or unspoken about the everyday.
Sound Pile
Objects from the Pile, will be a short reading taking place at 7pm on opening night.
People are invited to take part in the creation of a sound pile by experimenting with a syncopated reading of a list of objects that made up the ‘stuff’ of the pile.
This program is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.
This project is apart of Bari Festival 2016.
Event Location: 14 Helen St, Teneriffe QLD 4005, Australia
